Business-to-Customer IM Solution Planned

A forthcoming solution from Microsoft and two partners will make Microsoft’s public instant messaging (IM) service, the .NET Messenger Service (formerly known as MSN Messenger Service), more suitable for business-to-customer communications and competitive with similar offerings from AOL and Yahoo. The solution consists of a new Microsoft service, MSN Messenger Connect for Enterprises, plus software from ISVs IMlogic or FaceTime, and will provide features previously unavailable with .NET Messenger, such as identity control and enterprise-level support. It is separate from Microsoft’s forthcoming server and platform for internal IM (code-named Greenwich), although the two products will complement one another.

Public IM Use Rampant

Employee use of public IM networks is widespread: according to a Sept. 2002 survey of 196 large companies conducted by Osterman Research, employees at nearly 60% of these companies were using AOL Instant Messenger (AIM); figures were slightly lower for .NET Messenger (about 50%) and Yahoo Messenger (about 45%). It’s not clear how much of this usage is business-related, but Microsoft says that certain industries-particularly the financial services industry-rely heavily on these public networks for customer communication.