Enterprise IM-ing: once a neat pop-up window for casual conversation, now a powerful networking tool speculated to revolutionize company productivity

Instant Messaging. Or how the kids like to call it these days--"IM-ing." There was a time when the technology seemed to cater to a specific segment of the population that consisted mostly of tech-friendly teens who could use the technology to secretly exchange private messages amongst each other. But things have changed. IM is all grown up and is popping up in enterprises all across the country with a myriad of applications--presence being the most promising one of all.

Vladimir Butenko, CEO of Stalker Software, places IM technology in the same category as live telephone conferencing. In his words, IM provides a medium for when the freedom to wait 15 seconds for an answer is just not an option. In a case like this, you could use e-mail but it will not get you the same kind of immediate response. "With e-mail communication, users exchange memos not phrases," said Butenko.

Research firm IDC predicts that after a cooling period in 2002-2003, the worldwide messaging applications market revenue is expected to more than double to nearly $2.4 billion by 2007. There are currently more than 100 million users of IM worldwide, and the Gartner Group predicts that by 2006, IM will be used more often than e-mail as the preferred method of messaging in the enterprise