NEWS
Long used by office workers for keeping up with their friends while stuck at their desks, instant messaging is maturing into a full-fledged business tool.
Nearly two fifths (39 per cent) of silicon.com poll respondents have a 'buddy list' on which between 75 and 100 per cent of the contacts listed are either colleagues or people they only contact for work reasons. This is an increase of 11 percentage points on the same reader poll conducted two years ago.
While six per cent of poll respondents admit to a buddy list solely made up of friends and family, this figure stood at 18 per cent back in 2005.
The percentage of respondents identifying between 25 and 50 per cent of their buddy list as workmates or business-based contacts has decreased slightly in the past two years. This suggests IM is initially used as a way of keeping in touch with friends but workers inevitably add colleagues and using it for business purposes too.
But while the majority of the poll respondents have a high proportion of workmates as IM contacts, it remains to be seen whether work is all they talk about.
The next generation of UK workers are already embracing IM as a workplace tool - a recent survey found more than half of the teens questioned expect to use instant messaging in the workplace to communicate with colleagues.
But not all today's workers are IMing their managers to ask for Friday off - more than a third (36 per cent) of respondents to the reader poll said they don't use IM at work at all, a slight increase on 2005's figure (31 per cent).
Comments
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1. MusicFan
There are versions of msn messenger that can be set to just work on your network so you possibility of employees chatting with external friends is eliminated.
instant message clients can be very helpful, not just for chatting, but as a method of letting others know if your are at your desk/away/busy etc so you are not left staring at outlook awaiting a return email.
Also it helps with the internal transfer of documents, particularly large ones which employees tend to email each other slowing the system.
Email is good for non urgent textual information that isnt time critical and needs to be kept for record. Instant Message is better for everything else. Simple.
2. anonymous
Bans on access to IM from the workplace, and lack of use of it within companies, are mainly the result of technophobic senior executives aided and abetted by security paranoid IT directors.
It's a great tool - as those who use it widely and wisely would attest. It is no more time wasting that the phone or e-mail or sitting reading "The Daily Mail" (or whatever).
3. Clive Page
IM is great for international busineses for communications. Seeing who's at the desk in new york when you are london is really useful and saves time.
I just wish the Yahoo messenger was so buggy and didn't crash all the time.