PeopleSoft Adds AIM To Its AppsPeopleSoft Adds AIM To Its Apps

Instant messaging got another enterprise kick Tuesday, thanks to a deal between enterprise applications vendor PeopleSoft Inc. and America Online. PeopleSoft has integrated AOL's Enterprise AIM Services with its suite of enterprise apps.

The integration is designed to let PeopleSoft customers exchange instant messages while working within the PeopleSoft application and portal frameworks. That means, for example, that participants using a supply-chain app can communicate in real time without having to exit the application environment.

Enterprise AIM Services, AOL's first business-class instant-messaging service, gives companies greater control over their employees' IM usage. The service controls access, routing, and permission, and provides logging, auditing, and reporting capabilities. Enterprise AIM Services is supported by the world's largest instant-messaging network from America Online, which delivers more than a billion instant messages a day, according to AOL.

Instant messaging continues to gain traction among business users. Osterman Research predicts that the percentage of employees who use IM at companies where it has taken hold will rise from less than 20% now to more than 90% by 2007.

According to the Yankee Group, there are more than 25 million business IM users in the United States, but most of them are what the research firm calls "stealth IMers" who use public networks such as MSN, Yahoo, and AOL without the knowledge of the IT department.

AIM is integrated into PeopleSoft's Pure Internet Architecture supporting all systems, including AppConnect, Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise Performance Management, Enterprise Service Automation, Financial Management Solutions, Human Capital Management, Supplier Relationship Management, and Supply Chain Management. Instant-messaging capabilities from AOL are available in PeopleTools 8.43, which is shipping now.