Iit's likely that every individual in your organization has a phone, maybe more than one. They also probably have access to e-mail, possibly more than one account.

We spend more time per employee "communicating" than our society ever has; yet do any of us really feel that the message is getting through?

As the Cowardly Lion may have put it, "There is one thing I need that I don't have — presence." What is presence? Webopedia.com defines it as "the ability to detect whether other users are online and whether they are available."

Wouldn't it be nice to know that the person you are trying to call was sitting at their desk and available to take your call before you bother placing it? How many times do people in your organization play "telephone tag" trying to get an answer to a critical question? Presence just may be the magic elixir that your business needs to increase productivity and improve customer service.

The most prevalent client application that uses presence is instant messaging (IM). Instant messaging in the workplace is here, and it's growing by leaps and bounds. Predictions are that it will touch virtually every business and numerous business processes in coming years.

Based on research from earlier this year, Osterman Research sees the IM landscape evolving from a relatively small arena, in which just over a quarter (26 percent) of business users are on IM, to a far larger market, to 92 percent of workers using IM in 2007. In spite of the fact that a minority currently uses instant messaging, the firm found that IM already is in use at 91 percent of businesses. The implication is that IM is in use and your corporate IT staffs have little, if anything, to do with it.

If these numbers are right, corporate America will need to take steps to manage instant messaging use in the workplace — at the least, developing policies and procedures governing IM. At best, businesses can tap IM technology to improve communications and business processes — turning a potential liability into a productivity-enhancer and bottom-line-improver.

Osterman added, "We don't think [the future IM market] is going to be dramatically dissimilar to the e-mail market. Microsoft and Lotus each control about 40 percent of the market, with Novell and the rest making up the remaining 20 percent. You'll see probably the same trends in the IM space."

Activities would say that the future is now. A presence-aware, supply-chain management portal could accelerate communications and ultimately increase the pace of decision-making. If a distributor's parts supply was reaching a critical level, the person or automated system would need to place an order for additional parts. What if the parts supplier had a new model available or a shortage of the parts the distributor seeks? The person placing the request would need to review technical specifications and perhaps see the new or replacement part before ordering a different item. Having presence embedded into the order system would provide virtual customer assistance or sales support.

"In 2003, we will see the first workflow applications that leverage presence awareness and even more applications that will react in some way to online awareness," said Jeremy Dies, senior offerings manager for presence and IM at IBM's Lotus Software.

So, do you have the "presence" to examine your present usage of IM and determine if you are getting the most out of this technology? You can choose to use it to increase productivity, improve your customer service, and distance yourself from your competition. Or, you can allow it to be just a means for your employees to "chat" with their friends and family.

Ross Elliott is vice president of operations of NxTrend Technology, Inc., a supplier of enterprise commerce management solutions.