The perpetual battle in my house as a teenager revolved around how much time I was spending on the computer. And I can now reveal that those hours were spent doing one of two things; chatting on MSN or creating and destroying families on The Sims. I was not alone.
Through the nineties and noughties, instant messaging became as important for staying in touch as phones, even as texting became more popular. More recently, Facebook has integrated a ‘Chat’ function and phone applications such as Whatsapp, BBM and Apple’s IM have taken over from texting as a free way of communicating.
And those children who grew up in the noughties (me included) are now entering into the big wide world of employment and bringing with them a demand for familiar business communication tools. Instant messaging matches or exceeds most of the traditional modes of communicating.
Presence: Like most IP telephony solutions, IM usually indicates ‘Presence’. Knowing whether the person you are trying to contact is available immediately can be incredibly helpful if you are looking for a rapid response. If they are not ‘online’, you can seek somebody else who might be able to help without have to wait for an email bounce back or referral.
Efficiency: Unlike telephony or video contact, IM promotes multitasking (a woman’s dream!). You can be conducting multiple IM chats whilst simultaneously composing a document or handling a phone call. This is probably the main reason for many internet based companies turning to IM integrated within websites as a way of alleviating traffic to customer service call centres.
Network: Within larger organisations, the deployment of IM is often associated with driving down email traffic and freeing up storage and data capacity within the company.
Stay personal: Newcomers to IM may think that by replacing telephony with text, the personal element of day to day business operations may be lost. In practice, IM can often allow much more informal exchanges and makes it much easier to keep in touch with people whether for business or social reasons.
Of course, IM will never completely take over from email or phone but as the potential of properly integrated Unified Communications is realised, I predict that more and more businesses will be seen to be using ‘Chat’ applications both internally and as a customer service tool to improve productivity. J
