Technology Corridor

The instant messaging wildfire spreads to the utilities industry.

Utilities are starting to take a good, hard look at incorporating instant messaging (IM) into their business. (Never heard of IM? Check out our primer in the sidebar.)

Constellation Energy, for example, is already using IM in some internal communications, such as within the IT department. According to a spokesman, IT employees use IM to quickly survey their colleagues about how to solve a user problem. Externally, those departments that regularly work with customers, suppliers, and business partners use IM to support those relationships. Overall, Constellation is evaluating expanded use of IM, the spokesman says, but the company first needs to standardize IM on a Microsoft platform.

At American Electric Power (AEP), about 5 percent of the workforce uses IM for internal communications, according to an AEP spokeswoman. Very few employees have external access; the ones who do are primarily those working in the IT department who are remote from users who need IT help.

Power marketers at Kansas City Power & Light at the moment are the sole users of IM there, according to a company spokesman. Traders have two terminals loaded with AOL's software that they use to communicate with other traders about power transactions. According to the spokesman, IM has replaced the teletype system on which power marketers previously relied. The traders at KCP&L are happy with IM because it provides a capability to interact with several parties simultaneously-a function that cannot be accomplished in a typical telephone call, but instead only in a teleconference, which can be logistically difficult to arrange.