Aruba Wireless Networks Avaki Force10 Networks IMlogic NetContinuum Sana Security Topspin Communications Vieo Z-force Zultys Technologies Where are they now? 1998-2002

IMlogic

Company name: Company founders wanted to convey how they help customers make sense of instant messaging in the enterprise, so they married logic with the IM initials.

Origin: Founded in February 2001 by Francis deSouza and Jon Sakoda. DeSouza had been head of Microsoft's real-time collaboration group, which he joined after the software giant bought his instant-messaging company, Flash Communications. Sakoda worked at Goldman Sachs, where he was a strategic adviser to software companies and was instrumental in managing the firm's $1.5 billion technology private equity fund.

Funding: A $14 million second round closed in January 2003, bringing total funding to nearly $18 million.

Investors: General Catalyst Partners, Goldman Sachs, Kodiak Venture Partners and Venrock Associates.

CEO: Francis deSouza.

Product: IM Manager.

IMlogic's IM Manager is the sheriff in the Wild West of instant messaging, as the grass-roots adoption of instant messaging spreads unchecked - and unmanaged - across major companies. IM Manager provides corporations with the means to control and track usage of instant messaging, introduce security and policy compliance regulations. It also provides reporting and archiving features.

IMlogic's focus is controlling the pipes that carry instant-messaging traffic. The server-based IM Manager supports the most popular instant-messaging products, including those from AOL, Lotus, Microsoft and Yahoo. Big-name users such as Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch have turned to IM Manager to control instant-messaging usage.

The software's signatures are that it does not require installation on clients and that it integrates with Lightweight Directory Access Protocol-compliant corporate directories. Directory integration lets administrators take cryptic instant-messaging screen names and link them to established corporate usernames, control access and selectively archive messages based on users and groups categorized in the directory.

IM Manager, which costs $5,000 per server plus a client access license fee based on the number of users, also lets users block file transfers and create reports that provide details such as average message size or usage by time of day or department.