October 11, 2006, 3:23 PM — Listen to the column "Open Source Enterprise IM", or visit our Podcast Center to hear more by James Gaskin.
Corporate policies notwithstanding, some users in over 90 percent of all large companies still use public Instant Message clients when they shouldn't. AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and the new GoogleTalk tempt users to ignore corporate security rules, as if they needed more encouragement.
Jive Software (.com) approached this problem from an interesting angle: free Open Source software for corporate IM use. Available with source code following the GPL (GNU Public License), Jive makes it easy for companies to jump into IM and provide the compliance and security controls needed in today's regulated and hacker-infested world.
Based on the XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) project started by the Jabber working group back in 1999, Jive's WildFire uses the dominant open standard for IM. Since none of the enterprise IM packages can really claim market dominance, this may be an inexpensive way for your company to start testing enterprise IM.
This brings us to Jive's revenue model. They provide the Open Source product free and clear for the downloading, but offer customization services and an Enterprise version for sale. Some customers start with the free version and have all they need. Others ask for some development work, and others upgrade to the full Enterprise system. Of course, users never see much difference, meaning you dodge the retraining bullet.
Sharing the same Jabber protocols, Jive works with GoogleTalk automatically. Since most consumers use AOL, MSN, or Yahoo, Jive offers gateways to translate and control those conversations as well. Finally you can offer a single corporate IM that also supports the consumer products. This gives you an answer for those users who demand to keep using AIM so they can chat to friends and family from their work computer. Since you can't get them to stop these personal chats, at least you can now make them more secure (and perhaps archive them just in case something illegal happens).
Younger customers love IM chat for product support and sales questions. Corporate common sense demands you avoid public IM tools for internal chats. Now you have a way to maintain easy chat options for your customers, while providing secure communications for your employees. If you're the lone Open Source voice in your company, start testing this for your IM needs. If the Open Source program works, you're a hero. If management won't swallow Open Source, just upgrade to the Enterprise version.
