Corporate IM'ing crackdown

Well, it seems that my company would rather employees make expensive international calls than use IM while at work. Like many organisations they are choosing to kick IM clients into touch due to ongoing networking security concerns.

Companies "want security, they want archiving, they want control over who's in and out of community, and they want the ability to set rules of community," asserts Gary Reifman, product manager at Communicator, a little-known IM provider being courted by at least eight Wall Street firms, including Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street brokerage.

Corporations aren't the only ones confronting the dilemma of instant messaging in the workplace. IM giants including AOL, the world's largest, are facing a difficult balancing act as they try to turn technology first developed for consumers into a paid service for businesses. AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo have attracted millions of people with free IM services, which allow them to swap text messages and files in real time to other IM buddies. Now all three are struggling to offer corporate applications that won't leave behind the teeming masses.

So what do you think? Are companies right to stop employees from using IM while they are being paid to work? Or, in light of the proliferation of antivirus and security update tools are companies going too far by banning their use? Do you welcome having to use a corporate version of AIM? I'll refrain from making a comment about Sametime which I have to use. ;)

News source: c|net