Tearing Down IM Barriers

Computerworld - For businesses eager to exploit the efficiencies of real-time communications, instant messaging can be a many-splendored thing. The problem is that in most corporations, it's also a many-vendored thing. Witness Rochester Public Utilities (RPU). Although the Rochester, Minn.-based municipal utility has deployed an enterprise-class IM system based on Microsoft Corp.'s Live Communication Server, employees still use public IM networks such as those of MSN Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).

Though it would simplify management and remove interoperability hurdles to standardize on one IM system, RPU can't shut down access to public networks, because some employees use them to maintain relationships with corporate customers. For instance, RPU uses America Online Inc.'s AIM to communicate with one of its biggest customers, IBM's Rochester facility. The IBM office uses the IM product from IBM's Lotus subsidiary internally but has developed client-level interoperability between Lotus Instant Messenger and AIM (although, according to IBM, new releases of Lotus IM won't provide such interoperability).

"We had rogue IM users using Port 80 to communicate externally, but most of these were legitimately communicating with vendors and customers," says Matt Bushman, an IT analyst at RPU. "We realized that IM was going to be the preferred method of instantaneous interpersonal communication, so we needed to take a proactive approach to getting it all secured."

RPU's multiclient challenges should sound familiar to organizations that have embraced IM. IT administrators would like to deploy a single system that talks to other IM systems using industry-standard protocols, as e-mail does, but that's not an option. More than 80% of IM use today is still through public networks such as AOL, MSN and Yahoo, and each uses proprietary protocols that don't allow users of one system to talk with users on another, according to analysts.

Increasingly, IT departments are addressing internal interoperability and management by deploying an enterprise IM platform and extending it to authorized users beyond the firewall using a secure log-in.

At Houston-based energy broker Amerex Group of Companies, for instance, staffers on the natural-gas side of the business use Yahoo to work with trading partners, while those on the electrical power side use AIM. Amerex deployed Yahoo Inc.'s Business Messenger to streamline internal communications for everyone and external communications for Yahoo users, but those established on AIM still need to use that service for trading.

"Even though we've brought in Yahoo Business Messenger, I can't force the guys using AOL to switch because they can't force their customers to switch. Once a particular IM client gets entrenched, it's hard to get it out," says Amerex CIO Brian Trudeau.