And, is there an "in between" position?

Houston, Texas-based IM-Age Software Inc., an enterprise IM (EIM) security provider, wants to help those groups determine what their stand should be on public IM. To that end, it will tomorrow release a white paper to guide them through the decision process.

While enterprises are deciding their position on public IM, IM-Age will also make available tomorrow (Tuesday, 10/15) a software tool that can help their IT departments altogether restrict access to public IM on their networks.

Every company fits into one of three phases for IM deployment, said IM-Age Software CEO David Pulaski, in an interview. "They want to deny all users access to IM; or they want to find a way to allow all users to have managed access to IM, and by managed access I mean secure, corporate management ... Finally -- this is where I see most customers today -- they're looking for a hybrid approach."

With that in mind, the IM-Age white paper, Securing Public Instant Messaging in the Workplace, will not only help enterprises determine where they are now, but what they should do about their current situation. "And then it'll start to look toward the future as to how people can use this technology in a safe and secure way to get to the point where they finally realize that there is true benefit with instant-messaging technology," Pulaski said.

A company or other enterprise will not necessarily be in one of the three phases forever, "but from an enterprise deployment, it generally goes from phase one to two to three," he said.

Gradually moving IM into the enterprise will be good for the overall EIM market, Pulaski said. "As these small business units' usage of IM are deemed safe, that's when I think you're going to see the real IM explosion from a security and management point of view."

In the meantime, "Most companies we've talked to want to deny most users access to public instant messengers until they can figure out how to deal with them," Pulaski said. That's a position both he and his company agree with, so IM-Age is offering the free IM-Policy Manager, Restriction License. "We don't believe that people should have to pay to restrict IM usage. Where want to get paid, and where we see our value, is in managing the users who you wish to use instant messaging."

The downloadable, stand-alone software works with an enterprise's policy on IM. If the policy is to restrict employees from using IM or certain instant messengers, the software immediately notifies the IT administrator of the violation. The software then gives the IT admin the option of keeping the violation from occurring by shutting down the IM session before anything is sent out.

What's more, the software can detect both desktop-based IM applications and the Java-based IM clients, he said.

"The idea here is, `what good is policy if you can't enforce it?' And we're going to give people a very easy, simple and free way to shut down instant messaging, and therefore gain control of where they are today, and then look toward tomorrow as to how they see themselves using instant messaging," he said.

The software does not do any data capture, and does not provide encryption, authentication or other features that are usually in EIM systems, including IM-Age's products. While the software is a desktop executable, the alerting mechanism works in the ASP (application service provider) style.

The new tool doesn't shut down IM at the firewall, though, because 10 percent to 20 percent of employees at most companies still need to use IM and the public IM networks, Pulaski said. "By shutting down at the firewall, you're limiting their ability. This gives people the ability to deal with today's problem, but still restrict access in a very easy way for users who don't have a business need to access IM."

Both the software and the white paper will be available at the company's Web site on Tuesday, Pulaski added.

Bob Woods is the managing editor of InstantMessagingPlanet.