Archive for category Unified Communications
Are you socially mobile or stuck in a time lapse?
Posted by SarahActiance in Compliance, New Internet, Social Networking, Trends, Unified Communications, Web 2.0 on May 3, 2011
Most social media interaction relies on a fairly immediate response. A tweet has a half life of 3 hours for instance. Whether it’s responding to a customer query, discussing the latest piece of industry news with a partner or just a bit of friendly banter with colleagues, joining in the conversation an hour later can be an opportunity missed. It’s one of the reasons so many of us take our mobile or cell phone wherever we go. I might only be the other side of the office, but I can still respond instantly to something pertinent, without having to walk back to my desk.
Mobility has become an important part of our lives, but it has also added a complexity to the IT aspect of controlling data. A couple of years ago most enterprises standardised on PCs, laptops and mobiles. Today, users want to be able to choose not just the device that helps them do their job the best, but also the one they feel most comfortable using. Some prefer proper keyboards on their mobile, others like electronic; iPads are really popular with sales guys doing a lot of presentations, hated by others for their lack of true multi-tasking. Users even consider the personal aspects of their devices – can they continue reading the latest thriller on the commute to work, video conference with their family when away from home.
The end result for the poor IT guy is that he has to control and record information coming in and going out of the network through a myriad of devices. It’s one of the reasons we developed our technology to focus on the data stream to the social media application, not the method of communication. We already provide full support for recording conversations on Facebook and LinkedIn regardless of device and will be extending this to include Twitter in May.
However, providing support via a direct connection to the API of the social network is only half the story. It won’t surprise you to learn that social media sites are constantly updating their offering, but it may surprise you to know how many changes are made on a weekly basis that directly affect how third party systems such as those provided by Actiance function. The top three sites Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter average around twenty changes a week, though for a couple of weeks in March they nearly topped forty. Some are minor changes or tweaks, others have a significant impact in the way data is handled.
Fortunately, our close relationship with the major social networking sites means that we are frequently aware of changes ahead of time and can easily make any necessary changes to our own technology in response. In addition, the constant moving of goal posts is nothing new to Actiance. Our heritage in dealing with the instant messaging networks from way back when in the early 2000’s where the introduction of new networks and protocol changes were profuse has enabled us to develop processes that enable our research and technical team to react swiftly.
As the workforce becomes more mobile, the problem of different devices isn’t going to go away. The mobile phone was once touted as being the de-facto communications tool, but the impact of tablets has shown that this might not be the case. I can’t predict what I’ll be using in the future to communicate with customers, partners and colleagues, but I do know that a point solution for devices or specific applications to enable it isn’t the long term answer. A scalable platform that enables the secure, compliant use not just of social media, but UC and Web 2.0 is.
#EPS? #EBITDA? #Cash on hand? #Twitter?
Posted by nleong in New Internet, Public IM, Social Networking, Trends, Unified Communications on March 31, 2011
Just five years ago, stringing the words in this blog title would’ve been complete nonsense. Fast forward to 2011, and they now make perfect sense. Hopping on the social media bandwagon, investors are now turning to new communications channels like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to get the latest tips on hot stocks, rumored IPOs, and corporate scandals.
A March 2011 study by CMC Markets, Share Trader Insights Survey, hammers home the point: social media is being increasingly used by investors to gather trading information, especially among those of us under the age of 45. The study found that the under-45 demographic had the highest percentage of individuals using social sites like Facebook and Twitter to enhance their investment knowledge. The 25-34 segment was particularly notable, too. A whopping 59% of those under the age of 35 use Twitter to acquire trading information. Interestingly, investors over the age of 45 were more likely to use their iPhone to gather trading information.
In terms of which social media sites were deemed to be most useful, trading websites took the top spot with 57% of investors using this form. Beyond trading websites though, there was no clear social media site that investors preferred. Blogs, webinars, Facebook, Twitter, iPhone apps, and even YouTube were all cited by investors as being sources of trading information.
I won’t bore you with any more gory statistics, but the inside scoop is that social media seriously is a viable source of information for investors. However (deep breath), care must be taken to analyze all this mountain of data objectively (you don’t say…). It’s easy to post information on any of these sites and even easier for it to spread virally. Just think what could happen if someone started a false rumor on a company with the aim of sending the stock price soaring. If written persuasively enough and if that rumor appears on several social media sites, the rumor begins to take on a life of its own. The phrase “buyer beware” becomes that much more important, with due diligence, background checking, and due care assuming more prominent roles.
