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Think of Instant Technologies' Instant TeamMessenger 2.0 as value-added software. Rather than delivering a whole new productivity tool, it adds value to tools you're already using. In this case, the tools are Microsoft Outlook and IBM Lotus Instant Messaging (previously known as Lotus Sametime).

If you're running these two apps, you know that Outlook is an unbeatable way to keep your mail and your schedule organized, while Lotus Instant Messaging is the business version of the toy IM tool you use at home. Both work well on their own, but Instant TeamMessenger brings them together, so you can see who's online (as with an IM tool) when you're in Outlook and can start real-time conversations off of e-mail messages and calendar entries.

Install Instant TeamMessenger and the only difference you'll notice is a new menu bar in Outlook. With this bar, you can quickly see who among your contacts is online, either in a pop-up window or in a floating window that you can keep open. Instant TeamMessenger actually searches out the names in whatever note or calendar entry you have open, then displays an updated, dynamic list showing whether those people are online or not.

If that were all, Instant TeamMessenger wouldn't be worth noticing. But it also logs all of your IM sessions, so that you'll never lose them. Turn to Outlook's Journal and read transcripts of the IM sessions you had on any given day. Naturally, it provides all the tools that you're used to in an IM tool, including a permanent buddy list in which you can add and group names. And new to version 2.0, it can create multi-person chats where you can all share a whiteboard or view the host's desktop.

Licenses for Instant TeamMessenger start at $20 per user. Once you've got it installed, you can e-mail the company and have them configure it for free — a fantastic service we'd like to see more often.

Instant TeamMessenger creates a new menu bar in Outlook that lets you see who among your contacts is online. In this case, it reads the From and To fields in the e-mail message and creates a list of those names.