29th July 2008, 12:29 PM
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#1
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 3
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Secure Instant Messenger For A Small Company
I run a small consulting services company of 33 people. My employees are using instant messengers like ICQ and MSN to chat to each other. I don't mind, if it is connected with business, but what I'm afraid of is that all those public messengers can disturb privacy and data security issues. Does anyone use special business chat programs, what can you advise?
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29th July 2008, 09:21 PM
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#2
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 23
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I used to work at company that prevented the use of IM for the reasons you listed. The lack of IM, slowed down communication and led to low moral from lack of trust.
Your employees will notice the switch if you try to move them from MSN, Gtalk, Yahoo, and Skype to some clunky business application. They will probably feel untrusted and not use it because it's not as good. I'd advise not to stomp on progress. Besides, there are easier ways to steal data than to send of IM.
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30th July 2008, 10:09 AM
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#3
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 3
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Im
That's the point Schmoozii, that I dont't want to discourage employees by restricting IM services, maybe there are solutions that will seem comfortable to them.
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30th July 2008, 07:53 PM
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#4
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 23
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Sunnystate,
I'm sure there are other IM services that can be limit their activity, but I think that defeats the purpose of using IM. IM services such as messenger, yahoo, gmail are used because the 3 of them combined have over 300 million users. People jump on because it is widely used. I'm sure you have noticed on Linkedin profiles thousands of people listing their messenger, aol, yahoo, gmail, and skype contact information.
If you are using something besides one of those then you need to call up your contact and ask them to install a new application. No one is going to do that. If you change to some business service chat, you minimize it's effectiveness and employees will not want to use it anymore.
Anyways, that's just my opinion. Perhaps some other forum members will see it differently.
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31st July 2008, 07:59 AM
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#5
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 3
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Schmoozii, I can't agree that using messengers, ain't popular among millions of people, is something embarassing. There are IM services designed for business, that are targeted at employee usage only and simply don't imply outside contacts, which can be carried out by the means of email, for instance. Besides, they are more secure, because of VPN.
Sunnystate, we use OnLAN Messenger, it's good - see www.corpsoft.org
Last edited by Bolo; 31st July 2008 at 08:04 AM.
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31st July 2008, 09:10 AM
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#6
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 3
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Bolo, thanks
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9th August 2008, 02:46 PM
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#7
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Administrator
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 594
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We use the OpenFire collaboration server (IM server) in our law office. It's set up on a Windows Server 2003 system within our LAN that also handles a few other utility tasks, and our staff connect to it using the Spark IM client.
We use the same software running on a Linux server over the Internet to help collaborate in a development project I'm involved with. In that case, the team members use various clients, like Trillian and The Coccinella (my personal favorite, with whiteboard!) in addition to Spark, all communicating through OpenFire on an encrypted (https) connection.
Works great on XP/Vista, Mac and Linux.
All it takes is a server and a network.
All of the programs mentioned are free. |
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14th August 2008, 09:02 AM
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#8
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Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 1
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At least in my case I found I grossly underestimated how much time was being spent on non business activity including IMs. I installed a software product, Spector 360, that allows me to see everything the employees are doing. I was very surprised to see who was doing what.
Long story short the Spector 360 software allowed me to see the IMs, emails, screen shots, keystrokes and anything else the employees are doing. It has features that allow you to restrict activity as well.
Personally I was a little un easy about the whole idea at first, but it's the company's network and the company's time, not the employee's.
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15th September 2008, 12:28 PM
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#9
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Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 55
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Perhaps you can solve your problem using a security software like this...
http://www.grisoft.com/ww.business-security
As far as Spector 360 goes, YIKES!!! |
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6th December 2008, 01:54 PM
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#10
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Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 15
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I've heard good things about Campfire - which is basically hosted chat service made for businesses and integrates with some other project management software. It might be better to set up teams in a program like that for chatting about business matters. As for the other IM programs, you'd have to make a choice as to whether or not you'd allow it to continue.
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