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Welcome back to our series of articles on Instant Messaging (IM). In Part One of this series we looked at the history and background of IM, and in Part Two we looked at some of the things you should consider when implementing an IM solution. In this, the third part, we'll examine the criteria you should consider when specifying an IM solution for your business and also look at some of the IM offerings on the market.

As we have already discussed, the majority of IM implementations in place today are of the public type -- that is they are products such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), MSN Messenger or Yahoo! Messenger. As we have also discussed, these public IM systems lack the level of control and management that we would normally associate with an enterprise level IT application. So, for the purposes of our discussions here, we will not discuss these public IM systems any further. Instead we'll focus our attention on Enterprise Instant Messaging (EIM) systems that talked about in Part Two. Don't let the name mislead you, however. Some of the products we'll be looking at in this article are suitable for use in smaller organizations, not just enterprises, and the benefits are still just as relevant.

What You Should Be Looking For

Before we look at what IM offerings are available, we should discuss some of the features that you should be looking for in an IM system.

Authentication
Making sure that the user logging into your corporate IM system is who they say they are is a primary consideration for IM applications. Many mechanisms can be used to ensure a user's authenticity, although many EIM systems choose to rely on an underlying authentication mechanism such as directory services rather than utilize their own authentication system. If you have such a system, for example Microsoft's Active Directory or Novell's Directory Services, make sure that the EIM system you implement can interface with them. This will negate the need for users on your IM system to use more than one user name and password to access the network and subsequently the IM application.

Security
With IM becoming such a popular communications tool, it's reasonable to assume that conversations conducted via IM will, at some point, contain information that is company confidential, even if it's just last months sales figures or the home telephone number of an executive. For this reason, you will need an IM system that provides security for messages as they are transmitted even if all such transmissions will be within your own network. All of the EIM systems discussed in this article provide some level of security, though some offer more features others. Commonly accommodated features include secure sign-on, digital signatures and encryption.

Anti-virus
A widely used feature of IM systems is the ability to transmit files between users. Just as with email, you need to make sure that files you are receiving (or sending for that matter) are virus free. Because of the overhead involved with creating anti-virus systems, many EIM providers plug into third-party anti-virus products. This means that in some cases you might get anti-virus support without having to make an additional purchase.

Logging
One of the biggest concerns with IM is that it is becoming a tool abused, rather than used for business communications. Comprehensive logging is a key element to EIM systems and rightly so. In some settings the logging may even form part of regulatory requirements or adherence to a code of practice. If you have specific logging requirements, make sure that the EIM system you implement accommodates them. Be aware that not all logging systems are equal and some offer much more detail than others. Also consider what formats the logging information is available in. Most EIM systems support logging to a SQL database as well as a variety of other formats.

Special Features
While all of the IM systems discussed here provide the basic IM functionality, some products are more feature rich than others. Things to look for which you may not have considered are centralized administration of user lists, the ability to send messages to entire groups of users at a time and advanced scheduling and notification capabilities. If you will use it, also look at the Web conferencing capabilities of some of the IM products on offer. Other more subtle features like drag and drop file transfer may not seem like a big deal, but they can add considerably to the users IM experience.

System Requirements
It's easy to think of IM as a lightweight network application, and it generally is. But the more people that use it, and the more people use it, demands on the servers and underlying infrastructure will increase. In a small LAN with an already under-utilized server, loading the new IM software on may not have any noticeable effect on system performance. In a large organization with thousands of users, you may well find it necessary to install a new server specifically to support the IM application. Another consideration is OS support on both the server and client side. Unless you use one of the mainstream operating systems, don't assume that the EIM application you are looking at will be supported by all of your server operating systems. This is even more of a consideration on the client side where the variety of operating systems in use is likely to be greater.