Along these lines, companies themselves have to be careful of what’s being posted about them in these social media fora. That’s why we’re starting to see organizations turn to technology to help them address this flood of social media content. Protection of the corporate brand and confidential information is top-of-mind for many firms. Add to that the constant threat of malware and viruses piggybacking on tweets and Facebook posts, and it’s easy to see why solutions have begun to sprout up to manage this social media content and ensure that it’s safely used within the organization.
Actiance Unified Security Gateway (USG) is the only secure Web gateway focused on these Web 2.0 and social media applications, on top of the usual security protections (anti-virus, anti-malware, and URL filtering). From allowing and blocking access to over 4,700 Web 2.0 applications to granular content and access controls for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, USG is the platform for making sure that social media doesn’t commandeer your corporate network and throttle your reputation.
It’s the enabler that lets you use social media productively and safely. Just don’t count on it to tell you whether to buy or sell the 1,500 shares of MSFT you’re sitting on.
And the award goes to…..
Posted by SarahActiance in Compliance, FINRA, New Internet, Social Networking, Unified Communications, Web 2.0, Web Security on March 30, 2011
In the last couple of weeks we’ve been informed that our products have been shortlisted for not just one, not two, not three, but four leading industry awards (yes really!) – two of them related to Financial Services and two awards covering everyone’s darling, Social Media. This got me thinking about how modern communication tools such as UC, Social Media and Web 2.0 have completely infiltrated our working lives and the breadth and depth of platform required to enable their secure use.
In an average day I use nearly a dozen different mediums to communicate with colleagues, partners and customers including Microsoft OCS, IBM Lotus Sametime, Skype, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Quora, Blackberry Messenger and Cisco Webex. I use my iPhone, my Blackberry, my iPad, my laptop. In the past month, I’ve connected and communicated at 37,000 feet, on a cruise ship off the coast of Cuba, Costa Rica and (shame on me), even in the office. Face it, if there’s a way of connecting with the internet…I guess I’ll find it. Equally, if I worked directly in a Financial Services organization – like many of our customers – then I would probably also be adding something like Thomson Reuters Messenger or Bloomberg to the list.
You might be wondering how on earth do I find the time to work – but that’s the point, virtually everything I do on these networks helps me to do my job. But it’s also interesting that what I use has changed too. Twelve months ago I wasn’t using Facebook for chat much and I didn’t have an account on Quora, I’d certainly not Skyped at 37,000 feet, nor had I SMS’d while traversing the Panama Canal.
The other weekend I co-hosted a conference workshop for compliance officers in Utilities organizations on how to develop a social media policy. After protracted discussions about how the organizations attending use social media and considering some of the pitfalls – including my question du jour “how do you comply with retention of records on your twitter account?” that always gets the room buzzing – the group split up into teams to draft a social media policy that would work for them.
It’s almost a guarantee that somewhere in the policy specific networks, normally Facebook, will be mentioned. But in just the same way you can’t spare the time to rewrite your policy every time a new social network becomes popular, neither can you afford to update your IT controls either. Not to mention the fact that there are thousands of social networks available that may not be popular, but still have a considerable amount of users that might just be your employees. So looking at the bigger picture isn’t just important, it’s imperative.
Being able to secure, manage and meet compliance duties requires a platform that offers breadth and flexibility in adapting to the changing world we work in. I can’t claim to know what tomorrow’s hot favorite communications tool may be, but I work with a team of people who do know how to spot them and who also know how to manage them . Our Actiance Security Labs live and breathe social networks and Web 2.0 applications and track, monitor and provide management capabilities on a daily, if not hourly basis.
I’m probably not going to meet fellow brit Colin Firth (rats) over the next three weeks and my acceptance speech, should we win (again), certainly won’t be as polished as his, but I will be attending the Oscar equivalent in the IT security world, SC Magazine’s award ceremony. If you’re there, come over and say hi – I promise not to try out my question du jour.
Financial Sector Technology – Most innovative Solution of the Year – Socialite
SC Awards – Information Security Product of the Year – USG
SC Awards – Best security Solution in Financial Services – Vantage
Network Computing – New Product of the Year – Socialite
Keep It Simple, Stupid
Posted by nleong in Application Filtering, Compliance, Employee Behavior, Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise IM, Malware, Unified Communications on February 24, 2011
We’ve all heard this saying before and it’s easy to get lost in the bewildering array of communications channels available to us. There’s the usual email, instant messaging networks (Yahoo!, Google Talk), peer-to-peer networks (Skype), enterprise IM applications (IBM Sametime, Microsoft Lync/OCS), and social networks (Facebook, Twitter). And these are just the big boys. There are literally thousands of IM, P2P, and social networks, in addition to those listed above.
