Improving Internal Communications and Employee Efficiency Through the Use of Enterprise Instant Messaging Services
Table of Contents
Executive Summary3
Business Justification for Instant Messaging4
Opportunities and Downsides5
Proposed Solution and Recommendations8
Comparative Analysis of Available Options in the Market8
Recommended Option and Cost9
Implementation Plan and Cost10
Executive Summary
At I-Accelerate Technologies, we have been using email as the preferred medium of internal communications ever since the inception of the firm in 2002. The email had been our trusted messaging partner throughout the growth story of our software services organization. It had been an immensely effective tool when we were a small firm of 50 employees operating from a single-floor office in Chicago.
Today, we are a team of more than 5000 professionals working from multiple locations across North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific. Our teams are truly global and work virtually, with different roles strategically located in select geographies to optimize operating costs while providing the services committed to clients. In such a scenario, collaboration is a functional imperative and implementation of faster communication channels is the need of the hour to help us improve efficiencies and retain our competitive edge.
Business Justification for Instant Messaging
In any software development project that we undertake today, almost 90% of our human capital are located in cross-geographic locations. While the sales and transition teams along with the technical architects are located at onsite client locations, the entire development team would be located either in our development centers in Europe or the Asia-Pacific.
Because of a dispersed team, we experience significant delays in exchanging information, and sharing of up-to-the-minute updates among the sales, transition, technical architects and development teams. In the project implementation stage, the technical architects and development teams need to interact very frequently to discuss the work-in-progress product. Email is a significant bottleneck at this stage as it does not facilitate instant communication – this accounts for almost 80% of the delays occurring in project timelines.
There is a strong need to open up channels that help instant communication to avoid delays in project implementation. Instant messaging is the most potent solution to overcome the challenges and barriers in communication.
Opportunities and Downsides
The following section outlines some of the key benefits and potential drawbacks of enterprise instant messaging services.
Opportunities
Possible Downsides
Saves Time and Improves Productivity
Improves Efficiency in Communication
Improves Client Experience
Saves Cost
Less Intrusive than Telephone
Possible Loss in Productivity Due to Gossip
Opportunities
Saves Time and Improves Productivity
Instant messaging enables quicker and more efficient communication than email because it allows messages to appear immediately. Employee productivity is increased due to the elimination of time wasted in the transition, for example, sending an email and waiting for the recipients to respond, making a telephone call to someone and then leaving a voice mail when there is no response, walking up to a colleague located in the same office only to find that they are in a meeting or not around and so on. It also enables efficiency when one needs to connect with a peer instantly to clarify …
