|
Corporate Messaging: A Double-Edge Sword
[Posted on June 23, 2008]
While the backbone of business and commerce will always remain the same, the look and feel of an office today is nothing like 20 years ago. Before the widespread use of technology as a means of doing, well... just about everything, business moved at a slower pace. Information didn't travel as quickly and people didn't communicate as efficiently. And while technological advances, especially advances in corporate messaging and communications, have transformed the face of business for the better, these advances are something of a double-edged sword-- though it smoothes the road to allow for more efficient business, corporate messaging also creates complications.
The use of real-time communication in business brings with it a whole host of associated risks. IM and other corporate messaging mediums function mainly in the background, and are generally out of the control of a company's IT department. This can leave a company vulnerable in several ways. First, it allows for unauthorized use of corporate messaging mediums, which can put a company’s security and confidentiality at serious risk. Also, when corporate messaging goes uncontrolled, messaging logs and archives aren’t maintained, allowing real-time electronic communication to go completely under the radar.
Other than business security, what other risks are involved with allowing a real-time communications within your business to go uncontrolled? As of 2006, eDiscovery legislation which requires business to keep complete records of all “electronically stored information,” has now grown to include real-time intra-business and business-to-business communications. Businesses whose corporate messaging systems are not compliant with government regulations can face serious legal --and sometimes criminal-- consequences.
Protecting your Business with Corporate Messaging Software
The ability to archive and audit corporate electronic communications is key-- and a fully compliant corporate messaging system is a must-have for any business. But there are a variety of ways to track and archive real-time communications within a company, and not all of them are equally effective-- or cost-efficient.
Many businesses use software programs to track and archive all IM communications. And while this works well and allows all corporate messaging logs to remain both totally secure and easily available, some of these programs still leave companies venerable. When looking for a corporate messaging service or software, it’s best to choose one which both logs and stores your company’s records, as well protects against misuse of your corporate messaging system.
A great example of this is Presensoft’s unique IM Caller ID corporate messaging software. This software uses both bi-directional authentication (which authenticates the identity of each IM user), and two-party indexing of to keep your business’s communication completely secure. |
