Unifying your Unified Communications Recording - Part 4: Instant Messaging

Instant Messaging has rapidly become a key part of communications for many organizations. What in the past was a stand-alone luxury (AOL, Google, etc.) has become an integrated function for companies such as Microsoft and Cisco. It is the third leg of Unified Communications (News - Alert) – Voice, Video, and IM. 

Additionally, as more companies encourage Federation between themselves and others by utilizing public services such as Skype (News - Alert), IM can become a valuable B2B and B2C communications vehicle.

With these changes, IM must be a part of any recording strategy. IM is subject to discovery under the United States Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This means any company involved in Federal litigation may need to produce instant messages as evidence. 

Governments at all levels may need to produce IM under Federal, state, and local Freedom of Information Acts. The financial services sector requires IM archiving under SEC (News - Alert) regulations and utilities have FERC to contend with.

All this is nothing new. 

A quick survey of the marketplace shows that there are numerous IM archiving solutions available. Lync even has the ability to natively archive messages through Exchange. 

The main issue with these solutions is that they perpetuate the silo approach to information management. If you have Unified Communications, you should have Unified Recording and Archiving. This ensures integration between all communications, and makes retrieving recordings much easier. 

How have you been recording your IMs? Are you putting your company at risk? Let us know!

ISI Telemanagement Solutions (News - Alert) Inc. is committed to providing solutions designed to increase organizations' efficiency, productivity and profitability, by providing reporting and recording tools for enhanced telecom management. We understand that each company's needs are unique and, therefore, we provide a robust set of tools to address every situation.

ISI's Solutions portfolio brings together time-proven technologies to report and record on your voice and video communications, including real-time wireless and landline Call Accounting & Reporting,Telecom Audit & Optimization, Voice & Video Call Recording, Invoice & Inventory Management, and Wireless Management. ISI's facilities, processes, and data security comply with ISO 9001:2008, SSAE 16, HIPAA, Safe Harbor and other important standards.