To give you an idea of the bevy of tools out there, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) uses over 21 different email systems, but they’ve recently decided to award Microsoft a contract to provide cloud-based email, Web conferencing, IM, and collaboration solutions. Similarly, the US General Services Administration (GSA) awarded an email contract to Google. What this goes to show is that messaging in large organizations (in this case, it’s the government) is starting to move to the cloud as companies look for ways to streamline their messaging systems, improve efficiency, and cut costs.
What with all these communications options available to end users, it’s all too common for folks to use Facebook, Yahoo!, or Skype while they’re at work on company-issued computers. Oftentimes, individuals use a combination of Web 2.0 (think Facebook or Skype) and enterprise (think Microsoft Communicator or Cisco Jabber) applications. The problem with doing so is that it opens up new vectors for malware to invade the corporate network. In other words, there are far more avenues for evil to infiltrate the corporate network these days than ever before.
Thankfully, platforms like Actiance Vantage make it easier to manage the proliferation of communications tools within the enterprise. From blocking virus attacks to managing file transfers to logging and archiving of all IM activities, Vantages provides end-to-end security and compliance coverage for an organization’s unified communications.
We can all learn a lesson from the government contracts cited above. Long ridiculed for being the poster child of bureaucracy and antiquated computer systems, it must be saying something to have two large agencies moving their communications applications to the cloud. Looks like the US government has taken heed of that old KISS principle after all.
What’s in a name?
Posted by Kailash_Ambwani in Application Filtering, Compliance, Electronically Stored Information (ESI), Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise IM, New Internet, Public IM, Social Networking, Trends, Unified Communications, Web 2.0, Web Security on January 25, 2011
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet” –
Juliet in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Juliet knew that Romeo would be the same great guy even if he had another name.
And, this is what is occurring for us today…same great company, just with a new name.
But first, the why…
FaceTime’s business and offerings have changed dramatically since the turn of the century. We began as a provider of security and compliance solutions for public Instant Messaging networks, such as AOL, MSN and Yahoo. Today, we are a trusted partner to large enterprises, delivering platforms that enable them to cope with the explosion of new communications channels – from Unified Communications systems, such as Microsoft Lync Server, OCS, IBM Sametime or Cisco CUPS, to social networking channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Our current customer roster includes 9 of the top 10 banks, all 5 top Canadian banks, 3 of the top 5 independent energy companies and a myriad of large enterprises across all industries. These companies seek to leverage the New Internet to foster more collaboration internally and with partners, gain more customers and increase customer satisfaction. They rely on FaceTime to provide the security and compliance framework to ensure the safe use of these networks and channels.
Our promise to our customers is “You worry about the policy, we’ll worry about the channel.”
To deliver on this promise, we have greatly expanded our capabilities. Now our platform supports all the major IM networks, all the major Unified Communication platforms, popular VoIP networks, including Skype, widespread social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. We also support financial networks like Reuters and Bloomberg, and Web 2.0 channels, such as Youtube, webmail, blogs and Wikis, to name but a few.
We’ve evolved over the last decade. And, we’re not done yet – this year we will launch support for various collaboration platforms and even more Web 2.0 networks. Because of this metamorphosis, we have changed our name. Oh, and there is this small company based in Cupertino, California that launched a video chat application by the same name (yes, we were aware of it in advance) and I hear that it’s catching on…
Few companies have the opportunity to select a new name for a thriving business and we wanted one that would better reflect what we do today and our vision for tomorrow.
Changing our name….
We started mid-last year by rebranding one of our two core platform offerings from IMAuditor to Vantage. The dictionary defines a vantage point as “…a position that affords a broad overall view or perspective, as of a place or situation.” Vantage and USG provide an overall view of all the communications in your enterprise. But more than just a view, they give you the ability to ACTIVELY ensure COMPLIANCE with your security, management and regulatory policies.
Mark the words: ACTIVE COMPLIANCE. That’s what we enable: Thus we are Actiance.
Welcome to Actiance…it’s still a great company.
