The results are in

Theta Lake is delighted to unveil its 2023/24 Digital Communications Governance, Compliance and Security Report. In its fifth year, this unique industry report provides an unparalleled insight into not only how modern unified communication tools are being used in practice and the challenges faced by firms in a unified communication and collaboration (UCC) powered work environment, but also current good and better approaches to managing compliance and security challenges.  

The voice of the industry

We are grateful to the more than 600 senior technology and compliance professionals who took part in the independently conducted research, without whom this comprehensive report would not be possible. These exclusive insights portray the voice of the industry, representing IT, Unified Communications and Compliance leaders across financial services in the U.S. and the UK, including 80% of the Globally Significantly Important Banks, the largest financial institutions in the world. Participants' own words, highlighting specific issues and findings have been shared with permission.

Digital communications governance is a paramount concern for financial services leaders

In an era defined by rapid advancements in the usage of UCC tools and an evolving regulatory landscape that has led to fines now totalling over $2.6bn for recordkeeping failures, the importance of digital communications governance cannot be overstated. Gartner’s newly coined market category, Digital Communications Governance (DCG), acknowledges the need for an updated approach to compliance and security for the UCC tools that make up the fabric of the workplace - and which will become a familiar element of financial services firms’ business plans. 

In practice, the compliance burden that firms are currently dealing with, and the incompatibility of existing archiving and recording tools with UCC, is evident, with almost all (98%) of respondents reporting dissatisfaction with their existing archives and voice recording tools.  

Related key trends in the findings highlight:

• The ongoing risk of major fines for financial services firms from unmonitored or improperly captured communications, making the need for digital communications governance an urgent, board level priority.
  
  
• How firms are disabling core UCC features because their pre-existing tools can’t effectively capture them and / or make them searchable for detecting and reporting risks. This has led to unintended consequences, including the continuing use of unmonitored channels as employees opt to use the most effective communication tools.
  
  
• How communications compliance has become a board level focus. That likely comes as no surprise given the intersection of ongoing trends in the digital workplace, including the shift to cloud UCC and migration to cloud voice that is mobile messaging enabled, with the dramatic rise in communication recordkeeping fines.   However, what is particularly noticeable is that the vast majority of firms (77%) are revisiting their approach to communications compliance, alongside another 17% that are planning to. 
  
  

See how you compare 

As with previous iterations of the report, the findings help organizations benchmark their own practices, experiences and expectations against the wider industry and to help identify any gaps or areas of potential exposure.  

By benchmarking against more than 600 financial services peers, you can uncover valuable best practices for reducing your risk profile and compliantly unlocking the full productivity and ROI of UCC investments. If you’re an IT or UC stakeholder for platforms like Microsoft Teams, Webex, Zoom, RingCentral, and Asana or have communications compliance responsibilities, from recordkeeping through to review and supervision, then the must-read insights include:

• Trends and usage of unified communication platforms 
• Challenges and best practices relating to 
  • Capture, recordkeeping and reconciliation
  • Identification, search, replay and responsive retrieval
  • Proactive compliance and supervision
• Future Expectations – from regulatory expectations to generative AI.
  
  

READ THE FULL REPORT here.

Ways to learn more:

• Visit us at: ThetaLake.com | LinkedIn | Twitter at @thetalake
• Join a weekly 30-minute demo webinar here or request a bespoke demo today from our friendly team here
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