IM & Texting Are Here To Stay

But Should IT Managers Ban Them Or Embrace Them?
Once largely the domain of tech-savvy teens and avid Internet surfers, IM (instant messaging) and text messaging have increasingly been integrated into the corporate environment.

Given its limitations, texting isn’t quite a widespread tool just yet, experts note, but instant messaging is seen at many companies, where employees use the tool to communicate with each other, vendors, and, sometimes, friends and family.

In the past, numerous IT managers saw the technology as a security risk and implemented controls to prevent employees from using IM. But, as they’ve discovered, it’s not so easy to block.

“Some companies that thought they were blocking IM probably weren’t,” says Don Montgomery, vice president of marketing at Akonix Systems (www.akonix.com). “IM companies change the protocol randomly because they know corporate IT departments are trying to stop them. Basically, they want their application on as many desktops as possible, so they create ways around IT policies.”

Others are finding that banning online chat may even hurt productivity. Employees can work at a faster clip with the tool, rather than send emails back and forth, and the tactic is also kinder on network bandwidth.

“The compelling thing about IM is that it’s a really good way to communicate,” says Rob Koplowitz, an analyst at Forrester. “There isn’t the latency you see in email, and you don’t have to do voicemail phone tag. Folks really like it, so it’s difficult for an IT manager to say you can’t communicate this way when there’s a clear business benefit.”

Control Room

Rather than instituting a ban, many companies have tried to address security, policy, and audit ability by switching from a consumer package, such as Yahoo! Messenger (www.yahoo.com) or MSN Messenger (www.msn.com), to an enterprise application, such as Jabber (www.jabber.org) or Microsoft Office Live (www.microsoft.com).

One downside is that some consumer products may still linger, Montgomery says, and consumer IM applications are free. A productivity booster that doesn’t cost anything is a compelling option for SMEs.

But the downside is that unmanaged IM can put a company more at risk for potential security breaches, compliance issues, and loss of intellectual property, adds Montgomery. Products, such as Akonix’s L7 Remote Security Agent, specifically address instant messaging security and compliance.

“IM is bound by the same rules as email in terms of archiving,” he says. “There are federal rules of civil procedure or regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley. Also, if you let employees use IM without any kind of policies, there’s a potential for misuse that’s the same as email rules.”

For example, if an employee decides to send racy or aggressive IMs to someone, the company could be just as liable for allowing harassment as if those sentiments were expressed over email. In a recent Akonix survey, more than 30% of employees had felt harassed at some point during IM sessions, so the threat of legal ramifications is a very real one, Montgomery notes.

What’s likely to happen in the near future is the development of more enterprise-class IM suites that are affordable enough for SMEs, Koplowitz says. Already, vendors such as Lotus (www.ibm.com) and Microsoft are refining their products, and Koplowitz expects that startups will begin to offer tools that come with manageability, policy controls, and audit ability. IT managers may want to begin doing product trials with some enterprise-geared applications already if the company has been relying on consumer-based tools, he adds.

“These systems scale remarkably well,” he says. “Generally, there’s not a large hardware or administrative footprint, the costs aren’t high, and there’s value.”

Text Messaging

As companies find ways to lock down IM chats, one consumer technology that has yet to make much of an impact is text messaging, which is done between cell phones. Currently, there's no way for IT to capture messages and archive them, says Montgomery, because the only way to retrieve deleted texts is to contact the cell carrier.

But that lack of capability is likely not much cause for worry. Unlike IM, texting has not been addressed in any type of regulation, and there are no legal mandates surrounding it. If a company provides a mobile phone, there is risk that harassment may be involved, but it’s probably a much lower level than what can be done over IM, he adds.

Text messages tend to be short and limited in terms of usage. Also, it doesn’t carry much security risk because files can’t be attached or transmitted through texting alone. A cell phone/PDA device may have some security issues because it can be plugged in to a computer and do “cell slurping,” where it downloads files onto the device, but such a tactic can’t be done through texting alone.

But that doesn’t mean it will never be an issue. “It’s a very small challenge now, but it could grow into a bigger challenge as more people use it in the enterprise world,” says Montgomery. “We locked down email, so people went to IM. Now that we’re locking that down, they may gravitate toward text messaging next.”

by Elizabeth Millard