Why you can’t afford to ignore the compliance risks involved in your weekly Zoom calls

September 1, 2020

The coronavirus has caused a rapid mass adoption of collaboration tools, but using them involves big risks.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, many of us have become accustomed to working from home. Thankfully, tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Skype have made it easier to stay in touch with clients and colleagues alike.

And using these tools has several benefits. For instance, recent research by Forrester has shown that implementing Microsoft Teams can slash email communication by 17% and speed up the decision-making process by 18%.

Nevertheless, while modern messaging platforms can boost efficiencies and slash costs, using collaboration solutions opens up a whole world of compliance risks.

Managing the compliance requirements when using these tools requires robust solutions in place for capturing, archiving and reviewing messages, or companies risk having gaps in books and records reporting when regulators or legal teams come calling.

Smarsh, the compliance experts specialising in collaboration tools, says in a recent report that companies could forgo using these tools and thus avoid falling foul of the regulatory requirements.

However, it points out that doing so might be a bad idea as a growing number of customers are expecting them to use tools like Slack, Skype and Zoom.

In other words, regulated firms must become more capable at dealing with the risks involved with using these tools.

“For companies that are subject to electronic communication regulations, allowing new tools for chat and collaboration may invite new and various risks of misconduct, Smarsh said in the report. “These considerations must be taken seriously and addressed regularly.

“Each tool is unique, with a combination of features such as chat, file sharing and collaboration, voice, video and embedded AI. They’re also interactive, where files can be changed or deleted – persisting in varying states at different points in time. Conversations on IM and collaboration platforms jump quickly between desktop and mobile too, and people may enter or leave group conversations at crucial moments.”

If you want to learn how to do just that, feel free to join Smarsh’s experts on September 10 at 3pm BST for a free webinar discussing how to ensure compliance when using collaboration platforms for remote communication.