For more than a decade AIM has been the instant messenger of choice for teenagers. Those in high school and college use this program day in and day out to communicate with friends and family. Even though social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace have taken over a bit, there are still tens of millions of people who like to communicate in real time via AIM.
AIM is not the best choice for interoffice communication, though. There are three basic reasons for this:
1. AIM is built for basic communication and not much more. There is nothing wrong with this. The fact of the matter is that AOL is not targeting businesses with this application.
2. AIM lacks the features of enterprise IM tools such as Brosix. For instance, the video and chat features of Brosix and other enterprise applications are above and beyond the basic features offered by AIM. It is important that you choose an instant messenger that will suit your needs as a business professional; not just something for quick chats.
3. You do not have the ability to organize, operate, and manage private networks. Brosix allows you create a secure and private network that is hosted on top of the line servers. Only the users that are authorized have access to the network. Not only is this good for safety, but also for keeping employees on task. With AIM you never know who your employees will be talking to.
This is not to say that AIM is a bad choice. But when it comes to instant messaging applications for companies, big or small, there are options that offer more benefits.