Microsoft Unified Communications & RTC User Group, United Kingdom

Hi everyone, i've just joined up :o) .. an LCS novice.

In our firm We use Cisco IPT and are looking to Unify this with Exchange. We also want to adopt Presence in the work place and are very interested in LCS for this and other features such as IM.

So, Presence seems like a fantastic step forward for any company but i'm still wondering about IM.

As a bit of a general question, I'm trying to envisage how IM will lie beside the general culture of email which i think for most non-IM firms is still the primary means of daily communication. I've worked as an Exchange Admin for 6 years so relish the idea of less storage in the Exchange Informations Stores as people switch to the use of IM, but I wonder how to educate the users of when to use IM and when to use email, or if they should be left to their own devices to see how it naturally lodges?

As i see it, IM would quickly take over as the primary comms method, especially where it's seen that a colleague(s) is 'online' and immediate responses can be gained (that's another topic for another time), but users are also used to all electronic comunications being stored in their inbox so that they can refer back to conversations .. if important information is all purged at the end of each conversation, does anyone else see that being a bit of a hidden drag to the business? I guess it's no different to the telephone .. but it's still playing on my mind.

Bit vague question perhaps, but i'd be interested to know if it has been introduced with specific guidelines in other firms, or if it's ever been seen as a problem by your users that they lost or have forgotten information in an IM session ?

thanks for any thoughts ..

(I'm also looking forward to Tech-Ed !!)

Welcome to the group ...

IM is an integral part of the Unified Communications stratergy.

Sadly e-mail has become a victim of its own success in that we're now using it more and more to pass worthless messages, (spam & jokes included), to the point where many people just don't manage their mails correctly, or someone has clicked upon the "reply-to-all"; yet some people just do not respond to mails.

IM allows instant communication between work collegues with users being able to base business decisions upon the information received.

Admitably it is difficult to place an Return of Investment (ROI) upon the implementation of an internal IM client; but that one decision taken during an IM conversation can make the difference.

Personally I use Im to confer with colleagues who are based in remote locations, (US & AsiaPac), when working on projects, or to pass information during conference calls.

One of the advantages of using LCS & MSOC is that you are able to save the conversation as either a text file of as an e-mail. Personally I prefer to use e-mail because it saves the information whilst providing an authorising timestamp and audit trail.

Does this help, or would you like more information ?

Arthur

Thanks for the reply, that's quite helpful. I'm sure that we'll be looking to retain any IM sessions, and if they can be converted to an email then perhpas they can be incorporated in an email archiving solution so that they don't sit on and add to our messgaing system. It then means they can possibly be searched/restored quickly to users in an easily readable format.