For the Love of Dodd-Frank
Posted by nleong in Compliance, Enterprise IM, Public IM, Social Networking, Unified Communications, Web 2.0 on December 9, 2010
There’s been a lot of chatter recently over Dodd-Frank, the act that was passed to promote more financial stability following the crisis of 2008-09. Designed to improve accountability and transparency in the financial system, it’s ushered in sweeping changes to financial regulation, unseen since the days of the Great Depression. So you know it must be a big deal if it’s keeping lobbyists and lawyers busy in the nation’s capital.
What’s it all about?
Under Dodd-Frank, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) must create rules to establish a fiduciary duty for broker dealers and provide disclosures of material conflicts by broker dealers and registered investment advisors. If that statement is adopted, each broker dealer would be required to provide potential customers with a written statement, prior to working with them. The broker disclosure statement would require that the written statement given to customers outline such information as: description of the types of accounts and services that the broker dealer provides, any areas of potential conflicts with such services, disclosure of all financial and other incentives, and the limitations on the duties a firm owes to its customers.
Translation? Broker dealers must be completely forthcoming and open when they’re prospecting for new business or new customers. And they have to be very clear from the outset what kinds of services they can offer, any potential conflicts of interest, and other such items. This puts a tighter leash on broker dealers and you can bet that the regulatory agencies will be keeping a close eye on the content to ensure that relevant parties meet requirements on full disclosure. The US government is taking steps to avoid a repeat of what happened a couple years ago.
If you need to monitor the communications of broker dealers or investment advisors, then it’s now possible to monitor and archive instant messages, content posted to social networks, as well as BlackBerry SMS and PIN content. As there are so many ways for broker dealers to communicate these days, it’s not just about email anymore. That’s so 1990s. Now, you’ve got Facebook, Twitter, Skype, OCS, Sametime, SMS, to name just a few.
In fact, there are around 330,000 sales folks on LinkedIn who work in the financial services sector in the US. That’s a lot of people for regulators to monitor. Making sure broker dealers stay in line with the Dodd-Frank regulations is becoming ever more challenging, but at least now, firms can now leverage technology options to ensure that real-time communications are your friend – and not foe.
Who’s Your Daddy – Federal or State Regulations?
Posted by nleong in Social Networking, Unified Communications, Web 2.0, Web Security on October 13, 2010
When it comes to regulation of the financial services industry, nearly all the focus to date has been at the national level. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have rightly been in the spotlight regarding the issuing of social media guidance for the financial services sector. The scope of SEC and FINRA regulations extend across state borders and is applied even-handedly on a national level. However, in August of this year, the state of Florida amended its own record-keeping regulations to reflect the growing trend of social media within the enterprise. This was hammered home in an interview we did with Federal Computer Week, where we noticed that Florida was leading the way with respect to specific state guidelines for these new communications channels.
Before August of this year, Florida’s guidelines were drafted with only email in mind. However, given the pace of change within the technology space and the plethora of communications channels now available, Florida realized that its record-keeping guidelines needed to be updated to reflect the changing times. As a result, the state’s General Records Schedule for State and Local Government Agencies was amended to include SMS, BlackBerry PIN, MMS, Facebook, and Twitter within its scope. Florida’s amendment created a buzz that other states would soon follow suit. However, just last week, the state amended Rule 69W-100.007, stating that if an advertisement or piece of sales literature complies with NASD Rule 2210, then it does not have to be approved or filed with the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, effective September 30, 2010.
And for those in the dark about Rule 2210, it requires that a registered principal of a firm approve all advertisements and sales literature prior to use either electronically or in writing and that they all be maintained in a separate file for a period of three years from the date of last use.
What this essentially amounts to is deference to federal guidelines when it comes to overlapping provisions between federal and state bodies. More specifically, the federal standard reigns supreme with respect to the marketing of financial instruments. This clarification on the part of Florida really underscores the importance of remaining compliant with FINRA rules. Other states are following in Florida’s footsteps by incorporating FINRA into their own guidelines.
We’ve got a solid handle on these SEC and FINRA rules because that’s right up our alley – making sure that companies in heavily-regulated industries stay compliant. We’ve got over 1,500 customers, many of which are in the financial services industry. In fact, we count nearly all of the top ten US banks as our customers and about two-thirds of financial services professionals in the US work at a company that uses FaceTime solutions.
