Recently my wife and I became "empty nesters" and I have been reflecting on some of the neat things my kids brought into our home besides their youthful exuberance. A couple of things that they forced into our homes were MP3's and iTunes, the Social Media craze and phone texting. With some reluctance I accepted these and now many years later I gladly embrace them. My wife connects with my sons overseas through Facebook regularly, we have our iPod piped into our sound system in the TV room and I text daily with my daughter. Now the benefits are obvious from a personal perspective, but what about in a business environment.
Texting, email and chatting have become common place at our offices. I am really pondering the use or restrictions of these communications in my office. I think for some, it has begun to affect productivity. How can I chat with staff and keep them from abusing this privilege? We liked the internet chat options, but weren't satisfied since it did not track history and was open to the internet. Nothing existed on the market so our development department at Office Tools Professional came up with the office messenger. It allows myself and staff interaction without opening another chat system that uses the internet. This way we can cut out unnecessary personal chatting and still have a connection inside the office. It also provides a very secure way to communicate.
Here are some guidelines when using interoffice chat.
- Don't use internet messengers
- Use a firewall to restrict use
- Pick a messenger that keeps history
- Don't use email for messaging
- Use texting for those out of the office.
