Instant Messaging Finally
Making Its way Into Unified Communications
We have long
been waiting for Instant Messaging (IM) (news
-
alert) to converge into unified communications (UC), but the lack of
standards-based interoperability between the major IM service providers was
a real obstacle. This was particularly disappointing because IM was actually
the first real-time telecommunications modality to exploit the power of
IP (define
- news
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alert) networking with the “intelligence” of presence. (We won’t name
names, but you know who was resisting interoperability to protect their
subscriber base.)
Two press
announcements, one from Microsoft, (news
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alert -
quote) and the other from leading cable service provider, Comcast,
indicate that perhaps the long wait is over and that next year will be the
year of “unified IM.” The news also points to expanding the practical
convergence of enterprise CPE messaging with network service providers for
multi-modal communications.
Microsoft Reaches Agreement With AOL and Yahoo!
In what
appears to be a landmark agreement between the enterprise provider and the
service providers, Microsoft’s Live Communications Server 2005 will support
inter-enterprise IM and presence information exchange. Additionally, such
interconnectivity will include any group using AOL
Instant Messenger (AIM), (news
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alert) ICQ, (news
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alert) MSN Messenger, (news
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alert) and Yahoo! Messenger. (news
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alert) This will initially bring “federated” presence information
exchange across public and private IP networks for instant text messaging,
but we see it going way beyond that.
IM has
become a popular real-time alternative to telephone calls for enterprise
work teams, with the major advantage of using presence management and “buddy
lists” to check on availability and restrict access respectively. Like the
telephone answering function of voice mail, a message can be left
immediately even if the recipient is not accessible for a real-time
exchange. IM has proven to be most valuable for brief, ad hoc
exchanges, rather than extended discussions that can take place in face-to-
face meetings, over the phone, or in videoconferences. When people are
accessible, text IM offers a less disruptive alternative for immediate
contact and responsiveness than any form of voice communications. So, it is
definitely one of the contact options that belong in the spectrum of
converged person-to-person communications.
Although
presence management exploited by IM started out primarily as a desktop mode
of contact for text message exchange, it has even greater potential for
effective communications with mobile personnel whose modality of contact can
change dynamically from moment to moment. Enterprise telecommunication
providers are already latching on to the concept by enabling contact
initiators to be aware of a “buddy’s” accessibility status, e.g., already
talking on the phone, but perhaps available for an immediate IM exchange,
rather than wasting the time to initiate a voice call and getting a busy
signal or being blindly routed to “voicemail jail.” This is proving
particularly valuable for accessing contact center “experts” to directly
support online customers or to provide backup expertise to first-level
agents. IM text message exchanges can also be escalated to a voice
conversation, whenever both parties feel it appropriate and are equipped
with multi-modal devices to conveniently do so. However, without “open,”
cross-modal interoperability along the lines of the Microsoft/AOL/Yahoo
announcement, the potential of both presence and IM for the enterprise
markets will remain stunted.
Part 2
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