FaceTime tracks regulatory developments closely to ensure that the latest trends are considered when building new features for our security, management, and compliance platforms – whether that’s for social networks or unified communications. From the moderation of content to logging and archiving, when we’re specifically talking about social networks, Socialite offers a host of features that can calm the nerves of even the most frazzled compliance and legal officers. At the end of the day, companies that are subject to FINRA regulations, for instance, rely on the level of attentiveness FaceTime applies to this sector and that our solutions are designed with the most applicable guidelines in mind. Check out Facetime’s Mapping of FINRA Regulatory Notice 10-06 to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to see what I mean.
“It’s compliance Jim, but not as we know it”
Posted by actiance in Compliance, Electronically Stored Information (ESI), Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise IM, Public IM, Unified Communications on August 31, 2010
From Robin Smith, Technical Manager, EMEA, FaceTime Communications
I recently read an article posted on The Register, based out of the UK, about the great advances the current version of Microsoft’s Unified Communications platform (OCS) has made, when compared with previous incarnations. I’m in full agreement and look forward to the next release, currently called CS14, details can be found here. Given that a large number of our customers have either industry or legal compliance requirements they must comply with, I did feel one of the final comments needed a little more qualification than space in the article allowed for:
The moment I read that, I was catapulted back to the late 1980s and ever since haven’t been able to get the incredibly annoying “Star Trekkin” by “The Firm” out of my head. Click here or search YouTube for “The Firm – Star Trekking” if you have no idea what I’m talking about – your ears won’t thank you. Why? Well, compliance is in the eye of the person with a fine and possible jail sentence hanging over their head and as Spock’s line in the song goes:
There are in fact a few different ways you can store OCS IMs both natively with Microsoft products and using third-party solutions. But, as those who write on bits of paper or print things out so they don’t forget or lose them and then can’t find the bit of paper when they actually need it can attest to, just because you’ve archived something doesn’t mean:
- you can ever find it again, even though you know it’s in that pile somewhere
- it will be complete, maybe the dog ate half of it
- that it will come back looking the same, maybe you spilled coffee on it or you printed out several pages and they’ve been mixed up so the order is wrong
- that someone else can look through the pile and find the piece of paper
- different things of difference genres or sizes will fit or stay in the pile properly
To achieve all of the above, you need special controls around how you capture, store, search and recover data.
You need to be able to show that what has been recovered is the same as what was originally stored and that it is a true representation of the original data. You should also make sure that in the case of a multi-party chat where someone wasn’t part of the whole conversation that the view of their data is different to that of the other participants’. Let alone the ease of use issues around eDiscovery; making it possible for someone (often non-technical) to search the archive and recover what they need without having to become an expert in SQL scripting. So if we can achieve that, are we compliant? Maybe, maybe not.
What about usage policy? Can my Traders and Research teams talk to each other? Do I want Billy in the call centre using my OCS system to ask all the eligible young ladies in the department out on dates?
What about content security? If I’m allowing file transfers, shouldn’t they be stored along with the IM conversation transcripts? Shouldn’t you be virus checking file transfers, making sure that staff aren’t using inappropriate language over IM, especially with business partners through my OCS edge server.
My point is that for some people compliance isn’t just about storing what happened, it’s about making sure certain things can’t happen in the first place and being able to retrieve it in a fashion that meets regulatory requirements.
“There’s Klingons on the starboard bow”
The list goes on…and we haven’t even thought about what else is happening on the corporate network. What about Skype, Yahoo, GoogleTalk , Windows Live Messenger and Blackberry PIN / SMS to name but a few?
Of course the OCS Archive server wasn’t designed to be an enterprise platform covering so many different flavours of IM – but it is rare to see just one flavour of Instant Messaging on a corporate network. From a management perspective alone it makes sense to have a consistent policy around all authorised channels and block everything else.
…and finally, there’s the whole issue surrounding Social Networking. “We block it”, I hear you say. Well, that’s all well and good, but last time someone told me that I searched Twitter and found no less than 5 accounts tweeting on behalf of the company. I then searched Facebook and found a network, groups and employees.
Couple this with the huge pressure many companies are under to enable sites like Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter for legitimate business purposes along with the reach it gives sales and marketing for the company’s brand and you can see why there’s such a lot of noise in the corporate space surrounding Social Networking.
Ask FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) or the UK’s FSA (Financial Services Authority), both have issued specific guidelines regarding social networking posts, saying that they need to be treated as forms of electronic messaging. This means that they effectively need to be subject to the same controls mentioned above.
So. Yes, you can indeed store your OCS IM conversations in the OCS Archive server. Does it give you IM compliance? Not as we know it, Captain.
