Instant messaging (IM) has increasingly become a more important topic of conversation for businesses who want to give their customers a wider, "omnichannel" experience. IM has appeared in everything from internal communication tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Cisco Spark, to external solutions for communication like WhatsApp Business in recent months.
In the instant messaging world, Federated XMPP is the protocol that UC vendors are using to deliver real-time chat and instant messaging to their employees and customers. I spoke to Alex Rogers, the Development Director at Mondago and a participant at the recent XMPP summit, to find out his thoughts about the transformation of the IM landscape.
Introducing Alex Rogers
Alex Rogers is the Development Director at Mondago, a Unified Communications software company traditionally focused on CRM and database-driven applications. Using standards-based components, Mondago has been able to minimise their time-to-market and support costs, while giving customers more access to a wider range of telephony options.
Alex told me that during his time with Mondago, the business has frequently seen requests for "instant messaging" functionality.
"From the start, customers wanted us to add simple chat to our telephony clients, and now it seems that trends are going back in this direction. More people want a system that can offer telephony and IM in one, hence the rise of the UC vendor."
Rogers noted that several UC vendors have delivered the combined instant messaging and telephony solution in a proprietary way, like Avaya, Unify, and Skype for Business. However, while the systems allow people to communicate with their colleagues through instant messaging, the ability to reach out to suppliers and other people outside their company is restricted. "There really is some unrealised potential here. It should be possible to communicate with anyone, even if they're not part of your company."
What's Stopping the Adoption of Universal Instant Messaging?
The growth of UC as a communication strategy has brought real-time connectivity to the table. Instant messaging moves beyond email, because it allows users to see messages instantly, and even recognise the "presence" of people who are online. As generations are changing, millennials and younger consumers are looking for these faster, more agile options for communication, but there's still some reluctance from vendors to replace the traditional email client.
Alex told me:
"I think there are three primary modes of communication right now. On one end of the spectrum, you have voice, which people use when they want an answer to a problem immediately. On the other end, there's email, which people can pick up, open, and respond to at a time that suits them. Instant messaging is somewhere in between, and it's a middle ground that more users are starting to adopt."
What is the XMPP Summit?
Like many complicated topics in the Unified Communications sphere, the concept of XMPP has its own event where people can come together and discuss the rise and progress of the technology. According to Alex, without the forum that exists around this event, we wouldn't see anywhere near as much annual progress in the IM world.
Rogers said that while you can phone a company and be connected instantly to the right person or email the business and get a response from the right agent, IM hasn't yet evolved to that stage. One of the topics covered by the XMPP forum is how IM can be extended to create a more useful person-to-person connection in the business world.
