The Integration of Instant Messaging Services in Enterprise Communication

Victor Hsu

Supervisor: Dr. Amar Gupta

6.199 Advanced Undergraduate Project

Spring 2004

1 Abstract

2 Introduction

3 Role of IM Within Existing Models

4 IM Utilization

4.1 Communication Boundaries

Functional Boundaries

Geographical boundaries

Temporal boundaries

Identity boundaries

4.2 Cross-technology Evaluations

Variables

Motivations:

5 IM Characteristics

5.1 Consumer Applications

5.2 Enterprise Applications

6 The Consumer-Enterprise IM Application Hierarchy

6.1 Standardization and Integration within Transitional Enterprise Applications

6.2 Case Study:

7 Further Studies

8 Limitations and Conclusion

References:

1Abstract

Today, instant messaging (IM) has become one of the fastest-growing means of communication. Through the convergence of various communication technologies, the idea of collaboration has become crucial to the operation of business.Currently, IM services are divided into two classes: consumer and enterprise IM applications.

This study aims to scrutinize the mentioned IM application classes and investigate the advantageous features of each class, eventually leading to the development of a new IM application class, the ‘transitional enterprise IM application,’which integrates the benefits of both of the pre-existing classes.

Furthermore, the author seeks to provide a hierarchy for the transitional enterprise IM application class, describing the strategies, needs, and concerns for developing an application in this class.

2Introduction

According to technological trend experts, 2004 “is the year that instant messaging will really take off in the corporate world” [2]. Technology soothsayers have predicted the rise of Instant Messaging (IM)to coincide with the rise of another continuing trend, outsourcing. The 24-hour outsourcing model describes a workplace where work is continually being done on an 24-hour basis by passing tasksbetween groupsthat are geographically displaced from each other[1]. Therefore, it is natural to imagine the possibilities available with combining the use of IM technologies with the enterprise functionssuch as software development outsourcing. However, little research has been conducted into the relationship of the two main classes of IM applications, enterprise and consumer IM applications, motivating the need for this work.In the 24-hour outsourcing example, as well as other enterprise situations that require concurrentcommunication, IM has demonstrated itself to be of utmost importance, and this work will investigate how IM technologies should be utilized to facilitate communication and productivity. Therefore, strategy development forthe implementation and use of instant messaging for enterprise parties requiring concurrent communication is the targetof this work.

In order to investigate these issues, one must understand the goals that enterprise companies must have in mindregarding communication.According to Gupta [3], some of the primary factorsin the outsourcing industry include the development of relationships, the complexity of the task, building trust, which aredescribed as offshoring “compentencies.”

There is clearly a need for concurrent collaboration such as IM technologies for enterprise communication.However, a deeper question that arises is, “What communication strategies and features should be soughtthatlead to an improved use of the IM technology?This question leads to an investigation of the use of IM by consumers and enterprises, as well as a study of the interaction between existing communication protocols.

This work will proceed in the following order. First, an understanding of the features of basic instant messaging is undertaken. Then, a comparison of the features available in consumer IM products and IM enterprise applications (EIM’s) will be presented.Additionally, the Consumer-Enterprise IM Application Hierarchy model will be proposed, defining a new class of applications that is a hybrid of consumer and enterprise IM applications.Finally, this work concludes with the discussion of the needs for this new IM application class, including the concerns and strategies for developing these features.

3Role of IM Within Existing Models

Within the 24-hour Knowledge Factory Model [1],Instant Messaging occupies an important role within known research literature. In the Research Model of Coordinator Performance in IT Offshoring [1],IM is involved within the dynamic coordination process. As mentioned in the section above, the use of IM has an important bearing upon the “relationship/mutual understanding” and the “communication impact” decision variables, which are crucial determinants of coordinator performance. Additionally, research performed by IBM suggests that “information systems development” depends upon “prerequisite interdependence” and “usability interdependence” [16]. Instant Messaging encourages the approaches needed for managing these variables, such as user-inputs and standardization [15].

4IM Utilization

The following communicationboundariescould be impacted by the use of Instant Messaging, as reported by Espinosa, Cummings, et al [5].

4.1 CommunicationBoundaries

Functional Boundaries

Under a simple outsourcing project, IM is not needed for tasks where the technical supervisor in the outsourcing company can simply stare into one technical module of an application, or a black box. In other words,if the technical supervisor has to only confront the managerial lead of the overseas outsourced company about the results, then Instant Messaging becomes superfluous in the collaboration environment and possibly even detrimental, if IM productivity costs are weighed in.

Under a 24-hour model, there are collaborative groups in each part of the country working to solve a different aspect or function of the same task, such as in the knowledge factory. In this environment, many aspects of the same tasks are being perused. For instance, if a group in India is performingtesting for the U.S. design group, then there are many intricate details that must be passed from the U.S. group to the Indian group in order to ensure a smooth workflow. Many of these details could include snippets of code.

Geographical boundaries

With respect to geography, IM does not have much impact, particularly in giving group members in different locations a sense of geographical closeness. In this aspect, other technologies, such as phone lines or voice-over-IP, provide just as much impact.

