Bantu IM & Presence Platform is a Web- and Java-based instant-messaging technology for companies that want to integrate presence and messaging capabilities directly into their business applications. Bantu delivers a solid IM core out of the box, either deployed at your site or hosted by Bantu.

Auditing and Reporting: Bantu servers can log all messages that pass through them, but Bantu IM & Presence Platform itself doesn't have auditing and reporting capabilities. Instead, it integrates with products such as SRA's Assentor for SEC compliance.

Security: Standard SSL technology (which Bantu uses to encode classified communications for the U.S. Army) is implemented from end point to end point and works with existing public-key infrastructures.

IM features: The Java-based IM client doesn't require software deployment on client machines. It offers full-featured one-on-one messaging, chat, and conferencing (including moderated), though some of its HTML-based configuration options are not as well integrated as those in some other products' native client applications. We like the ability for individual users to save a conversation as an e-mail or a Web page for easy reference.

Interoperability and Integration: The Web-based client directory demonstrates how easily presence and messaging capabilities can be integrated into Web-based applications. Its XML Query and Alert APIs provide another route to integration. Clients can also optionally communicate with AOL, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! consumer IM networks.

Management and Administration: Options are available for both in-house deployments and Bantu-hosted infrastructures.