The way we handled incoming phone calls needed work.

The receptionist would normally transfer calls to employees without knowing if they were there, away or already on the phone.

Often callers ended up getting voicemail when they could have held for a minute, or have been told a better time to call back.

But the only way for the receptionist to know was to walk to the employee’s desk

That was tough, since our building is pretty big. So we looked for a better way to connect employees to each other.

The solution: an internal IM program.

It only works on our intranet – no one outside our network can be contacted through it.

Now when the receptionist gets a call, she can easily message the appropriate employee.

It’s been a huge help for IT, too.

I spend a lot of time on the
phone with users. Now, if people
need something when I’m on call,
they can IM me. Then I can let them know when I’ll be free to help them.

Bonus: It’s great for security. Since it runs exclusively on our network, it doesn’t leave us open to security threats from outside.
(Joyce Olson-Burpee, MIS Director, DBS Companies, Bay City, MI)

Tags: Communication, IM, instant messaging, intranet, network, phone calls, voicemail