Microsoft's Live Communications Server may drive interest in enterprise IM

Computerworld - Microsoft Corp.'s new Live Communications Server 2005 (LCS), which will offer expanded instant messaging compatibility with popular IM software when it's released in December (see story) -- has enterprise IM users and vendors eyeing new opportunities for more secure messaging at work.
When used with a special connectivity pack, the new LCS application will allow more secure interaction with users who run the most popular free IM clients -- Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Microsoft's MSN Messenger. Instant messages sent using LCS 2005 will be secure, encrypted communications, allowing business users to more safely communicate with users of the free IM clients, said Taylor Collyer, director of server marketing at Microsoft.
Secure IM for business has become important because "people don't want their corporate secrets leaking out the back door via IM," he said.
Graham Lawlor, chairman of the New York-based Financial Instant Messaging Association (FIMA) and the program manager of IM at Deutsche Bank AG in New York, said the new interoperability promised by LCS 2005 is a "pretty fundamental and sea change in the industry, especially coming from a company like Microsoft."
"It will allow the richness of enterprise IM," which has more security and usability features than the free IM clients, to meld with the widespread user base of the free IM community, Lawlor said. "This kind of theoretically allows you to have the best of both worlds."
Deutsche Bank uses secure, enterprise IM heavily in its business.
FIMA was created in 2002 to pressure vendors into standardizing IM software for compatibility, security and other business IT needs (see story). FIMA includes representatives from Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse First Boston LLC, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co., Prudential Securities Inc. and UBS Warburg LLC.
Some FIMA members have been beta-testing LCS 2005, Lawlor said, and most are at least investigating the product for possible future use.
"Over the last five years, [IM] has become business-critical, especially for businesses in sales and trading," he said.
Mike Miller, director of support services at newspaper and television conglomerate Media General Inc. in Richmond, Va., said IM usage at his company is still small, with only about 100 people out of some 8,000 workers using an IT-endorsed IM system. Those workers use the free AIM client, with added security, logging, management and control features provided by IM Manager software from Waltham, Mass.-based IMlogic Inc.
Miller has looked at enterprise IM systems, but with just a small number