Temporal boundaries

Espinosa, Cummings, et al. state that an “overlap index” [5] can be used to gauge the amount of “synchronous communication time” available to the team. However, IM cannot decrease the physical overlap time.

Identity boundaries

Instant Messaging also does not have any direct bearing on a worker’s identity or loyalty to one group over another. In fact, because Instant Messaging developed as a social tool, IM would actually encourage collaboration and identity with more teams because it would facilitate chatting amongst multiple groups at once, something that traditional communication prevents. Therefore, if a software developer in India were working for Wipro, which had signed SLA’s with two different U.S. companies, then IM use would actually encourage the software developer to be involved in these conflicting projects.

4.2 Cross-technology Evaluations

Instant messaging fits within a niche between phone calls and email. The phone call retains an edge of being able to create personal contacts, which is the advantage of technologies such as Voice-over-IP as well as traditional phone services. However, the pace of work flow in the outsourcing of software development can be such that switching between typing and talking can be very confusing. Moreover, within the realm of software outsourcing, code can be transferred from person to person through IM. Also, by using the same interface (the computer) for both work and communication, much work and time can be saved by a programmer who does not need to switch between his keyboard any other communication interface.Generally, for instant messaging, the intent is to decrease the time needed for time- sensitive tasks, help productivity, and facilitate communications between employees. Additionally, file transfers can be facilitated, and long streams of language data can be transferred from user to user.

Rather than following the generalized course of the discussion above for each communication technology,this studyfinds the situation useful to describe a list of communication variables that can easily frame the nature of communication.The following list offers a basis for the comparison of the different technologies, including IM, email, and phone technologies, but the comparisonsare omitted due to the generalized nature of the discussion. However, these following decision variables are beneficial for studying the nature of IM applications.

Variables

By investigating different technologies, the following variables characterize different forms of communication:

1. Documentation and Data Accessibility

Are the communications archive-able, and if so, how accessible are the archives?

2. Security

Is the communication secure from eavesdropping or other compromising features?

3. Cost

4. Simplicity of Implementation

Is the application of the technology simple to operate and implement?

5. User Base

Is the communication popular within the targeted industry segment?

Motivations:

As mentioned above, each of these variables is necessary for this study to differentiate between communication types. Sections 5 and 6 further explore how the use of the above variables enables this study to distinguish between the advantages of enterprise versus consumer-grade IM applications.Furthermore, these variables motivate a methodology of classifying and formulating a new IM application class. Thus, it suffices that the need for communication should investigate each factor independently and thereby decide whether IM is suitable.

5IM Characteristics

The two clear classifications within the Instant Messaging industry are the consumer-grade and enterprise applications, and the characteristics of each of these will be explored.

5.1 Consumer Applications

Consumer applications, including AOL and Yahoo Messenger, contain many features relevant to this study, which are summarized in the following table using the variables defined above:

TableI: Pros and Cons for Consumer IM Applications

Pros / Cons
Wide User Base / No Secure Archives
Free of charge / Security Concerns
Simple Design

According to TechRepublic [16], 590 million users worldwide were signed up forfree-of-charge accounts by year-end 2002, and projections predict that this number will increase to 1.4 billion within four years. Moreover, 70% of technology-related enterprises used consumer IM applications at work [16]. These numbers demonstrate the need for enterprise users to utilize consumer applications in a productive manner. Additionally, consumer IM applications lack features such as security and storage, enabling them to be simply designed [17].

On the other hand, the use of Instant Messaging does not meet some of the concerns of enterprises. The main disadvantages to consumer applications involve the inability to archive conversations on a central serverand the lack of security.The ability to archive is crucial for all companies, especially for legal and regulatory concerns [16]. Several consumer products, such as DeadAIM, seek to archive conversations, but these conversations are stored upon the user computer, not a dedicated server, allowing for the possibility of tampering.Also, the lack of security when communicating across IM is the primary disadvantage to consumer-grade applications.Specifically, consumer application protocols do not allow for administrative user control or data security, concepts that are crucial to an enterprise.

5.2 Enterprise Applications

The integration of IM services with other services such as email or videoconferencing is crucial to the idea of the Enterprise IM applications (EIM’s). Under the assumption that adding more communication options such as email and teleconferencing increases the ability of the communicator to communicate as compared to just using IM systems, an investigation of the different commercially available EIM’s must be conducted.

The following are some commercially available EIM applications:

  1. IBM Lotus Instant Messaging & Web Conferencing
  2. Sun ONE Instant Messaging
  3. Sigaba Secure IM
  4. Effusia Business Messenger
  5. WiredRed e/pop
  6. Ipswitch Instant Messaging

Features from these EIM’s include authentication services, integration of videoconferencing, email, and IM capabilities under one username, communication with consumer-grade (AOL IM) users, compatibility with Windows, Linux, and/or Unix, and management features such as user access controls. Most of these programs contain a subset of these capabilities. A more detailed description of these EIM services can be found on the website [7].

