Good morning - Do any of you guys or gals use an instant messaging tool for inter-office communicatons? How about communicating with clients? I am interested in learning more about the tools you use, how it works out, etc. Thanks in advance!
I think most freelancers use IM to communicate with clients. Since each client uses a different IM system, I use MirandaIM so I can send messages to people on different networks (e.g. AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, etc). I've also used IM within the office. Everyone who used it preferred it because it meant that they didn't have to be disturbed/disturb someone else whenever a short answer was needed for a short question.
We use Skype and Gtalk (employees can choose depending on taste) for interoffice and clients; safe, free, encrypted, fast and easy. Both support both vid/voice and chat so whatever works nicely for the conversation we use. We have over 300 employees in different countries.
No i don't allow my worker to ON their IM during office hour coz this will reduce the work efficiency. What we use to communicate in office is by using internal IM system that is specially built.
Thanks for all the answers! It looks like a lot of people are using IM for client communications, etc. Using IM in an office setting is also a great idea, it appears. That being said, some people seem worried about the potential for it causing a disturbance. What IM client do you use? I know Skype is popular, but not really an IM tool. Anybody use AIM, MSN, or Brosix?
For group IM we use flare, a client for basecamp ( http://www.basecamphq.com/ ). Its great because you can create chatrooms for different groups. For example a room just for the software developers. You can also send and recieve files. For one-to-one conversations we use yahoo.
Nialler - Sounds like a great option. I just began taking a strong look at Brosix: www.brosix.com. It offers many of the same features. Used to use regular AIM, but not exactly the best bet for the corporate atmosphere...