Your Enterprise Needs An Internal Messaging System

By Danny Brown
Expert Author
Article Date: 2008-12-10

I received a funny message from my wife today. She told me that the company she works for were removing Instant Messaging (IM) access for all employees as of January 1 2009, due to employee abuse. What made it funny was that she used MSN Messenger to tell me - you have to admire the irony.

Yet it then got me thinking. The company she works for is one of Canada's largest business communication solution providers. They have approximately 6,000 employees and revenue of over $2 billion.

They service some of the most forward-thinking companies in North America today by providing some truly leading edge communication tools. So why so poor at internal communication?

I can see why they'd remove an external instant messaging service. Productivity could be impacted as well as there being security issues. But to not have any kind of internal messaging system apart from email? This doesn't seem like effective business practice, particularly for one whose core business is in the business communications field.

It's not as if there aren't a host of options available. Yammer is an excellent Twitter-like option that's ideal for business use. There is also Jabber, which I used during my time at FedEx and again this was a great way of instant communication. These are just two - there are many more.

Email is a great tool, but in today's business place it's fast being superseded by instant messaging services. Faster response time, multiple users, less compatibility issues with networks - these are just some of the key benefits of using IM.

For anyone not using some kind of IM service for their business, perhaps it may be time to look at the benefits. And for my wife's company?

Perhaps you should communicate with each other as well as you do with your customers.

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About the Author:
Danny Brown is the social sensei at Bonsai Interactive, a small and mighty team of technology, media and marketing nerds rocking the social web. His blog is featured in the AdAge Power 150 list as well as Canada’s Top 50 Marketing Blogs, and won the Hive Award for Best Social Media Blog at the 2010 South by South West festival. You can find Danny on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.