On Monday in this blog Alison raised a question with potential implications that frankly scare me a bit; are you more productive if you only check your email once a day? What if the answer is yes? I don’t think I could stand to do it, no matter how much it improved my concentration.

Now what about instant messaging? If the ping of an email notification derails your train of thought, how far off the rails does it go when a message from your boss pops up in the middle of your screen, with the expectation of an immediate response?

Carola Mamberto of The Wall Street Journal explores the question in her article “Instant Messaging Invades the Office,” published on the front of the Marketplace section in Tuesday’s paper. Carola spoke to three folks from SAS about the ways IM helps them be more productive, more connected and more responsive to customer needs. Developer Philip Busby, for instance, IMs with customer support reps while they’re on the phone with customers. The customer gets an instant answer, and never even gets put on hold.

Suzanne Gordon, SAS’ chief information officer, was an early advocate of a secure IM application for internal use, and is not surprisingly one of its most ardent users. Even so, Suzanne seems to have the right idea about how to manage the potential impact:

“You cannot let technology control you,” she says in the article. “You need to use it to your own advantage.”

Do you use instant messaging at work for business reasons? What do you think?