Instant messaging
According to Gartner Instant messaging is growing by about 20% pa and is expected to be in use in 70% of companies by the end of this year.
If you haven’t tried it yet then go to http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger/ and have a look at the demo or download it for free.
The ability to see when your friends and/or colleagues are on line and available for a quick chat, is rapidly replacing email as the most popular way to communicate internally. There are all sorts of good features built into this apparently simple communications application
- Only give access to those people that you add to your buddy list
- Control over how others see you – eg on-line, away from my desk, out to lunch etc
- The chat conversation is instant and without the irritating latency that afflicts some chat applications.
- The chat box gives you an indication when your partner is typing a message (very useful to help you to take turns in talking as in a normal spoken conversation).
- You can invite more than 1 person into the chat.
If you are running MSN on a computer with WinXP Pro the application really takes wings adding all the functionality that was built into Net Meetings, but without the configuration hassles.
- Remote support – invite somebody to take over your computer remotely to fix a problem or show you how to do something.
- Application sharing
- Desk top sharing
- Voice communication
- Video conferencing
There are some things to be careful of though. The messaging is sent over the Internet as clear text. This means that it is about as secure as sending a post card. To get round this you can simply add encryption by downloading the application from here.
Download MSN Encryption software
As long as both sides of the conversation are using encryption software the conversation will be secure.