One thing about this new century that we are now in that is it seems like life is getting more and more hectic. In a world of ‘instants’– instant answers from the internet, instant gratification from fast food, and instant entertainment with DVR and DVDs, we all feel pressured to be our best and most efficient person we can be. However, with a life full of ‘instants’ also comes a life full of procrastination. You wait until the last moment to eat, communicate, and even relax because you know that you have the tools and resources at your disposal to get it done FAST, instantly.

So, for times that you are procrastinating and waiting until you are in a rush to finish a few work tasks or to confirm directions or deadlines, instant messaging is ideal. There are a lot of ‘instant’ helpers out there, but instant messaging can be helpful for anyone. It also is very affordable (or even free) and Brosix is an instant messaging program that starts up fast, giving you that instant use you need.

When I need to instantly communicate with someone, I use Brosix instant messaging. For example, last week I logged onto my IM, told a co-worker I was going to be late to work, and then I was able to finish getting ready and out the door.  This took much less time than a phone call would, and I could log off after I was finished sending the message. IM saved me time and didn’t take that much effort. Just the type of ‘instant’ I like!

Finding the perfect instant messenger can be a harrowing process. One that can do everything that you need. Today, we will be looking at Brosix for Mac.

The Install

(The Install Icon)

The program installs easily, and quickly. Not that you would expect anything less, but it’s always good to know.

Desktop Use

(Your New Buddy List)

This software runs smoothly without any of the usual flaws that comes with cross platform software. It has great graphic icons, but just in case you can’t remember what each one is, hovering will produce a reminder bubble. The system does not send you any annoying warning bubbles, that you sometimes end up with by default when you get a program that also runs on Windows.  (Fun fact, it also runs on Linux, so if you know anyone else on the other side of the Unix world you can chat with them easily. One more problem in your world solved.) There is no delay in between the IM’s, like you sometimes see on web based only IM’s. Granted, it wasn’t a long drive, but it was annoying, and we can all do with a bit less annoyance in our worlds.

(The Chat Window)

Software Features

• Whiteboard tool
• Cooperative Browsing (co-browsing)
• Voice Chat
• Text Chat
• Video Chat
• Screen Sharing
• Voice Conference
• File Transfers
• A sweet set of smilies that can help you to express yourself*

(The Sweet Smilies – Where else can you send an exploding gift smilie?)

The Benefits

* A sleek interface that looks native.
* Solid feature integration. No getting left out of what the Windows people get.
* A well rounded set of features that are good for both work and play.

The Drawbacks

* The only negative is an odd icon that pops up next to the airport icon. This seems a bit superfluous with a doc icon as well.

Conclusion

The one oddity is not even a flaw, and there is a lot of good here. Definitely worth a second look.

*All features except the smilies, taken from the offical site.

Knowing the costs of setting up an enterprise instant messenger are obvious.  You can simply request a price quote, and soon hard data will be on your spreadsheets.

Cost however, is not always the same as value.  How do you measure the value of an instant messenger?

* In terms of the agility that it can offer you within an ever changing marketplace is a big issue for most companies.
* In terms of the cost that it can save you, both in office space and other programs.
* In terms of the customer service responsiveness it allows you to provide because without customers you are out of business.

Just remember that before any decisions are made value should be determined not just cost.

Things you shouldn’t do with your business IM.
There are a lot of things that you can do with a business IM.  The question is what should you not do via IM?

Let somebody go. When letting your staff go should be a personal affair and they deserve your respect.  Do it in person, or at least by phone.

Giving a performance evaluation

Since this is both very private and personal it should be done with as much care as possible.

Generally, if you wouldn’t want to be told by IM then don’t do it.

Us here at Brosix are developing an exciting, interesting, and new approach to blogging- we will be expanding our blogging efforts to include a variety of other blogs. These addresses include: 

• http://hostedinstantmessenger.com
• http://hostedinstantmessaging.com
• http://hostedinstantmessaging.info
• http://hostedinstantmessenger.info
• http://owninstantmessaging.com
• http://owninstantmessenger.com
• http://instantmessengernow.com
• http://instantmessagingnow.com

I will be managing 

• http://hostedinstantmessaging.com
• http://hostedinstantmessaging.info

which I am totally excited about! It will be great to continue to provide great content, hints, news links, and advice to everyone out there who is looking for a new enterprise, hosted, or secure instant messaging system for all their online workplace communications. Because a single person will be managing 2 blogs, it will provide a way to get to know all of us here at the Brosix blog on an individual basis. 

