Internal Communications: Improvement through Instant Messaging
Megan Appleby
University of Houston-Downtown

Table of Contents
Title Page…………………………………………………………………………………………1
Table of Contents……………………………...………………………………………………….2
Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………………3
Body….………………………………………………………………………………………....4-8
Tables..……………………………………………………………………………………………9
References……………………………………………………………………………………….10

Executive Summary

Appleby Consulting is in need of more timely communications. Management suggests that the company participate in instant messaging to get quicker responses to time-sensitive projects or tasks. Appleby Consulting will be offering online courses to familiarize employees with the basics of instant messaging. The company will be deciding which instant messaging platform to use. This is to ensure that there are less interruptions, speedy feedback, and higher productivity. Seeing that Appleby Consulting has 35 employees to become users of this platform, it will involve more expenses, but these expenses will be balanced out by the increased productivity that will take place due instant messaging’s capabilities in the office. The options include HipChat, Campfire, and Brosix. The company will be looking into costs associated, the amount of user-friendly content, and the compatibility with company-used internet domains. There are numerous pros and also numerous cons that are accompanied with instant messaging. However, the pros far outweigh the cons.

Should Appleby Consulting Take Part in Instant Messaging?

Appleby Consulting has always used email to communicate through the office among colleagues. This form of internal communication has proved to work well with our needs. Our ever-changing society is demanding of businesses in terms of technology. Our office needs to be able to communicate in a more time efficient manner that is also easy to use for everyone. Email is holding our internal communications back with slow response times and interruptive ways. Our office is going to experiment with instant messaging. This will save us time in responding in a timely manner to time sensitive matters. Instant Messaging can improve upon our communication. Messages will appear on the screens immediately rather than later like with email. This will keep employees in continuous contact with one another. This also helps when management supervisors travel. The instant messages will appear instantaneously on their screen even from miles away. This keeps them in the know on what is occurring in the office while away. Face-to-face conversations, phone calls, email are methods of communication that are disruptive to the business process. Instant messaging allows access to fast communications while not being interruptive. Employees can respond to messages and then immediately return back to their work. In addition, when there is a customer in the office needing something, the employee can message management to get instant feedback. Therefore, instant messaging improves customer service in terms of rapid responses. When a company has more than one office across borders, it is easy to communicate using instant message instead of traveling to the other office. It is cost effective to the company. Instant messaging helps with meetings, presentations, editing documents, and applications. Adding instant messaging to our facility will improve our productivity and help to develop our systems to advance at the same speed as the technological world. In addition to the incentives brought about from instant messaging, it can also have its drawbacks. Managers who are utilizing instant messaging notice the amount of messages they receive that are of no importance and should not have been sent through instant messaging. Instant messaging demands the employee’s immediate attention since they pop up on the screen as soon as the sender sends it (Maher). There is the risk of inappropriate use of instant messaging when used in the work place. Most businesses that use Instant message will put restrictions on its use such as business matters only or time sensitive matters only. This keeps the company from experiencing any wrongful uses of it and keeps distractions from the notifications to a minimum. The first company that we should consider is Brosix. The platform offers basic features such as chatrooms, text messaging, broadcast messages, and also offline messaging quickly and easily. They allow voice and video messaging, history of chats, as well as file transferring. We will have our own private network branded with the company logo. This platform contains a business level instant messaging system which has high security features and contains no ads. They allow browsing simultaneously with colleagues as well as drawing capabilities called Whiteboard with screenshot. Automatic features include spell check, updates, screen sharing, and constant user statuses. It offers an anti-virus system and specialized support and installation for corporate offices. There are three options including basic which is free, pro which is $1.70 per user per month, and ultimate which is $2.40 per user per month. To fully get the use out of the platform for our business needs, we would be going with pro option. This option includes all of the features we would utilize on a daily basis and much more. This option is going to cost $1.70 per user per month. With 35 total users, this will cost our company $59.50 monthly or $714 annually. Brosix has great qualities. Brosix has many positive reviews. Brosix is sure to keep the truthfulness of users on its network. They allow for the use of business activities and only those activities. Management is able to watch over chats that are occurring through an administrative console. The platform does not display any ads which develops less confusions among users. They use top of the line encryptions so there is constant security to ensure data and information remains within the business parameters. It is completely user friendly and it is set up, ready to go when you purchase and download it. Brosix is allowing companies to try it out with a free 30-day trial before committing to the platform for all future use. Second, HipChat is another alternative for our company. They offer secure and private communications. There can be guests added to any chat allowing the inviter to control what that guest can and cannot view on their screen. Screen sharing is allowed to share information between screens with users. They allow for file sharing to everyone in the chat room. There can be an unlimited amount of chat rooms going on at one time. The platform is customizable to allow for notifications if needed. In the chat rooms, a user can search by keywords to find information quickly. HipChat allows for the user to use the platform on many devices without information being lost or erased. They have two options: there is a basic plan that is free with limited access to features and there is a plus plan that is $2 per user per month with full access to all features. We have 35 users so this instant messaging platform will cost the company $70 per month or $840 per year. HipChat is user friendly and has a simple interface. HipChat is backed by a major company called Atlassian which proves their credibility and promising reputation. The instant messaging works on multiple devices. The downsides of HipChat include the cost if the business has a big employee base. A few users have reported lag when using the platform. Other than these, HipChat is a great source for instant messaging in a business setting. They also offer a 30-day free trial to let the company test it out before fully committing to it just in case we decide we do not like the platform. The final contender is Campfire. They offer safe, secure, and private messaging among colleagues in chat rooms. This platform is a form of instant messaging that is capable of more users at one time. Campfire is compatible with multiple devices and does not require anything to install as it is web-based. Campfire consists of five options for users. Each option has enhance security for chatting. The first option is free for 4 chatters with 10 MB of storage. The second option is called the Basic Plan which costs $12 per month for 12 chatters with 1 GB of storage and no conference calls. The Basic Plan is ideal for small groups. The third option is called the Plus Plan which costs $24 per month for 25 chatters with 3 GB of storage and 500 conference call minutes. The Plus Plan is the best value. The fourth option is called the Premium Plan which costs $49 per month for 60 chatters with 10 GB of storage and 750 conference call minutes. The Premium Plan is best for big groups. The fifth option is called the Max Plan which costs $99 per month for 100 users with 25 GB of storage and 1,000 conference call minutes. The Max Plan is the top of the line plan. Campfire also offers a free 30-day trial to try it out before buying it for the company to use for months to come. Appleby Consulting would be using the fourth option which is the Premium Plan. This is the plan that is well-suited for our amount of employees and it the least costly for us. It will cost the company $49 per month or $588 per year. Campfire is definitely an option for us to use. All three options that were researched and considered are contenders for our company, Appleby Consulting. This is a difficult decision as we do not know which one will work best for our needs and our customer’s needs. With whichever option we go with, there will be a free 30-day trial for us to try it out. If the first option does not go well, then we go with the next best option, and then if that one fails to meet our needs, then we go with our last resort. This gives us 30 days to decide whether we like the company from our initial decision or not. In retrospect, all of the companies offered similar features for us to use. However, there is one that stands out as the most feasible option for our business needs. Brosix is our first choice. It allows for unlimited access to all their features in the Pro Plan which is the option we will be going with. It costs more than Campfire, but less than HipChat. It will cost the company $59.50 monthly or $714 annually. This plan will allow us to utilize all their features that will meet our needs on a daily basis within the company’s budget set aside for this. Instant messaging is becoming completely necessary in today’s fast-paced, technologically advanced society. Email is faltering into a thing of the past since it is slow and not as user friendly as it used to be when it was first invented. Instant messaging allows for fast responses and easy use compatible with any internet browser. Instant messaging will advance our consulting services when dealing with clients in time-sensitive matters. Appleby Consulting will be switching over to instant messaging with the use of Brosix in the next month.

