Financial firms can connect with their customers by way of social media while also keeping electronic message archiving in compliance, using the combined technology of a partnership between Vancouver-based compliance e-mail archiving provider Global Relay Communications Inc. and Canton, Ohio-based social media archiving technology vendor BMRW & Associates Inc.
The two companies launched a joint social media archiving and compliance solution. “All their (enterprise) data remains in one place,” said Blane Warrene, the CEO of BMRW & Associates. “Most of the data is in the cloud, going to one secure destination.”
Global Relay is known for its indexing and e-mail storage capabilities as well as instant message storage. The partnership was a way of incorporating compliance tools with an archiving solution to aggregate social media content, according to Warrene.
Enterprises are becoming more aware of the benefits of using social media and archiving it. “This is an indication of where the market is going,” said Tim Hickernell, an analyst at Info-tech Research Group Inc.
Arkovi approached Global Relay late last year to propose a partnership. Global Relay chose Arkovi out of three companies, according to Warren Roy, the CEO of Global Relay. “Thanks to this partnership, Global Relay now offers social media archiving as well,” Warrene said.
This new software will allow enterprises to reach customers through social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and blogs, while archiving and monitoring electronic messages, according to Warrene.
Legal and compliance risks have deterred financial firms from using a lot of social media, however, Warrene said Arkovi meets criteria such as pre-review and monitoring social media as determined by the governmental institution, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Arkovi helps manage employees’ social media activity, monitoring entries and allowing a pre-review feature, he added.
“It’s only for financial companies, it’s not really a benefit…it’s a law,” Roy said.
The partnership was a way to adhere to FINRA laws by the U.S. government and equivalent laws in Canada, according to Roy.
“Social media opens up exciting new avenues for financial firms to reach out to clients,” said Shannon Rogers, the president of Global Relay, in a report. “With this partnership, we’re creating an end-to-end solution for archiving, compliance and e-discovery of all types of business messaging – including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and blogs.”