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Businesses have mixed feelings on IM
Struggling to see the wood for the trees…

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Friday 11 July 2008

Businesses are shying away from adopting instant messaging technology (IM) despite seeing the benefits it can have in the workplace.

Nearly three-quarters of businesses (74 per cent) see IM as a useful collaborative tool, according to research carried out by Vanson Bourne and commissioned by IM vendor ProcessOne.

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But a similar proportion (72 per cent) said they have banned IM due to security and compliance concerns.

These include the potential for confidential information to be sent out of the company as well as users downloading software without the knowledge of the IT department.

Around nine out of 10 IT directors quizzed said they were concerned about the use of IM with 56 per cent saying they were worried about losing sensitive business information via the technology.

But despite concerns, only 12 per cent said they keep audit trails of IM messages sent via public apps. This means many are at risk of failing to comply with regulations around the retention of communication data.

Around 38 per cent of businesses said they ban public IM outright due to the audit trail issue while eight per cent said they don't bother to track IM messages as they believe the process is too complicated.

In order to tackle this issue, 21 per cent of respondents said they use internal IM as it's easier to manage.

The research covered 100 senior decision makers in UK businesses of 1,000 employees or more.