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Email is a great tool, but in today's business place it's fast being superseded by instant messaging services.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 owner of Press Release PR, a boutique agency specializing in search engine optimized press releases and social media PR. He offers consultancy advice on social media and PR to both individuals and corporations He has guest authored at leading web and search marketing site Web Analytics World and is a blog partner of the WebProNews and iEntry business networks. He is also a regular contributor to the Dad-o-Matic project. To read more of Danny's articles or interact with him, please visit danny BROWN - social media PR.