Enterprise instant messaging has killer app potential. Faster than a phone call, more personal than an email, business instant messaging can be hard to resist. But it hasn’t been a slam dunk (and it can’t leap a tall building in a single bound). Although IM spread like wildfire through the Internet, it took ages for the business world to see the advantages afforded by the medium. So what makes enterprise instant messaging different from vanilla IM?

Enterprise instant messaging — through the use of an in-house server — ensures that those corporate secrets remain corporate secrets. The “great unwashed” (as a former boss of mine used to say) can’t overrun your fortress. The party is within your walls, and only the invited can come in …

Not surprisingly, authentication and security are key factors. Enterprise instant messaging systems typically use the authentication systems already in place within the corporation. InstantMessagingPlanet.com recommends that “If you have such a system, Microsoft’s Active Directory or Novell’s Directory Services, for example, make sure that the EIM system you implement can interface with them.” Security should be accomplished through the use of encryption and other measures.

As the developers will surely say, high-end enterprise instant messaging is more than just simple chat. Real time business instant messaging comes in many forms. Codespear’s SmartMSG focuses on “smart urgent messaging” to provide a channel for emergency broadcast, for instant one-to-many communications. Polycom’s WebOffice weaves instant messaging into a framework that includes audio and video conferencing.