"If a user is interested in chatting with colleagues
with non-Jabber IM services, he or she will need to set up a
gateway with those services. This process takes a couple more
minutes, depending on how many IM services are set up, but once the
task is completed, Jabber will automatically connect to the
appropriate servers with each user log-in.
Once installed on the system, we could have one-on-one chats
with another user or create a multiple participant text conference,
with any combination of ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo users. We could also
create a tree to sort contacts by department, such as HR or
research, or by more personal groups, such as vendor contacts,
family, and friends.
As an open-source solution, Jabber IM allows companies to take
advantage of other IM services and leverage open-source development
and applications. Furthermore, Jabber can help keep employees
productive without putting corporate information at risk. For
companies not already using integrated collaborative environment
solutions -- such as those provided by IBM Lotus and Microsoft,
which already include embedded IM functions -- Jabber is clearly a
solution to consider."