Any recommended instant messenger for business?

We would like to implement an instant messaging solution for all the computers in the office. We have been looking for a program that would work for us communicating with each other, but would not allow people to talk to friends, etc in other places. However, we also want to be able to communicate with a couple of remote retail locations via the IM software.

Is there a good program that allows for LAN messaging while also allowing for connection from specific locations? Currently I'm evaluating BigAnt office messenger, any suggestions based on your experience, thank you.

Microsoft Lync (although I haven't verified all your requirements)

+1 for Lync, especially if you run other MS office tools like Exchange/Sharepoint

9 hours ago,olivialeil wrote

We would like to implement an instant messaging solution for all the computers in the office. We have been looking for a program that would work for us communicating with each other, but would not allow people to talk to friends, etc in other places. However, we also want to be able to communicate with a couple of remote retail locations via the IM software.

Is there a good program that allows for LAN messaging while also allowing for connection from specific locations? Currently I'm evaluatingBigAnt office messenger, any suggestions based on your experience, thank you.

If you want something really awful, but gets the job done, try MSN Messenger 1.0 combined with my MSN Messenger server: http://pinkegobox.codeplex.com.

It's great for your case because it's simple, and the ancient client cannot be used with any service, event the current one (they stopped using 1.0 of the client back in 1999). Let me know how it works for you

I would just use MSN since you can talk to MSN and Yahoo people .

@magicalclick: Except keeping people from talking to friends on MSN was one of the criteria.

Not that you can stop people from doing that anyway.

A place I used to work for just used Skype for everything, although that's a bit heavy if you want just IM.

Pidgin and some kind of XMPP/Jabber server.

1 minute ago,Bass wrote

Pidgin and some kind of XMPP/Jabber server.

Pidgin doesn't support any Group Policy rule to stop it from adding connections to external networks like GTalk. You need a client you can lock-down.

That's what firewalls are for.

3 hours ago,W3bbo wrote

*snip*

If you want something really awful, but gets the job done, try MSN Messenger 1.0 combined with my MSN Messenger server:http://pinkegobox.codeplex.com.

Having tried it, I'd second W3bbo's solution. You can extend it to allow for connection other locations.

48 minutes ago,MasterPie wrote

*snip*

Having tried it, I'd second W3bbo's solution. You can extend it to allow for connection other locations.

I mentioned it as a joke, but I do plan on releasing a more polished version eventually.

@kettch:

Oh yeah. How does Office365 works? I think we need exactly the same MSN capability, but the users cannot add the contacts directly, only administrator or managers can do it. We use MSN or Skype contacting to external contractors / suppliers, so using either software is required, in addition to extra administration management..

@magicalclick: Office 365 uses Lync which supports federating with other IM services (AFAIK it does a better job than Live Messenger ). I don't know if you can specifically restrict what contacts people can connect with.

@W3bbo: Whilst simple might be good, I am willing to bet that your business will require additional functionality, just have a look at the overview http://lync.microsoft.com/en-gb/product/pages/capability-overview.aspx

I was under the misapprehension that this was free, but will cost £500 for a server license so you have a nice problem in so many options. Channel 9 also has some Lync videos so be sure to have a look

4 hours ago,vesuvius wrote

@W3bbo: Whilst simple might be good, I am willing to bet that your business will require additional functionality, just have a look at the overview http://lync.microsoft.com/en-gb/product/pages/capability-overview.aspx

Hmmm, going by the criteria listed on Microsoft's own page:

• Price
  • Lync: £500+
  • PinkEgoBox: Free
• Instant Messaging and Presence
  • Lync: Yep
  • PinkEgoBox: Yep
• Audio/Video Conferencing
  • Lync: Yep
  • PinkEgoBox: Yep, but only after support for MSNP8 is in there so version 6 of the client will work, which had support for voice and video chat. It will work perfectly on LANs because clients can connect directly to each other using high-bandwidth links rather than going through the Switchboard which is how it worked in the past to get around NAT
• Mobility
  • Lync: Requires specialist clients which aren't available yet (the official WP7, iOS, and Android clients aren't available yet)
  • PinkEgoBox: Yes, use existing MSNP clients (but you'll need to hack your device's HOSTS file, you'll need to jailbreak your iOS device for this)
• Enterprise Voice:
  • Lync: Yep
  • PinkEgoBox: Afraid not.
• Platform Extensibility:
  • Lync: Extension points
  • PinkEgoBox: It's GPL
• Public IM Connectivity:
  • Lync: Federation costs $$$
  • PinkEgoBox: If you hack it in sure (actually, PinkEgoBox was started as a project to create a proxy server for Messenger) but for the OP's situation this lack of a feature is an advantage as it's internal-only
• Management:
  • Lync: Group Policy etc.
  • PinkEgoBox: The server is fully managable, but there's no GPO for the clients, not that there's much to manage really

I think, all things considered, PinkEgoBox actually presents a credible solution to the problem, except for the fact it's currently under-developed.

Wow, Lync is expensive. Server license plus CALs for every user? For the enterprise version at my company, assuming every employee gets a CAL, it would cost over $130,000. That's a lot of money for instant messaging.

Advantages of XMPP (aka Jabber)

• A industry supported, open standards based messaging platform (no locking yourself into one vendor)
• Wide variety of XMPP clients and servers for every major PC platform (eg: Linux, Mac OS X, Windows), in addition to most major mobile and smartphone platforms
• Many free options for clients and servers, with many Enterprise-friendly features available

XMPP servers:

http://xmpp.org/xmpp-software/servers/

XMPP clients:

http://xmpp.org/xmpp-software/clients/

Cd Messenger is a prfect office tool for internal office communication. It is a simple and secure messenger with the facilities like instant messaging, sticky notes on move, to-do list, event reminder, notice board, conferencing, group discussion and many more.

http://www.cdmessenger.com