Open Text™ Corporation today announced enterprise-wide instant messaging (IM) for Livelink. The solution, called Livelink Instant Messenger, offers customers instant communication, the ability to see if co-workers are online and the option of retaining IM content, a critical need for corporate governance compliance. Open Text announced the news at the AIIM Expo 2004 Conference, underway this week in New York City.

Recent courtroom verdicts and continuing prosecutions for corporate wrongdoing make it clear that companies need policies and practices for managing e-mails, instant messaging and other content in order to comply with corporate governance laws. Livelink Instant Messenger offers the ability to retain and track IM content, providing a record of electronic communication for legal and regulatory requirements. Once retained, IM content becomes fully indexed and auditable, so users can search in Livelink to retrieve specific information. This capability improves knowledge management by giving companies a way to capture useful content in IM and make it searchable as part of a company’s corporate knowledge repository.

Livelink Instant Messenger also offers improved security over IM solutions widely available to consumers. Embedded in Open Text’s Livelink suite, Livelink Instant Messenger is deployed inside the firewall, and utilizes SSL to encrypt information both inside and outside the firewall.

“The instant communication of IM is the perfect tool for online collaboration in the enterprise but it has come with risks,” said Anik Ganguly, Executive Vice President of Products at Open Text. “Managers in large companies are using IM offerings that are available widely to consumers. These solutions offer neither security, nor the ability to retain information for compliance purposes, and that presents a major risk for customers. With Livelink Instant Messenger, companies can have their cake and eat it too. Customer’s also gain a new way to feed the organization’s knowledge base by retaining useful ideas shared in IM, as a byproduct of collaboration.”

Livelink Instant Messenger enhances collaboration by displaying the online presence of co-workers when users are navigating in Livelink. Users are able to see when a colleague is available and either IM, e-mail or call that person to ask a question or discuss an issue. Livelink Instant Messenger lets users create their own lists of co-workers for online presence or create project team lists, so team members can stay in close communication. The solution also lets users host spontaneous virtual meetings from IM in a public conference room, and lets project managers create and host regular chat sessions for team members in project conference rooms.

Livelink Instant Messenger will be available March 15 and works with Livelink 9.1.0 SP4 and 9.2 SP1 on all supported platforms. For more information, go to: http://www.opentext.com/products/livelink/enterprise-server/news.html

Open Text is demonstrating Livelink Instant Messenger at AIIM Expo 2004 in booth 1037. For more information on Open Text at AIIM, go to http://www.opentext.com/events/event.html?id=35341