InformationWeek

November 3, 1997

'Instant E-Mail' For The Enterprise

Vendors debut products that let users flash messages on a co-worker's screen

wo startup vendors this week will release products designed to bring "instant messaging" to intranets and extranets. Already popular among Internet junkies, such software lets people see who is logged on to a network and send immediate alerts to them.

Instant messaging is based on the technology underlying chat software, which is used mostly by consumer-oriented Web sites and online services. But vendors hope companies will see advantages in the technology's immediacy, though some IS managers don't yet see a need for the feature.

Collaborative software vendors are getting on board, including Oracle and Lotus Development, which plan to offer instant messaging as a groupware option next month. Netscape Communications announced last month it will support America Online's Instant Messenger service in its client software, giving users access to AOL's "buddy lists" for instant messaging.

By 2 002, 80% of Internet users will use instant messaging, according to New York research firm Jupiter Communications. "This should be a collaborative feature that will find itself everywhere," says Jerry Michalski, managing editor of Release 1.0, a software newsletter.

The startups hope those projections are on target. Chat software vendor Ichat Inc. in Austin, Texas, this week will introduce Paging System Enterprise Edition 1.0., which runs on Ichat's Communications Hub, the server that routes messages for its Rooms chat server. Paging System lets users send messages that pop up immediately on a co-worker's screen, unless the recipient has chosen a "do not disturb" setting. Sender and recipient must have Ichat's Pager client installed. An upgrade due by year's end will let users send messages outside their companies via Ichat's free Internet messaging service.

A similar product, Ding! Switchboard from Activerse Inc. in Austin, will also ship this week. Ding! differs from Paging System in that messages aren' t routed through the Ding! server. Rather, users query the server only to check whether other users are logged on. Messages are passed directly from client to client. Activerse says this approach makes its server more scalable and lets users send messages even if a server fails.

MCA Records Inc., whose executives spend much of their time on the phone, is evaluating Ichat's software. "Instant messaging allows our people not to pause from the phone yet still find out some information from another part of the company that they might not have access to otherwise," says Bruce Ekstein, director of promotion research at the Universal City, Calif., company.

Functionally, instant messaging resembles conventional E-mail-except that it's instant. Messages sent via conventional E-mail systems can take two minutes to a half hour to reach recipients within an enterprise, says David Ferris, president at messaging research firm Ferris Research in San Francisco. Internet gateways can make conventional E-mail even slower, but instant messaging over the Net is instantaneous.

Fast Enough
Nonetheless, some companies are content with E-mail's current speed. "Looking at our industry, it's very rare when a message needs to get to someone instantaneously," says Scott Morrison, a project analyst at New York pharmaceuticals maker Pfizer Inc., adding that phones and pagers are most effective for real-time communication.

Lotus will include Ichat's Communications Hub and Rooms chat server in its Domino 4.62 server, due for release next month. Oracle will bundle the same products with its InterOffice 4.2 groupware, also due next month. Paging System can be added to either product for $1,000 for 25 users.

Paging System Enterprise Edition 1.0, including Communications Hub, is priced starting at $2,595 for 25 users. Ding! Switchboard starts at $29.95 per user for businesses.

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