"Individual User of Public IM at Work" Does Not Equal "Corporate IT As Customer"

InfoWorld's just published an article re-articulating the fact that Yahoo (and AOL) are consumer-oriented services that haven't succeeded in breaking into the corporate market. The underlying reason is that selling into the corporate market requires an entirely different level of sales and marketing, since corporate IT becomes a direct customer. That's very true, although I was writing 12 months ago that that would happen.

For Ferris subscribers, see the Ferris Insight Bulletin of November 13, 2002, Consumer IM Vendors Try to Break into the Business Market (Login Required).