Instant Messenger For internal company - Recomendations?
A clients company wants to install Instant Messenger software for their staff.
Mostly located in teh same office (but no harm having it work if the staff member is away from the office).
Obvioulsy MSN / Yahoo are out there, but are there ones aimed at corporate environment (about 70 staff -one site -maybe two in the future)
Any recommendations / experiance would be appreciated.
Mostly located in teh same office (but no harm having it work if the staff member is away from the office).
Obvioulsy MSN / Yahoo are out there, but are there ones aimed at corporate environment (about 70 staff -one site -maybe two in the future)
Any recommendations / experiance would be appreciated.
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Hosting it on the server would be a good thing. The comany would probably want a degree of control so somthing like MSN is probably out of the question. Security will be important.
The ability to use when out of the office (and even an additional VOIP feature) would be a real bonus.
The ability to use when out of the office (and even an additional VOIP feature) would be a real bonus.
well MSN do allow company control via Live Communications Server. You can control internet access and the contacts that users allow.
Out of the office use of your company services would probably depends on a VPN or other connection method.
Out of the office use of your company services would probably depends on a VPN or other connection method.
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Thanks for input so far.Been looking at suggetions and so far nothing quite seems to fit what I need.
Windows live communincations server seems like overkill and is expensive overall.
http://www.cezeo.com/products/lantalk-net/
May meet some of the requirements actually, but the interface does seem to take up a big part of the screen, it looks a bit cumbersome. Bascially it jsut does not look nice and for the majority of novice users in this office it will be hard to convince them.
In some ways the best fit seems to be the Windows MEssenger (as opposed to Windows Live Messgner):
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/windowsmessenger/getstarted/discover.mspx
But I get the impression this is a product that will no longer be supported in the future.
Any more suggestions and what are other peope doing in their offices for Instant Message communication.
Windows live communincations server seems like overkill and is expensive overall.
http://www.cezeo.com/products/lantalk-net/
May meet some of the requirements actually, but the interface does seem to take up a big part of the screen, it looks a bit cumbersome. Bascially it jsut does not look nice and for the majority of novice users in this office it will be hard to convince them.
In some ways the best fit seems to be the Windows MEssenger (as opposed to Windows Live Messgner):
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/windowsmessenger/getstarted/discover.mspx
But I get the impression this is a product that will no longer be supported in the future.
Any more suggestions and what are other peope doing in their offices for Instant Message communication.
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In the end I have found what I believe is the perfect tool:
http://messenger.softros.com/
This is much closer to my requirements then the others I have seen and tried. Simple interface but effective product so far (1st day ot testing).
I'll report back how testing goes after the trial is completed.
http://messenger.softros.com/
This is much closer to my requirements then the others I have seen and tried. Simple interface but effective product so far (1st day ot testing).
I'll report back how testing goes after the trial is completed.
It would be good if you'll let us know the difference between this messenger and others.
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Off hand the look and feel.
Lan talk was ugly and not simple for me to instatnly understand (two different screen modes but the default one is the complicated one it seemed).
The users I'm installng it for are VERY VERY basic PC users. If I install anythign tht confues them I will have to provide more support.
I wanted something I could understand on glancing within a few moments and worked like MSN but without outside contact (only on the LAN). It had to look attractive and ork effectively. Softros ticks the boxes for me right away so far (although trialling will reveal any shortcommings)
The other links that were sent did not fit critera on investigation
http://www.jabber.org/ - coud not see screen shots. therefore ruled out (if I can't quickly find on website what it looks like I doubt it will be easy)
http://www.igniterealtime.org/ - could not quickly find details of the product and how it works
http://psi-im.org/ - looked OK but did not understand this jabber network stuff.
Others rejected for similar reasons.
the one I'm trialling exactly answered what I Was looking for - simple, effecitve, low maintenance, attraciteve, easy to use.
Lan talk was ugly and not simple for me to instatnly understand (two different screen modes but the default one is the complicated one it seemed).
The users I'm installng it for are VERY VERY basic PC users. If I install anythign tht confues them I will have to provide more support.
I wanted something I could understand on glancing within a few moments and worked like MSN but without outside contact (only on the LAN). It had to look attractive and ork effectively. Softros ticks the boxes for me right away so far (although trialling will reveal any shortcommings)
The other links that were sent did not fit critera on investigation
http://www.jabber.org/ - coud not see screen shots. therefore ruled out (if I can't quickly find on website what it looks like I doubt it will be easy)
http://www.igniterealtime.org/ - could not quickly find details of the product and how it works
http://psi-im.org/ - looked OK but did not understand this jabber network stuff.
Others rejected for similar reasons.
the one I'm trialling exactly answered what I Was looking for - simple, effecitve, low maintenance, attraciteve, easy to use.
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Perhaps, but again onfirst glance this would not qualify for us. Interface is too large and imposing, and there are still quite a few optoins on the interface.
The one I said before I like because it is quite discrete.
thre preset messages actually make it look more complicated.
The one I said before I like because it is quite discrete.
thre preset messages actually make it look more complicated.
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Looks good on first glance. Seems to have more features and is cheaper.
Download.com reviews not particularly good
http://www.download.com/Outlook-Messenger/3000-2150_4-10345943.html?tag=lst-1
but will consider it if this trial fails.
Download.com reviews not particularly good
http://www.download.com/Outlook-Messenger/3000-2150_4-10345943.html?tag=lst-1
but will consider it if this trial fails.
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All useful suggestions. In the end I went for one I found (http://messenger.softros.com/) and this seemed to perform OK (not as feature rich as others) during the trial. Lan talk was another contended but decided that it had a bit of an overloaded interface for the simple needs we had.
Thanks for all input
Thanks for all input
Yahoo and MSN are free, but are publicly available, so can be a security concern when communicating within your org.
and then there is always the net send type of service built in...