I was fortunate to spend time talking with Steve Marsh, CEO of Smarsh, which is a leading cloud-based archiving company. In the spirit of helping organizations with the basics on digital communications and cloud security, I asked Steve to share his thinking on the topic. Here are some of his thoughts:
SM: While archiving and supervision solutions are often viewed as tools for meeting or demonstrating regulatory compliance, they have solid overall value for smaller and mid-sized business - arming decision makers with information and helping different departments mitigate corporate risk.
LR: Can you give an example of a non-compliance use case?
SM: Sure. Benton County, Washington, a government agency, uses us for risk mitigation related to its IT infrastructure and archiving – in addition to compliance needs. They took a mindful approach in planning for future IT initiatives with social media expansion and email migration. They did not wait until they had a problem – they planned ahead. (show link to use case)
Plus, thousands of statutory requirements in the United States and around the world require the retention of business records, including content found in email, social media, instant messaging, websites and other sources. These requirements affect a broad range of sectors, including energy, financial services, healthcare, publicly held corporations and government. Even if your company isn’t in one of these industries, archiving your digital communications can help your business become less vulnerable to risk, and provide specific benefits for your IT, legal, human resources, and marketing teams.
LR: Can you give us a quick look at more of the key benefits of cloud-based archiving?:
SM: Take IT, for example. Archiving of digital communications can serve several functions. One key benefit is that it can help the IT team manage its data security responsibilities, and enforce information governance and compliance policies.
In talking with Steve, I realized that this is not just about compliance, but rather a company strategic mindset for increased productivity, better management, and better security that all SMBs and mid-sized organizations and the partners they do business with need.
Have you looked into this for your organization? It directly ties into your company growth, sales, marketing and how employee data and communications are managed. While it may not sound sexy to talk about, it is critical for your business success.
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