I can only hope that the Brosix name and brand will continue to grow with this new initative in social and internet marketing. Thank you so much for continuing to read our posts here at the Brosix blog and I hope that we can only continue to bring you quality content that will educate you about Brosix IM. 

And, don’t worry. This blog will certainly not be ignored! It will be updated 3 times per week, instead of 12. 

Have a good weekend everyone!

In today’s business world things can turn on a dime.  In order to survive and thrive in this ever changing world business needs to become more agile.  The first stop to being more agile is enhanced communication.

Brosix is the business IM client that can give you what you need.  Brosix is the business IM client that can give you not only instant communications but in depth communications.

Brosix business IM client features that give you instant communications:

• IM
• Voice Chat
• Video Chat

Brosix business IM client features that give you in depth communication:

• Whiteboard (a 2009 about.com best IM award winning feature)
• File sharing
• Screenshots
• Co-browsing

This means you can start with a fast and furious brainstorming session in chat and flush out all of the details in Whiteboard then share the completed files with everyone else who needs to know.

When you have to choose an IM for your corporation you need a system that is reliable, versatile, secure and it should be east to integrate into your systems. Brosix can give you all of these things and that is why it should be your corporate IM client of choice. How does it give you these attributes?

Reliable: The Brosix corporate IM client will be set up on your own systems so they will have the full reliability of your own networks backing up your corporate IM client.

Versatile: As a corporate IM client Brosix can do so much more than just allow for instant communications. It can help you to share files, screen shots and even do group video chats.

Secured: Any corporate IM client has to be secured in order to be useful. In addition to the built in security of Brosix’s encryption, since Brosix is installed on your network it gets all of that security as well.

Integrated into your systems: You can’t afford to redo your entire network in order to add just one component. Brosix can be easily integrated into your systems and even if you don’t have an IT department in house, Brosix can help you to find someone who can get you set up reliably and cost effectively.

Now you know why Brosix should be your secured corporate IM of choice, all you have to do is convince your boss.

If you use Brosix as one of your in house communication tools and you have a company of any size then you know that giving everybody a buddy list with the whole of the company on it can be a counterproductive task. After all, no one wants to sift through 200 names to find the one person they need to talk to. So today we are going to look at how to make the lists more manageable.

Divide and conquer
Break up your staff into ways that they work, or people they are likely to need to communicate with and only give them access to those buddies some grouping suggestions include:
Project teams or work groups
Supervisors and their direct reports
People in the same department or people with similar job functions (e.g. everyone who does payroll)

That should make the list a bit more manageable for everyone included.

The heavy use of instant messaging both in the workplace and at home made me think about if there have been any studies done about how IM programs are used in the workplace. I came across this great study:

A study entitled “The Character, Functions, and Styles of Instant Messaging in the Workplace” by 5 contributors working at AT&T Labs have analyzed the uses of instant messaging in corporate communications. They came to the conclusion that “28% of conversations were simple, single-purpose interactions and only 31% were about scheduling and coordination.” The way instant messaging is used was mainly divided into 4 categories: “[asking] quick questions and clarifications, coordination and scheduling work tasks, coordinating impromptu social meetings, and keeping in touch with friends and family.”

Besides these types of conversations, the researchers found a difference between the “heavy” and the “light” users of instant messaging programs in the workplace. Consistent, or “heavy” IM users used instant messaging to collaborate and work on projects with other heavy IM users. Occasional, or “light” IM users, mainly used instant messaging to coordinate and ask questions.

They also found that many workers use IM as a multi-tasking tool, which is one of its major benefits. This is definitely why Brosix has only continued to see increased growth!

Contributors to the study were: Ellen Isaacs, Alan Walendowski, Steve Whittaker, Diane J. Schiano, and Candace Kamm. To view the study in its entirety, visit: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.19.7080 , where you can download it for free.

When Gtalk first came along I thought it was great. No fuss about signing into my IM separately, no extra program taking up hard drive space, it sounded great.

For a while, it was great, in theory. Then I started to populate the contacts list.

Big Mistake.

Quickly the negatives of having IM in your email came to bear. To save you from the same pains here are the reasons why you don’t want IM in your email.

1. There will be no such thing as “Just a quick email check” anymore. Every time you sign in you will have messages from your friends.

2. Your concentration will be broken. Forget about writing long emails and being able to sound intelligent with ease. You will have to work 3 times harder to get the same results.

3. If you turn on the away message, to get some privacy, your friends will begin to wonder why you are avoiding them all of the time.

Just another good reason why you should choose the option that takes a bit more short term work (but really, how much work is installing a program) but will save you a lot of frustration and annoyance in the long term.