|
|
|
Portfolio News |
 |
Company Profile: DreamStream Communications
- Bringing secure instant messaging to corporate environments -
IM –
instant messaging - is growing faster than any consumer communication
technology, eating into landline use and displacing personal
conversations. According to Forrester Research, there are currently 590
million registered accounts.
|
In a
business environment, IM’s core value is presence: that is, knowing the
status and location of a person or business event. IM knows if your
colleague or customer is at their desk, or on their mobile, and can
reach them at either. |
|
|
"IM knows about
business events as they happen: that you’ve got email, that your
server has gone down, that the markets have reached a price or
traded a volume" |
|
It
knows about business events as they happen: that you’ve got email, that
your server has gone down, that the markets have reached a price or
traded a volume, or that the stock needed for your customer’s order has
arrived at the warehouse.
However, the challenge for many businesses is how to regulate the usage
of IM for legitimate business purposes. Managing IM requires a similar
approach as that taken to email, requiring a monitored and enforced
policy with accounts for legitimate business purposes. This means
establishing an acceptable use policy, policing of same and the
provision of IM facilities (similar to email accounts) for corporate
use. In addition, care must be taken that corporate IM use complies with
statutory regulations.
IM Enterprise Suite 4.0
is a software platform developed by London-based DreamStream
Communications in partnership with Gresham Computing to offer secure,
audited, managed and controlled instant messaging for businesses.
Features of the product include:
-
Security:
IM Guard blocks unauthorized access using business rules
-
Audit:
Conversation logs are stored by a neutral 3rd party and are fully
searchable
-
Interoperability:
enables different IM clients to communicate with each other.
Corporations are free to choose IM clients from Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL,
Lotus or Reuters.
-
Management:
synchronize IM with corporate directories, manage thousands of
employees, partners and customers
-
Switchboard:
establishes communication channels using business rules
Typical applications might include the ability to selectively
authorize IM usage – for example, restrict to business peers or
members of internal projects;
Detect information leakage:
Get an alert when someone sends account numbers or files via IM;
Enable IM customer Service:
allow customers to use any IM of their choice to communicate with you;
and,
Send alerts:
set rules and alert sequences in combination with corporate directories
and customers.
By
2006, IM will surpass email as the preferred communication mechanism. IM
Enterprise Suite 4.0 offers companies a way to take advantage of IM as
an instantaneous, flexible communication medium while maintaining
certain standards of usage and security. Current customers include NTL
business and Gresham computing.
Ariadne Capital is working with DreamStream
Communications to raise capital and to assist the company with business
development activities.
|
