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| Instant Collaboration to Shave ?4.3 Billion a Year from UK Industry's Transport Costs The adoption of secure, instant communications networks (so-called Presence Networking), will be a major factor in helping to reduce transport costs, congestion and pollution over the next five years. According to new research carried out by technology and telecoms consultancy BWCS, within three years, the increasing popularity of instant collaboration networks could save UK industry over ?4.3 billion, annually in transport costs alone. According to BWCS's figures, 25% of office-based companies in Britain are expected to start using Presence Networking as their primary means of communications within three years. As commuters face increased train fares – due to rise by an average of 4.3% from January 2nd - and the looming possibility pay-as-you–drive charges of up to ?1.50 a mile, the potential savings of being able to collaborate online are huge, both in terms of direct costs and time saved. Despite security concerns over public IM, recent surveys have shown that 81% of corporations believe that their employees work more productively with such systems. However, BWCS and many other technology consultants are warning companies against simply allowing the take-up of public IM at the work place. As recent attacks have shown, such programmes can be very dangerous, providing a wide-open entry-point for IM Viruses, Trojans and Worms. It comes as no surprise that For example, anti-virus firm Symantec reported a 400% increase in IM and peer-to-peer (P2P) networking viruses, worms and Trojans over the last twelve months. Presence Networks' system for example, which uses 128bit SSL encryption on all traffic, records, dates and time-stamps all messages enabling an audit trail to be established and making it compliant with FSA, SEC, Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel II, HIPAA rules. BWCS believes that this level of security is vital in order that the market can take these services seriously and to drive the take-up of systems such as that developed by Presence Networks. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Networking News :: home page |