Robin J Smith is FaceTime’s Technical Manager for EMEA, an occasional Star Trek viewer and is currently looking for suggestions on how to get the above song out of his head. You can follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
Vantage: It’s officially the best.
Posted by actiance in Compliance, Enterprise 2.0, Public IM, Unified Communications on May 10, 2010
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2010 marks my tenth year with FaceTime – and
I’ve seen some changes in those 10 years – no more so than in the Financial
Services sector, where Vantage, the product that I manage excels. Having a third party organization verify that
is exceedingly gratifying – and that’s what happened recently. At the SC Magazine Europe Awards in London,
Vantage was unveiled as the Best Security Solution for Financial Services.
Perhaps it’s the pedigree – Vantage is based
on the equally award winning IMAuditor, perhaps it’s the new features that we
rolled out recently (from support for Microsoft OCS CAC, to Group Chat support
and Skype). Maybe it’s the product
manager….
Ultimately, I think its that we absolutely
understand the requirements of financial institutions, their reliance on real
time communications, rigorous regulatory requirements and we do this alongside
our understanding of the real time collaborative internet.
Features such as real-time logging and policy for Microsoft Group Chat,
data leak prevention for file transfers, zero day worm protection, inline legal
disclaimers and a full 360 degree audit capability make Vantage uniquely
positioned in heavily regulated industries such as Financial Services.
Who am I kidding, of course it’s all due to the product management….
Brian Babin is Director of Product Management for FaceTime’s Vantage and
Insight products and celebrates his tenth year with the company in 2010
Farewell old friend. Its time for the next generation.
Posted by actiance in Compliance, Enterprise IM, Product Announcements, Public IM, Unified Communications on March 29, 2010
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The drive to extend collaboration outside of our own
network boundaries has never been so strong.
Whether our drivers are to save cost, a geographically challenged work
force, a diverse supply chain network or reduce time to market – we’re all
looking to collaborate and communicate with individuals who don’t necessarily
adhere to the same security, management and compliance controls that you have
on your network.
And we’re using a variety of tools, I hesitate to
admit to how many different applications I use to communicate, not just
internally here at FaceTime, but with suppliers around the world, our channel
and strategic partners, prospects and customers. It’s probably a good exercise actually to
think about that right now.
My real time communications tools:
- Microsoft OCS
- Microsoft Live Meeting
- IBM Lotus Sametime
- Lotus Sametime Unyte
- Cisco Webex
- Skype
- Windows Live (MSN)
- AOL
- Yahoo
- GoogleTalk
Wow. There’s a
wonder I ever get any work done with that little lot eh?
But I’m not unique.
It’s representative of the world in which we work now – that enterprise
deployed Unified Communications platforms, like OCS and Sametime are
co-existing alongside those Web 2.0 tools that I installed myself – because -
well because that’s how I communicate with different folks around the world.
The need to secure and manage the whole picture has
never been stronger either. The same risks apply in our 2.0 world as always did
in a 1.0 world – so whether your bugbear is inbound threats, outbound data
leakage and managing your errant employees – all these areas require
consideration. I guess the only problem
is that in a 2.0 real time world – the issue becomes apparent, well, in real
time.
Compliance too affects real time communications. Regulatory bodies, from the SEC, FINRA, HIPAA
to the Financial Services Authority have all issued guidelines and rules on use
and retention of real time communications – they are, after all, simple
electronic communications, and subject to the same regulation – AND LEGISLATION
- that your email is.
If you want to take a look at just how much growth
there has been in the usage of real time communications tools and how prepared
the average organization is to deal with security, management and compliance
issues- take a look at the results of FaceTime’s fifth annual survey – and
compare it to what’s going on in your organization.
Today, we launched Vantage, the successor to
IMAuditor.
IMAuditor - farewell old friend, but our world has
moved well beyond pure IM and just auditing – Vantage heralds the new standard
for security, management and compliance for real time and Unified
Communications – giving you a vantage point, a view, visibility and control over all facets of real
time and unified communications and the individual tools and capabilities in
those platforms. Vantage also gives you a significant advantage – from managing
OCS CAC, to controlling federation, non registered employees, logging Sametime
announcements – and across the widest range of UC platforms and public IM
networks which now includes Skype.
Why not
take a look for yourself? – and bring your security, management and compliance
for unified communications up to the new standard.
Sarah Carter, who can also be reached on old fashioned email: scarter@facetime.com
