Something Else To Worry About, Or Not

It's right before Thanksgiving and I'm trying hard not to think curmudgeonly thoughts but just in case you haven't noticed your users downloading AOL's spiffy new IM client (which is much more than an IM client) be aware that instant messages aren't the only thing that could be breaking your compliance policies.

The new AIM Triton service, which became available for free download today, is an integrated communications client that offers instant messaging, free e-mail and SMS mobile texting as well as voice and video chat services. It also offers access to AOL's new TotalTalk VoIP calling service.

With a few clicks users can now carry on multiple conversations simultaneously and transition from desktop instant messaging to mobile text messaging, e-mail, voice or video chat.Such capabilities sound pretty cool, if you're a user, but less than cool if you're responsible for logging, archiving, screening and mitigating all these communiqués to meet compliance requirements.

I'm not trying to throw cold water on something that isn't burning yet, and who knows, it may not turn out to be an issue. But be aware that as your users upgrade their AIM clients, they could be doing much more than instant messaging. And please let us know if it does become an issue.

Speaking of issues, The Radicati Group and Mirapoint fielded a survey on corporate e-mail usage and found that 23 percent of all messages in respondent's corporate mailboxes are personal, non-work related, in nature. That's troublesome enough, but when you couple that with data from an April 2005 survey that found that approximately 33 percent of corporate e-mail is spam, your suddenly looking at half your traffic as non-work related.

I guess there is one thing to be thankful for. I doubt the spim volume on the IM side reaches the level of spam hitting corporate e-mail servers. But on the flip side, I'm willing to bet that the percentage of personal IM is higher than 23 percent.

No wonder some companies still choose to just archive it all and hope for the best.