Managing the Rise of Instant Messaging in the Workplace

Instant Messaging (IM) is fast becoming as ubiquitous as the e-mail in the workplace. Since its humble beginnings almost 10 years ago, when a company called Mirablis introduced a freeware called ICQ providing real-time interactive chat and file transfer functions, IM has moved rapidly out of the teenager's bedroom and into the enterprise at an alarming rate. For the non-believing IT managers out there, one quick way is to carry out a poll within your organization on the number of employees who have freeware IM running on their computers.