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DEL.ICIO.USInstant Messaging and the Enterprise
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Instant messaging. For now, it’s that thing your kid does all day long, but according to IDC wireless analyst Scott Ellison, it’s going to be the big enterprise technology story of 2007.
“There’s a huge amount of venture capital pouring into messaging,” Ellison told the November general session of the Wireless Technology Forum at the Marriott Perimeter Center.
According to IDC, more than 130 million Americans use instant messaging systems, many of them AOL’s Instant Messenger. Most of those users are private individuals, and most of those are youngsters who use the service to make plans with friends, gossip and collaborate on schoolwork.
That instant collaboration is what business users are after. Fast, ad-hoc working groups can spring up quickly on instant messaging applications to solve problems. Similar programs can also be used by customer service representatives to help consumers on the Web.
Another big wireless trend for the coming year, Ellison said, is telemetry č the ability for machines to send data back to their respective mother ships for action. Wireless technology could, for instance, wipe out an entire generation of utility meter readers by allowing meters to wirelessly transmit data about customer usage back to the utility. It could also allow the office vending machine to send word back to the distributor that it’s nearly empty, Ellison said.
Of course, much of this depends on ubiquitous next-generation, or 4G, wireless broadband access, which is creeping ever closer. For instance, Sprint intends to launch its 4G network in early 2007. Instant messaging. For now, it’s that thing your kid does all day long, but according to IDC wireless analyst Scott Ellison, it’s going to be the big enterprise technology story of 2007.
“There’s a huge amount of venture capital pouring into messaging,” Ellison told the November general session of the Wireless Technology Forum at the Marriott Perimeter Center.
According to IDC, more than 130 million Americans use instant messaging systems, many of them AOL’s Instant Messenger. Most of those users are private individuals, and most of those are youngsters who use the service to make plans with friends, gossip and collaborate on schoolwork.
That instant collaboration is what business users are after. Fast, ad-hoc working groups can spring up quickly on instant messaging applications to solve problems. Similar programs can also be used by customer service representatives to help consumers on the Web.
Another big wireless trend for the coming year, Ellison said, is telemetry č the ability for machines to send data back to their respective mother ships for action. Wireless technology could, for instance, wipe out an entire generation of utility meter readers by allowing meters to wirelessly transmit data about customer usage back to the utility. It could also allow the office vending machine to send word back to the distributor that it’s nearly empty, Ellison said.
Of course, much of this depends on ubiquitous next-generation, or 4G, wireless broadband access, which is creeping ever closer. For instance, Sprint intends to launch its 4G network in early 2007.
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