Enterprise data management strategies are highly complex, requiring intensive consideration of how a company’s data is processed, stored, protected and audited. But despite the challenges, data management is an area where an increasing number of companies are investing time and resources — and for good reason: your data is among your most valuable assets. An organization’s data is also among its greatest vulnerabilities.
A company’s messaging apps and associated messaging data should be a key consideration as an organization develops or refines its enterprise data management strategy. This messaging data is critical not only from a security standpoint, but also from a perspective of compliance for companies that are subject to regulatory oversight.
Why Include Messaging Apps in Your Data Management Strategy?
Let’s look at a few reasons why your data management strategy should address the topic of messaging apps and all of the data that is generated by these platforms.
• Data Ownership – Do you actually own your messaging data? If your employees are using consumer-grade messaging apps such as WhatsApp you may be surprised to discover that the user does not technically own their data and control over that data is often quite limited. As such, the app is free to delete messaging data after a certain timeframe. In theory, they could also sell a user’s messaging data to a third-party since they technically maintain ownership.
A data management strategy will need to address this issue since it is essential that an organization maintains ownership and control of its data. The solution: implementing a business messaging platform that takes the place of consumer-targeted messaging apps like WhatsApp.
• Regulatory Compliance – Many companies are subject to regulatory compliance, particularly in the healthcare sector, the financial sector and the insurance industry. Data privacy and data preservation are key requirements for these businesses. Just examine the case of JPMorgan, which got slapped with $200 million in fines for allowing employees to use WhatsApp to communicate with clients on their personal devices. Regulatory groups such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) came after JPMorgan when it was determined that they had failed to keep a record of these employee-client conversations as required.
WhatsApp is among the few consumer-targeted messaging apps that does allow users to export their data (although there is no in-built auditing capability), but actually achieving this was impractical for JPMorgan since the app was running on employees’ personal devices. This case study underscores the importance of considering regulatory compliance relative to your enterprise messaging app as you develop and refine your business’ data management policies. The cost of neglecting regulatory compliance — as evidenced by JPMorgan’s hefty fines — can be tremendous.
• Data Auditing – data auditing capabilities are essential. Audits may be necessary to serve as evidence of a company’s regulatory compliance, among other things. Yet data auditing and monitoring is a major challenge on many platforms. For example, Slack and Microsoft Teams lack any sort of automated backup tool or monitoring capabilities. Merely accessing your data is a challenge. Data that’s older than 60-90 days is often completely inaccessible because these platforms routinely purge data after a set timeframe. Therefore, companies that may potentially need to conduct data audits may benefit from an enterprise messaging platform with robust data backup, export and auditing capabilities.
Don’t make the mistake of investing a significant amount of time, money and resources into achieving regulatory compliance only to find yourself in a situation where you are facing fines and other punitive measures because you are unable to prove your compliance. It’s all for naught if you cannot perform an audit to gather the necessary evidence. Therefore, it is critical that your enterprise data management strategy addresses your auditing capabilities. You want to be confident that you can quickly and effectively audit your data in a manner that will showcase your company’s compliance if the need ever arises.
• Disparate Messaging Platforms – It is not uncommon to find that a company’s messaging is spread across multiple mobile apps and platforms. A company may use Gmail’s in-built chat feature, along with Slack chat, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams and SMS text messages. This is highly inefficient, creating unnecessary communication barriers between colleagues. Multiple messaging platforms also complicate your enterprise data management strategy since each and every platform must be addressed separately.
Centralizing communications on a single enterprise messaging app is an effective solution to this problem. This will also make it far easier to develop a data management strategy since you will only need to consider one messaging app instead of several.
Considering Other Data Sources in Your Data Management Strategy
In addition to messaging app data, there are countless other data sources to consider as you develop an enterprise data management strategy. Think of all of the data that gets generated in various devices, software systems, websites and apps such as:
- ERP software
- CRM software
- Messaging apps
- eCommerce platforms
- Point-of-sale systems
- Customer service platforms
- Project management software
- Company websites
- Web portals
- Machinery, equipment and IoT devices
Once you implement a well-architected enterprise data management strategy, it’s time to shift focus by examining the ways in which your company’s data can be leveraged. Data-driven decision-making requires you to make sense of this information using analytics and data visualization tools. Your data can also be used for predictive analytics and machine learning applications, among other things.
A Custom Enterprise Messaging Solution That Lets You Control Your Data
At 7T, we enjoy working with cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning and we have also developed an enterprise messaging app called SayHey Messenger.
SayHey Messenger not only offers a robust messaging toolset, but it also empowers companies to own and control their messaging data. That’s something that very few messaging platforms can say, as most do not provide the user with ownership of their data; most also limit user control over data. Even platforms designed for business — such as Microsoft Teams and Slack — lack auditing tools. This is highly problematic when the messaging mobile app is used for business communications, particularly in cases where message auditing could potentially be required to prove regulatory compliance.
SayHey Messenger can be integrated into an existing CRM, enterprise resource planning software system or other business software platform. It is also available as a stand-alone mobile app, providing the communications versatility that companies need to succeed in today’s competitive business world. It’s a great alternative to Slack chat and WhatsApp, amongst others.
At 7T, our development team works with company leaders who are seeking to solve problems and drive ROI through digital transformation. As an innovative Dallas software and mobile app development company, 7T offers collaborative, multi-phased software development services to clients in all business sectors.
Our offices are situated in Dallas, Houston, Chicago, and Austin, but our clientele spans the globe. If you’re ready to learn more about an enterprise messaging mobile app or a SayHey Messenger integration for your enterprise platform, contact 7T today.