Riverbank It management

Instant Messaging (or IM) isn’t just something for the under-15s. It’s also a great business tool. It’s an excellent way to keep in touch with your team, wherever they are. IM also gives you information about presence, something that every manager needs.

With Instant Messaging you can ping a quick question to a colleague, knowing that you won’t disturb them and that they will reply when they have a moment. It bridges the gap between e-mail (will I get a reply today?) and a phone call (“Sorry to interrupt you but…”). It’s instant communication without the distraction of a phone call – a delay of a minute or two is not a problem.

IM came of age with Microsoft Office Communicator, a business IM system. It gives you a company-wide IM system available only to employees and other key contacts. You decide who does or does not go on the list. You won’t have trouble with people spending hours chatting with girlfriends and boyfriends.

Office Communicator also works for staff working remotely. If they can connect to the office network they are on the IM. In Riverbank I can pop a quick question to one of our technical staff working at a client office, or communicate with someone working from home. Your entire team can be just a click away, wherever they are working.

IM also delivers something called ‘presence’. Presence tells you whether someone is present or absent. IM provides that information because it has live information about each user. If you are working at your computer, a small green light shows up against your name on everyone else’s computer. If you log out, it goes red. If you are logged in but away from your computer for five minutes, it goes amber. If you don’t want to be disturbed, just set it to ‘busy’. It’s a wonderful little tool and it goes a long way to making managers feel comfortable about managing people who are out of sight.