Companies promoting their IM-blocking software have produced plenty of studies meant to chill the hearts of bottom line-focused executives by calculating lost productivity resulting from non-work-related use of instant messaging. In an effort to balance the scales, The Radicati Group has produced a study that claims to identify the ROI produced when employees use IM for work-related purposes.

According to the study (reported by InstantMessagingPlanet.com), a 5,000-employee company can reap productivity gains of $37.5 million per year assuming each employee uses IM and earns average hourly pay of $41.67. The numbers are as questionable as those produced by the alarmists over at WebSense, but at least it’s nice to see somebody making an effort to prove quantitatively that IM has value.

Radicati set up two scenarios for its research (which costs US $1,000 if you want the entire report). In the first, an employee is trying to discuss something with a co-worker. In the second,  co-workers communicate with one another during a conference call. In each scenario, Radicati calculates the amount of time it takes with and without IM.

“By looking at time taken by employees to undertake two typical daily scenarios both with and without IM, we find that using IM can save companies an average of 40 minutes per user per day,” the report states.

IM’s advantage, the study concludes, comes from the real-time responses it enables.

Also among the “soft benefits” noted by Radicati analysts are improved employee satisfaction, better working relationships, and a more open and fun form of communication. Dr. Radicati however does not believe that the “negative” uses of IM (personal conversations and non-business communication) pose a greater threat than those posed by communication via phone or Internet in general.