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Network Chat as a Tool for Corporate Communications?

Posted by Cliff on from the corporate-AIM-anyone dept.

rimmon asks: "I'd like to know what experience have you made with [network-enabled chatting programs] as tools to communicate with your boss, with your employees or your customers? Does your company utilize [Instant Messenger or IRC] as a communication tool (to communicate with customers, between employees and Pointy Haired Bosses? If you use or provide [chatting systems]: Is this technology an effective tool to communicate? What are the Pros and Cons? What type of chat technology do you use and what flavor of chat (open, moderated, etc.) works best for you?"

4 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Most companies by CptChipJew · · Score: 4, Informative

    That use Lotus for E-Mail get Sametime (and AIM-clone sans AIM features plus intranet features) bundled with it. We use it at my computer for instant messenging, which is just more convenient than e-mail for simple discussions.

    --
    Vonal Declosion
  2. Jabber is handy by djmitche · · Score: 2, Informative

    I live in South Carolina, and I work as an admin for a school in Chicago. Since I'm part time, I don't get any perks like long-distance expenses. This makes for something of a problem when discussing thorny technical issues whether a wooden or metal cluebat would be best applied to the latest luser.

    I was never one to chat much. Then I tripped across Jabber, and thought I'd give it a shot (it's an open protocol -- lots of fun to hack cool tools onto). Turns out most of my co-workers were using one or another chat system (AIM, MSN, ICQ) for their personal communication. Jabber does a wonderful job of tying all of those networks together, so I can chat with any of them. It also allows me to incorporate some nifty scripts. My favorites are server-monitoring scripts, so I can 'chat' with my servers, and they can send me a message when unusual circumstances present themselves.

    For most purposes, I find it easier to chat via Jabber than to talk on the phone -- most of the things we discuss are best seen spelled out (snippets of code, hostnames, etc.).

  3. Re:Reuters by crmartin · · Score: 2, Informative

    ... and a number of firms on Wall Street are killing off their IM services, and even blocking them on internal firewalls, because some judge has determined that IMs have to be preserved just as emails do.

  4. There was an article about this today... by AdamBa · · Score: 2, Informative
    ...in the Seattle paper. Corporate America jumps on IM software .

    - adam