- Finally, IM's features and its ability to track down someone no matter where he is located are attractive to customers, partners and suppliers that need a guaranteed method of communication with you.

All these advantages mean that IM is becoming the key technology ingredient for corporations that are looking for faster customer response times, better ways to tie their customers closer together and tools to enable teleworkers to communicate across the globe.

Recognizing this, AOL LLC last week announced a business-oriented IM client called AIM Pro that offers integration with Outlook and other features to try to attract the corporate user.

IM isn't communications nirvana. It brings a new infection vector into corporate networks, and exploits can spread faster because users think they are dealing with trusted sources.

IM can also bring in another unmonitored channel for companies that are used to recording all client conversations -- and the potential legal liability of an unmonitored or undocumented channel at that. Getting IM networks to talk to each other is still more of a black art than science. (Tips on how to get public IM systems to interoperate with each other, and various multisystem IM clients that you can use, can be found on my Web page at http://strom.com/places/im.html )