Microsoft announces Enterprise IM improvements
The new enterprise product, MSN Messenger Connect, with security, archiving etc. will launch in the first quarter of 2003 according to this News.com story:
Among organizations that use instant messaging in an official capacity, Lotus Sametime captures 69 percent of the market, according to a report from Osterman Research. But the research firm found that result accounts for only a fraction of the at-work IM audience, where unauthorized IM services are rampant.
People in 82 percent of all organizations are using some sort of IM application, Osterman found. Of those IM users, 70 percent use AIM, while Microsoft's MSN Messenger is a distant second with 51 percent and Yahoo Messenger third with 44 percent. But IM use is officially sanctioned in only 34 percent of large organizations, 23 percent of medium-sized organizations, and 19 percent of small organizations; a full 23 percent of organizations surveyed blocked IM traffic at the firewall.
The corporate IM client will cost $24 per user, per year--much less than the $30 to $40 for IM products from Yahoo or AOL, according to Microsoft.