Instant messaging: Tool, toy or menace?

In Dilbert's world, creator Scott Adams defines a "camper" as someone who stops by a worker's cube or office and just won't leave.

In Steve Cain's world, a camper is someone who logs on to a company's instant messaging (IM) application and just won't log off. He sits online, messaging people as they come and go, begging attention -- and becomes a distraction.

"You just get far too much messaging going on," says Cain, an application services manager with Ericsson who's charge of a half-dozen remote workers.

Such can be the bane of instant messaging. Used smartly, it allows team members to send and receive messages in near real-time -- faster than traditional e-mail and less distracting than using a telephone. But used poorly, IM can become host to chat-room-like banter, lost productivity -- and annoyance from workers who feel compelled to respond to each and every message that passes by.

"These systems are a solution in search of a problem," says telework consultant Gil Gordon, whose clients have been asking about the usefulness of IM. "They're useful only when the value of the interruption is higher than the value of the work being interrupted, and if the need for an instant response is strong enough to make e-mail unsatisfactory."

But Cain knows the benefits of IM for linking remote workgroups -- first hand. In his previous job as an IBM consultant, Cain and his disparate team used IM to link disparate work groups. Workers in multiple locations can share quick-hit information -- especially if they're working on an application installation and phoning or e-mailing a co-worker would be too cumbersome or take too long.

Now, he awaits Ericsson's own IM tool, iPulse IM, which works with PCs, mobile phones and PDAs. The company plans to sell iPulse to resellers as well as roll it out to all employees, which prompted Cain to outline some IM best practices. Among them are:

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