The advantages and disadvantages of enterprise applications can be summed up in the following table:

TableII: Pros and Cons for Enterprise IM Applications

Pros / Cons
Secure Archives / Narrow User Base
High Security Levels / Not free of charge
Complex Design

Among these EIM’s, there are inter-technology features, such as the support of AOL or Yahoo Messenger usernames, but these services support only one of either XMPP or SIMPLE standards [7]. Therefore, EIM’s have a narrow user base and do not allow for user friendliness for cross-application purposes. In other words, if one person in the design group was using IBM Lotus and another person was using Sigaba Secure IM, much work would be required to set up IM communication between the two applications. The work needed would include possibly changing communication sockets for the application to bypass the security built in for each application. Additionally, many of these companies’ applications are geared toward compatibility with their own products or a 3rd-party vendor, stifling communication between EIM products.

Moreover, there is a tradeoff between simplicity and additional features. Services like Ipswitch Instant Messaging offer simple IM services with no frills, while more inter-technology oriented programs such as IBM Lotus are decidedly more complex. For example, companies like Rand-Ingersoll that have used Ipswitch Instant Messaging have chosen it based on its simplicity, whereas a multitude of companies have selected IBM Lotus (known for its many features) for its numerous features [8]. Regardless, EIM services allow for user level management by an administrator, with security levels being of paramount concern. On top of this, the secure archives necessary for documentation often require a dedicated database back-end for storage [7], complicating the application architecture.

Therefore, many difficulties remain in the development of EIM’s, including the use of incompatible XMPP or SIMPLE standards, as well as unfriendliness between different applications.

6 The Consumer-Enterprise IM Application Hierarchy

Tables I and II illustrate that consumer and enterprise level applications have opposite but complementarypros and cons. Therefore, a hybrid application class would be important to finding a better balance between the two main classes. One of the main motivations of this paper is to construct a model that defines a new class of IM applications that exists between consumer-grade products and enterprise applications. This task can be performed by defining a hierarchy structure for this class, labeled as the ‘transitional enterprise’ class, within the context of the consumer and enterprise applications. The following figure highlights the prominent features of this proposed class.

Fig. 1 Consumer-Enterprise IM Application Hierarchy

Thus, this figure illustrates that a transitional IM application seeks to capture a wide customer base, while incorporating secure archives and high administrative security.

6.1Standardizationand Integration withinTransitional Enterprise Applications

Of the three features of the transitional enterprise IM applications,the wide customer base is the one aspect of transitional IM applications that is missing from enterprise IM applications. Thus, the relationship between the feasibility of intra-technology integration of different IM communication protocols(to achieve a wide base) and maintaining security becomes crucial to this study.

The primary difficulty with IM services is the fact that different standards apply to IM communications. With the XMPP and SIMPLE standards becoming equally popular, the problem of using these incompatible standards during the 24-hour model evolves into a huge issue. If the software firm conducted the 24-hour model within intra-firm, worldwideoffices, then the problem of incompatibility becomes rather mute, as the different offices will most likely use the same standards. However, in the case of a company providing outsourcing services (like Wipro), if IM were chosen as a means of communication, then a multitude of services would have to be embraced by Wipro in order to maintain IM services with each of its clients. For Wipro, this would become a cumbersome task. Thus, an obvious solution would be to use an application that integratesall IM standards, as we observe in the following example:

6.2Case Study:

(This study was conducted through an interview with Chu Liang, a Merrill Lynch Lead Technology Developer in Princeton, NJ) [6]

The financial services industry was one of the first industries to fully embrace the IM services revolution. By observing how Merrill Lynch decided to use IM services within its global network to connect its North American employees to people in Asia and Europe, one can understand the need for transitional enterprise applications.In this instance, floor exchangetraders at Merrill Lynch had been usingcustomer-grade IM services such as Yahoo and AOL for a long time as a communication interface with traders in their offices. Because the business in these areas is deal- and transaction-driven, there was a large focus on conversations that focused on small details. Moreover, an unspecified amount of transaction volume traveled between its overseas hubs, located in London, Tokyo and New York, for instance. Therefore, groups in geographically and temporally disparate areas have to combine on certain tasks in order to get a transaction finished. However, one big difference between financial institutions like Merrill Lynch and enterprises operating under the 24-hour modelis that the traders, even though they were unable to penetrate the geographical boundaries,shared more “overlap time,” using the measure of temporal boundaries suggested by Espinosa, Cummings, et al [5]. In other words, the Merrill Lynch employee involved in the 24-hour process worked12-14 hours a day, which (on average) is longer hours than the standard software employee engaged in the same process.Thus, to satisfy the need for IM services, Merrill Lynch decided to integrate the different consumer-grade products into one Enterprise IM services application (EIM) that provided the use of these consumer-grade products as well as features like archiving.

After this evaluation, the discussion should shift tothe possibility of accepting one of the protocolstandards. In other words, which standard (i.e. XMPP or SIMPLE protocol)should be adopted? Or, at a higher level, should consumer-grade products (AOL, Yahoo) be used, or IM systems that provide so-called interoperability between the consumer-level products using a custom application?