We have just wrapped up a major study of the instant messaging, real-time communications and presence market. The goal of this study is to understand how real-time communications technologies, such as instant messaging and Web conferencing, are used by midsized and North American organizations.

We asked organizations that have not deployed enterprise instant messaging as a pilot or in production why they have not done so. The most commonly cited reason is that no one has yet made a sufficiently strong business case for enterprise instant messaging – nearly one-half of decision makers indicated this as a reason for not yet deploying the technology.

Another important reason for not deploying enterprise instant messaging is that about 30% of decision makers feel that consumer instant messaging clients – which are used in the vast majority of organizations – meet organizational requirements for real-time communications. One-quarter of decision makers feel that the instant messaging tools that are supplied with e-mail and/or desktop operating systems meet their needs for real-time communications.

There are two important implications of these findings. First, providers of enterprise instant messaging, real-time communications and Web conferencing systems need to make a more compelling case for decision makers to consider adopting these technologies. It will include providing ROI models, case studies and other evidence that demonstrates that real-time communications can reduce some business travel and that it can make employees more productive and efficient. Many decision makers simply have not been presented with this type of information.

Second, organizations that are relying on consumer instant messaging or similar tools that lack enterprise-grade features are not providing the level of security or compliance-readiness that they need. This exposes them to a variety of potential security threats, such as instant messaging-borne malware, and it increases the risk of data loss or not being able to comply with data retention requirements.

The onus, therefore, is on both vendors and corporate decision makers to seek each other out to determine how needs can best be met and risks minimized. (Compare Messaging products)

Michael Osterman is principal analyst of Osterman Research.