Companies need to sort out their IM policy

Only a quarter of companies have a clearly defined policy on the use of instant messaging within their organisation, despite warnings about the security and business implications of not cracking down on IM use.

Just 28 per cent of respondents to a silicon.com survey said their company has a policy relating to IM use. The majority (54.8 per cent) said their company has no policy in place, while 17.2 per cent said they don't know whether there is an IM policy at their place of work.

These findings suggest that warnings about tightening standards and the security threat of IM are not getting through to companies.

And with only 10.2 per cent of respondents using a corporate IM package - with built in features such as greater security and audit trail functions - this means companies are leaving themselves exposed unnecessarily.

This is yet another area where companies need to tighten up their policies relating to usage in the same way companies are starting to with email and internet access.

Glyn Baker, director of business development at secure instant messaging firm FaceTime, said: "Simply banning IM usage is not the answer. IM is a great personal productivity tool that has some clear business advantages. It's better to let people use this technology to do their jobs but have the right controls in place just like we do for email and telephone calls."