Email: Pros | Cons | Common and Universal | Slow | Large Group Messages | Spam and Ads | Record of Messages | Hidden Viruses | When Thought Out Responses Needed | Confusing | Effective Greeting of New People | Delayed Responses |

Instant Messaging: Pros | Cons | Conversational and Personal | Intrusive with On Screen Notifications | Immediate Feedback | Too Fast to Keep Up With | Instant Sharing of Files | Requires Sign-Ins After Time Limit | Simplicity | Exclusive | Ability to Multitask | No Records of Conversations | Converse in Different Locations | Secure |

References
Atlassian. (n.d.). HipChat - Private group chat, video chat, instant messaging for teams |
HipChat. Retrieved April 14, 2016, from https://www.hipchat.com/
Broida, R. (2012, October 11). Group Chat Showdown: Which Instant Messaging Service Is Best for Your Business? Retrieved April 14, 2016, from http://www.pcworld.com/article/2011486/group-chat-showdown-which-instant-messaging-service-is-best-for-your-business.html
Brosix, Inc. (n.d.). Home - BROSIX. Retrieved April 14, 2016, from http://www.brosix.com/
Campfire. (n.d.). Team collaboration with real time chat. Retrieved April 14, 2016, from https://campfirenow.com/ Maher, K. (2004, October 5). The Dangers of Using Instant Messaging at Work. Retrieved April
14, 2016, from http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB109692934259135827
Scott, S. (n.d.). The Pros of Using IM in the Workplace. Retrieved April 14, 2016, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/pros-using-im-workplace-10534.html ShareMe. (2007, June 27). Chat & Instant Messaging - Brosix Corporate Instant Messenger –
Brosix. Retrieved April 14, 2016, from http://shareme.com/details/brosix-corporate-instant-messenger.html