Emerging tech & monitoring gaps plaguing business compliance

Emerging research from Veritas Technologies reveals that businesses are struggling to keep their compliance monitoring updated, in relation to the ever-evolving modes of communication employed today. Based on a recent survey, only 6% of businesses have adapted their sentiment analysis to routinely incorporate video, although the average enterprise is already using 2.75 different video communications and collaborative tools, such as Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and Webex.

Furthermore, the survey demonstrated that more than two-thirds (67%) of companies aren't monitoring off-channel communication. Off-channel communication encompasses business-related interactions taking place on non-approved platforms, for instance, an employee's personal phone or social media. It's not shocking then that a significant 52 % have seen the frequency and amount of non-compliance fines, that their organisations are being subjected to, escalate over the last three years.

The Managing Director ANZ of Veritas Technologies, Pete Murray highlighted the potential danger for many businesses: "With nearly four in five organisations intending to augment their utilisation of business communication applications, it's critical they concurrently expand their monitoring – otherwise, this could well turn into an Achilles heel."

Plus, sentiment analysis could allow businesses to pick up on early signs of potentially reckless or fraudulent activity, and offer invaluable customer insights.

Murray further commented on the importance of comprehensive monitoring: "Companies are already filing away their emails for discovery purposes when evidence of communication is required. Now that video calls and business collaboration tools are becoming ubiquitous, it's time for organisations to start treating all types of communication the same way – fully monitored, analysed, and archived. It's not merely about emails or phone calls anymore, video calls have become a mainstay. Limiting monitoring to selective communication channels means organisations could fail to recognise and manage their primary sources of risk."

Meanwhile, off-channel communication continues to be a widespread data compliance monitoring gap. Notably, just 33% of respondents reported that their organisations are currently keeping track of off-channel communication, leaving a large 67% that aren't. Despite this, 68% of these companies intend to monitor off-channel communication in the future.

Given these findings, it's perhaps unsurprising that non-compliance fines are on the rise. Over half (52%) of the surveyed companies confessed that their organisation's non-compliance penalties, both in terms of amount and frequency, have steadily increased over the past three years. Only less than a quarter claimed that these penalties decreased.

No regulated industry, which participated in the survey, was immune to these increases. However, the energy/utilities sector was most likely to see a surge, while the healthcare/medical sector was least likely.