instant+messaging

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Nowadays, instant messaging(IM) is invading and changing the workplace. According to a 2006 survey by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, there is roughly one-third of U.S. employees use instant messaging at work. In business, IM falls into a category of IT called groupware, meaning programs that help people work together collectively while located remotely from each other. It supports greater communications among workers and allows a team to develop unique applications quickly. One may wonder that the traditional communication such as email and office meeting can provide similar features as IM. However, IM offers "presence"-- allows users to see if recipients are available to receive a message or not. It can be a much more efficient communication tool than either the telephone or e-mail. IM can assist business in both internal and external ways. Internally, workers from different departments in a company can communicate with each other without leaving their seat. Faster and more efficiency solutions can be achieved. On the other hand, IM can increase communication between a company and its customers. It increases customer services and answer individual’s concerns in a faster rate. It can thus meet the requirement of client more easily. Although IM has many advantages and it is gradually being accepted to use in workplace, it is not mature enough yet as there are still some concerns. First, connecting people across job categories and time zones can be both the strength and the weakness of the technology since there is no excuse anymore for workers not being available. Moreover, opening an IM window creates a port to the outside world, putting a network at risk of attack from malicious hackers exploiting unpatched holes in IM applications. =====

Please feel free to discuss this topic and =]

Do you think that IM will be fully use in office in the future? Why or why not?
Yes, I do think that IM will be fully used in the future, however I think companies that have employees overseas will not intergrate IM because of the time differences. user:maggie_ngo

my powerpoint presentation :

The original article can be found in here : [|original aritcle]