Dawning of the Instant Messaging Era

Simple and successful, IM built with grown-up pursuits in mind is taking hold as a business tool. As packaged by one ASP, it can become a potent weapon in the ISP's business-building arsenal.

by Gerry Blackwell

You might think of instant messaging (IM) as mainly the province of teenagers and twenty-somethings who hang out on the Net and want to keep in touch with their buddies by typing messages back and forth.

But companies like Bantu Inc., developer of a Web-based IM product/service it's hoping to distribute via ISPs, believe IM and the related functionality of presence management have much wider applications, especially in the business market.

Coming of age
There is evidence to suggest corporate America is beginning to adopt IM as a critical communications tool.

"We can tell you, based on reports from analysts and market researchers—and our own anecdotal experience in the market—that IM is already here to some extent and it's coming in a huge way," says Bantu president and CEO Larry Schlang.

The company quotes one Forrester Research Inc. report in which 36 percent of executives of Fortune 1,000 companies said their firms used IM for work collaboration. The number was expected to grow to 46 percent next year.

Another company, Ferris Research predicts that 175 million people will be using IM by 2002—though obviously only a small percentage of them business uers. That's up from the estimated 80 million-plus today.

Still other uncredited research purportedly shows that IT executives polled about products and services they needed ranked business-grade IM in the number four spot.

How will businesses use IM?
Web-centric distributed work groups can use it to virtually "talk over the divider" on an ad-hoc basis. Bantu Messaging allows them to open private chat rooms as well where they can hold virtual meetings.

Bantu will soon add a file sharing capability. And third-party service providers may offer compatible or integrated white-boarding applications that let chat participants interactively view and edit documents.

The Bantu product also lets subscribers detect the presence of subscribers to other IM services, send them messages, and invite them into private chats.

The dharma of interoperability
The Bantu IM protocols were designed to easily interoperate with others. Right now when users log onto Bantu, they also automatically log on to and establish channels to Yahoo! Messaging, ICQ, and Microsoft's MSN Messaging.

The company claims its product interworks with more third-party IM systems than any other. And it will forge links with other IMs in the future.

Bantu can even detect registered users who are not logged onto the service. Logged-in users can see them, for example, if they appear in an ISP's directory or on a message board. They can send messages to them or invite them into chats.

Broad interoperability is just one of the features Bantu says differentiates it in the already crowded IM marketplace and makes it a superior solution for businesses.

The company went after the business market right from the start, says Schlang. And corporate customers made it clear they wanted some things that consumer-oriented IM products did not have.

Thin is in
First, Bantu Messaging works on a thin client or server model. Users don't have to download or install a program. All the functionality resides on the server - either the customer's or Bantu's. The user only needs a browser.

This was a key requirement for one of the company's first major business customers, Texas Instruments.

"TI was absolutely set on a thin client product," Schlang says. "They had no interest at all in installing and upgrading a piece of software on 40,000 desktops."

Plus, the server-based model means Bantu Messaging is a cross-platform solution - another crucial requirement for TI, which has a sizeable Unix constituency.

Secure and adaptable
Bantu claims it also has superior security, including a patent-pending encryption system that encrypts data streams in both directions.

And its product is easier to integrate with existing security and other infrastructure systems. This was a key capability for Bantu's charter ISP customer, OneMain.com, a regional ISP headquartered in Reston Va.

By making APIs (application program interfaces) available for its product, Bantu made it easy for ISPs like OneMain to seamlessly integrate IM into their existing server infrastructure, Schlang says.

It means, for example, that users already logged into the OneMain portal, are automatically logged into Bantu and don't have to go through a second log-in procedure.

The profit pitch
Bantu is offering Bantu Messaging to ISPs as a hosted ASP service. What's in it for ISPs?

First off, they can sell the service to business customers, or include it in service bundles.

Bantu says it is on the point of announcing its first national ISP customer - and part of that customer's business plan is to generate direct revenue from Bantu Messaging.

There is also an opportunity to generate revenue through banner advertising on program pop-ups.

On the soft benefits side, Schlang claims IM provides a service that business-to-business ISPs' customers want and need. And it can be provisioned very quickly, giving the ISP a critical speed-to-market advantage.

And, of course, like every other application service offered to ISPs, it increases "stickiness."

Bantu means this in two ways. Subscribers will supposedly stick with you in order to retain access to this value-added branded service.

And because of the thin-client, Web-based architecture, users themselves will be sticky in the sense that ISPs will get Mediametrix data on their acitivity wherever they surf, as long as they remain logged into the service.

Double-edged sword
Bantu also has research that shows the product increases user online time. Bantu Messaging users use the service on average 70 minutes a day—that's logged-in time, not necessarily time spent messaging.

This has a few implications, Schlang says. First, it increases revenue for ISPs with usage sensitive pricing models. It gives ISPs useful data to help sell advertising. And it gives them opportunities to "deepen the relationship" and possibly cross-sell or up-sell.

Of course, if you offer it to customers who are on an all-you-can-eat pricing plan, longer connect times simply add to the cost side of the ledger.

Low-to-no entry barrier
Bantu makes using the service very simple for ISPs. It hosts Bantu Messaging on its servers and customizes pop-up windows and other application components to reflect the ISP's or portal's brand.

There are no infrastructure costs, Schlang says. The ISP pays usage fees based on number of users or time spent using the system. He's a little vague about details.

"What I can tell you is that the fee is dependent on the volume of activity. We have a sliding scale. For small businesses, it's one set of numbers. For large companies it's another. We work hard to make it fit our customer's business model."

Stay tuned for more
Messaging is just the first application from Bantu. The company is working towards an IM-powered unified messaging service at some point in the future, although Schlang won't say when or provide any more detail.

Bantu is by no means the only IM game in town and its interoperability advantage may not last long. IM service/ product vendors, including Bantu, recently formed IM Unified to develop a universal IM protocol.

Check out the members list at the IM Unified site for leads to other potential IM service/product providers.

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