The new multiprotocol gateway that links the IM offerings of different vendors is part of Version 7.5 of IBM's Sametime tool, which was unveiled here and will ship midyear. The new Sametime IM version also promises improved security and privacy tools.

Daniel Singleton, a corporate programmer/analyst at Assurant Solutions, a division of New York-based specialty insurance company Assurant Inc., said that adding security to public IM clients could go a long way toward increasing IM use among his division's 7,000 Lotus Notes users.

"The key thing is the security," he said. "If the security is there, then I see no reason whatsoever that we wouldn't adopt it. I find it extremely useful. The whole power of something like this is that the more people who are on it, the more effective it becomes."

Management at Assurant Solutions currently sees IM as more of a distraction than a tool, Singleton said. Company policy doesn't allow use of AOL Instant Messenger because of security concerns.

Customer connection