Year in review: Corporate IM

In 2002, it seemed like America Online, Microsoft and Yahoo had the same epiphany within a five-week span.

Consumer IM products from the Big Three have punched their way through the corporate firewall to become a new form of communications in the office. The proliferation poses a two-sided issue for executives: instant messaging is a cheap, fast way to communicate, but IT departments can't monitor or control these correspondences as readily as e-mail.

But while AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo pondered what to do with the millions of people chatting for free, some start-ups found a way around them. In April, White Plains, N.Y., start-up Communicator said that several investment banks would pay to use its Hub IM secure service. The deal awakened many companies to the fact that multinational corporations were willing to pay for instant messaging as long as the security and compliance issues were addressed.

This interest became a boon for some smaller providers of instant messaging technology such as FaceTime and IMLogic. These companies signed agreements with the Big Three to provide security and monitoring capabilities for the corporate environment.

Although AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo have yet to launch their enterprise services, 2003 should be the year that determines whether IM can one day beef up a company's bottom line instead of just its user figures.

AOL sets sights on businesses
America Online quietly gears up to sell its Internet software, including IM capability, to corporate customers. The initiative, the company says, is an evolution of Netscape's enterprise technologies.

Can IM behemoths win corporate clients?
AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo have attracted millions of people with free IM services, but can they develop products that appeal to businesses?

Giants told to work it out
Six top financial institutions meet privately with AOL Time Warner, Microsoft, IBM and other leading corporate instant messaging providers and urged them to build communications networks that interoperate.

Yahoo heralds corporate messaging
Aiming to tap IM users at work, the company unveils a version of its Messenger service designed to work with corporate portals and business applications.

Terra Lycos, IBM chat together
The new product is built on Lotus Sametime technology and will initially be free. But next year companies will have to pay to play.

Closing in on compatibility
The Internet Engineering Task Force gives the go-ahead to the creators of open-source IM application Jabber to create a working group based on that technology.

AOL offers corporate IM
The Enterprise AIM Services suite allows corporations to manage activity without their customers having to access outside servers.

Microsoft's next challenge
MSN Messenger Connect for Enterprises brings together security, archiving and other management features sought by companies, but Microsoft still has a long way to go.