For one, AOL will release Enterprise AIM Client this summer. This client, an extension of AIM, will include encrypted message capacity and use Netscape Directory Server for authentication.

But beyond encryption and authentication, a number of trends are priming IM for widespread corporate use.

Collaboration tools

Some businesses now demand more than just chat--they want collaboration tools as well. For them, Groove Networks' Groove Workspace 2.0 may be the answer. Besides text IMing, Groove provides online voice communications a la VoIP, group calendaring and contact lists, shared document archiving and editing, and a host of other workgroup collaboration tools. If that sounds something like a jazzed up, IM-enabled version of Lotus Notes, you're right, it does. Ray Ozzie, Notes' creator, runs Groove.

Integrating with Web services

Another IM trend is integration with Web services. For example, Microsoft, which includes Windows Messaging capacity in Exchange 2000, also has .NET tabs, aka Windows Messenger tabs. Windows Messenger tabs, first shown publicly in April 2002 at Microsoft's annual WinHEC technology conference, will incorporate IM into Web services via the .NET My Services family. Like Enterprise AIM, it will be integrated with directory services for authentication. In .NET tabs' case, that will be Passport. So, for example, you might talk to a sales representative, decide to make a purchase, and then buy the product within a single IM session.

Microsoft isn't the only one considering bundling IM into the Web interface. Digi-Net is already there with Hubz, an IM service that enables Web site visitors looking at the same page to talk to one another. While Digi-Net claims this is a first, Volano has offered similar functionality with its Java-based, Web chat room program, VolanoChat. Besides being used for customer service, Volano thinks its services can help build real-time online communities, like AOL has done for years with its chat rooms. Essentially, Digi-Net and Volano are bringing chat room technology to any Web site. Although the technology has been around for years, it has been difficult to implement until now.Archiving messages

Archiving IM messages is becoming increasingly important to companies using IM, especially in the financial services business where SEC rules now require that IM messages be saved. One product that does this for financial services firms is Cordant's IMScribe for Microsoft Exchange 2000. Knowing that other types of businesses want to track IM conversations, the company just released a program, OmniScribe, that can track and record public IM network, MSN, and AOL conversations.

Serious contender: Wireless IM

No matter how fast wired IM grows in business, though, it may be outstripped by the growth of wireless business IMing. The big three of wireless voice, Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia, plus over a hundred other supporters, approved the Wireless Village's Mobile Instant Messaging and Presence Services (IMPS) Initiative. This IM interoperability standard enables mobile device users to send instant messages to colleagues' mobile phones, PDAs, and PCs so long as the devices are IMPS-compliant. What's different from current text messaging is that it frees people to talk between phone networks and lets them chat with their PC-based colleagues.

Now if only that were the case with PC IM clients! Standardization still remains a problem. While the IETF has made efforts to standardize IM with a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for Internet Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) so that there's a universal way to tell when someone is online, the initiative hasn't gone that far. While SIP/SIMPLE has support from AOL, Lotus, and Microsoft, only Microsoft is currently deploying it in products.

The Holy Grail: Universal access

Beyond that, the holy grail of IM users everywhere--universal client access to multi-IM system users--remains elusive. Clients like Trillian let you to do this today. But, they do it on the sly and AOL, for one, periodically changes its IM server software to keep Trillian clients from reaching AIM users. The real answer would be the completion, approval, and implementation of the Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol (IMPP), but no IM vendor expects to see IM unification happening anytime soon.

In the meantime, Jabber bridges the gap between the public, proprietary systems and their own open IM hosting system with an open-source XML-based client that not only works with its own host, it can also work with ICQ, Yahoo, and MSN. Like Trillian, though, Jabber's gateways aren't formal arrangements with the other IM providers, so until IMPP or a similar measure is approved, you won't be able to count on connectivity to public, proprietary services.

Standardization fusses and all, it doesn't take a crystal ball to see that IM will continue to grow by leaps and bounds. Personal use of IM continues to boom--despite the rise of IM spam. Business IM will certainly follow suit. In a few years, IM will likely be as common as e-mail is now.

What IM features would benefit your business the most? Is your enterprise planning an IM rollout? TalkBack below or e-mail us with your thoughts. And, don't forget to register your vote in our quick poll.