Real-time collaboration has long been a challenge for geographically dispersed corporations. Conference calls and meetings can require weeks of preparation. More attendees and multiple time-zone differences mean more work is needed to confirm the participants' attendance. If a company needed to conduct an urgent virtual meeting in the morning, it's highly unlikely that the staff at headquarters would be able to round up 20 employees to talk by the end of the day if they are spread all over the globe.
Does this allow companies to make vital decisions and conduct business in real time? Hardly.
Instant messaging (IM) is poised to turn that dynamic on its head. It is the foundation for "presence," the concept of locating colleagues regardless of where they are. Believe it or not, IM is likely already in use in your company. Consider that IM is the fastest-growing communications medium of all time, reaching 50 million users in just two years (compared to six years for e-mail), according to IBM. And industry analyst firm Gartner predicts that IM will become the most popular business communication tool by 2006. Employees already rely on IM to immediately locate one or two people for a quick call. It supplements voice mail and e-mail, which can easily be ignored, potentially delaying conversations that can't wait. Instant messages automatically pop up on employees' desktops, handheld computers, or cell phones, alerting them to an important conference they should attend.
IM's momentum will have a profound effect on how businesses communicate. Enterprises will no longer need to schedule important conferences hours, days, or even weeks ahead of time. Instead, IM-based conferencing will allow them to communicate simultaneously to all important stakeholders and initiate real-time conferences on the fly. This broadcast alert replaces sending e-mail to those who may not be online, or making separate calls to each individual. How often have you tried to reschedule a virtual meeting at the last minute, or ended up in someone's voice mail at the wrong time—while trying to address an urgent matter?
Traveling employees can make certain that important calls to their office phone and urgent e-mail will go directly to their cell phones to ensure they receive all crucial messages. This makes them more available for real-time meetings.
This technology will deliver significant business benefits across multiple industries. Investment firms, for example, will be able to customize their IM system to identify brokers with the right expertise around the world and check their availability for an ad hoc live conference to help with a high-profile customer's needs. On the horizon, IM will extend to other areas of business communication, including Word documents, where annotations will let recipients know if the authors are immediately available for a meeting. This is particularly important for attorneys who often work in teams on long, detailed briefs.
Here are some tips on preparing for presence and its benefit to your business conferences:
Learn about instant messaging, its risks, and its benefits. Chances are that some form of IM is taking place in your business. The question is whether this is rogue use, which could expose the company to increased cyber threats, or an accepted communications tool.
Establish policies for how to use IM to launch real-time meetings. Answer the following questions: Which colleagues must be accessible for on-the-fly meetings while on the road? Who can initiate real-time conferences? Who will administer them?
IM technology will empower companies to capitalize on genuine real-time collaboration. Immediately locating and inviting colleagues to attend ad hoc meetings further tears down geographic barriers and lets companies conduct business immediately. This technology is on your doorstep, and will help you introduce a new dynamic to corporate communications.
Scott D'Entremont is president and CEO of Netspoke, a provider of on-demand conferencing technology. To contact D'Entremont, visit www.netspoke.com or call (781) 438-6611.