Complementing the standards efforts is other work to extend basic IM functionality into new areas, including group chats and support for multiple IM identities, along with the ability to interoperate across various private and public networks. Among those with clients or working on clients are Jabber, Microsoft's Live Messenger, Lotus' Sametime, Reuters, Yahoo's Messenger, Apple's iChat AV, and AOL.
Also of note is the work at VoIP powerhouse Skype, which earlier this fall added group chat features to its Windows-based IM software. What makes all these efforts possible is a relatively simple protocol structure and easy-to-assemble building block pieces that make up each IM and chat application.
Easy Support
Perhaps the most welcome advantage for IT personnel is that chat is relatively simple to administer. "Managing chat is much like managing an IM system, and deployment is very easy," said Nick Fera, the CEO of Parlano, who sells a chat application called MindAlign. "You need to establish ethical walls and compliance rules, but otherwise, it fits in real easy from an IT perspective."
More of the IM vendors such as AOL, Microsoft, and Lotus have begun to open their programming interfaces to enable businesses to build presence-aware applications. Lotus' Sametime, for example, is now entirely based on IBM's Eclipse open source software, making it easier for developers to extend its functionality.
Another example is Connectria, a Lotus Sametime partner that has worked on extensions to Sametime that literally map where particular staffers are in the world. "You can quickly look up someone's job position in the company," said Chris Miller, an analyst with the developer. "It cuts down the time to find someone for a particular job or task."
Other business IT departments are finding new ways to incorporate chats and presence-awareness into their existing applications, such as sales force and training applications. They're finding chat is easy to adopt, adapt, and support, and they can start up chat channels through which each project team can collaborate. Supporting chat servers is similar to supporting other communications servers, such as those for e-mail, and the chat system can be deployed as an internal support tool to help answer IT-related questions and leverage already-stretched IT staffers.
