Company IM Practices

General Discussion
1

We are a small company and are planning to start having our employees use IM in the office as another way of communicating.

I found Wildfire / Spark and got an internal system up running quickly and easily!

Before we introduce this to all the employees, I’‘m doing some research "Do and Don’'t" tips when using IM inside a company and would love to hear ideas if anyone has any?

Here are some ideas I’'ve found online that I like:

  1. Load the client when you?re online and working. Collaborative software doesn?t work if everyone doesn?t use it.

  2. Use the Status features of your client: Available, Busy, In a Meeting, On the Phone, etc.

  3. If ?available,? reply promptly (recommend 2-10 minutes, depending on your business).

  4. It?s okay to say ?I?ll reply later? or ?Sorry, not now.?

  5. If you leave a message, and someone becomes ?busy? without responding, and you get your question answered, reply ?never mind?

  6. If you have more than a simple request (?is the document you sent final??), ?knock? by saying ?got a minute?? or something similar.

  7. Don?t use IM to replace email. If you need to include more than a line of text, use email.

  8. Don?t use email to replace IM. If it?s a quick question (?ready for lunch??), don?t clog up their Inbox.

  9. Don?t be too chatty. If a conversation is taking more than a few responses back and forth, pick up the phone.

  10. Don?t be afraid to end the conversation if you got your answer. ?Instant? messaging should be quick in and quick out.

  11. It?s good to end the conversation with ?bye? or ?cya? or whatever you choose.

2

Do

  1. Must fill your complete personal details after first login.

  2. If you are logging out early then do “Logout with the reason” (in Spark client)

  3. When prompted employee has to upgrade it’'s IM client. Upgradation steps will be provided in the form of Document. OR notifications will be sent on IM your client for the same.

Don’'ts

  1. Do not send files/documents using IM client. You must share the files to your share folders.

Regards,

Jitendra

3

@Do

  1. pull the vCard from LDAP, if the company is big no one can control what users do enter.

  2. hu?, “gone home” is as needless as “offline”

  3. n/a for big companies

@ Don’'t 1. Extend the file transfer protocol so it can detect network drives on both clients and transmit the link instead the file using drag-n-drop.

LG

4

Great. Will have to translate this examples and send to our employes. If i’'ll come up with something else will post it here.

5

Elo,

Dont send files docs using IM? Why? We do all the time! Just make sure SSL only is enabled on the server.

Don’‘ts - One we’'ve found is not to use it 24/7 instead of picking up the phone! Can decrease productivity if engagued in a ‘‘lively’’ discussion as messages get out of sync - i.e. one persons typin before another has finished.

Do - Use it for group chat / conferences as it saves a fortune on the phone bill.

I.

6

I’‘m writing some rules for our company now. So, the one that’'s important for me:

Describe your problem biefly when writing to your IT staff. Don’'t just send “Can you please come to me?”.

Really annoying, especially when most of the problems are solved remotely or by the phone or are not IT problems at all

7

Hi Oleg,

so funny your post. How can I avoid to reply?

This ‘‘Don’‘t just send’’ sentence reminds me of a Two Live Crew song. But I’'m quite sure that the text was not “come to me” eg

LG