A 'WIM-Win' Situation For IM At WestStar Credit Union

• Published in: Credit Union Journal Vol. 12; no. 7; p. 17
• Main Author: Jepson, Kevin
• Format: Journal Article Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York SyndiGate Media Inc 18.02.2008; SourceMedia dba Arizent
• Subjects: Bank technology; Communication; Credit unions; Employees; Instant messaging; Laws, regulations and rules; Officials and employees; Technology application; Verbal communication; Workers; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 1521-5105

Instant Messaging has lived a number of lives in its ten years at WestStar CU, from restricting employees to one-way monologues to the ground-breaking possibility of hitching up with the credit union's VoIP phone system. In 2005, an in-house program called WestStar Instant Messenger was intentionally designed with a send button, but without a reply button, said the CU's Shimon Klein, the CU's IT tech and developer. Employees only had the rudimentary ability to send notes to colleagues - but they could not reply. WIM was more like IM-Minus, said Klein. WIM was designed as a one-way, fire-and-forget system that did not support conversations. About one year ago, WestStar turned to the free Spark IM client and Openfire chat server, both provided by Portland, Ore.-based Jive Software.