Productivity and Efficiency without the Risk
Today’s mobile-first workforce is bringing significant productivity and efficiency gains to enterprises, and many employees are using a range of mobile apps to achieve this. The drawback to the proliferation of mobile apps in the enterprise are the security and compliance risks that may come with them. This is especially true when employees use consumer-grade mobile messaging apps for business communication and collaboration.
While collaboration is critical to enhancing productivity and efficiency, enterprises don’t have to put security and compliance at risk to achieve gains in these areas. A secure mobile-first enterprise messaging solution like NetSfere is the key to realizing significant productivity gains without compromising on security, compliance or regulatory requirements.
Mobile messaging apps are integral to business communication today as the workforce becomes increasingly distributed and mobile. There is no doubt that the workplace is evolving. Consider that approximately 40 percent of the workforce works remotely at some frequency, 73% of companies are projected to have remote workers by 2028 and the global mobile workforce is expected to reach 1.87 billion workers by 2022.
The shift in how and where work gets done is translating to a significant volume of business communications being conducted on mobile devices. A recent study by NetSfere in conjunction with 451 Research found that 80% of employee respondents use their smartphones for business purposes on a daily basis and three out of four respondents said they use SMS daily.
The preference for mobile messaging is fueled by the convenience and productivity benefits inherent in using this technology. In fact, nearly half of both employees and IT decision makers surveyed in the NetSfere/451 Research study believe they stand to gain six or more hours a week as a direct result of using their smartphones.
The downside is that some of this increased productivity may be gained at the expense of putting the enterprise at risk for security and compliance issues. Many employees are using consumer-grade messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger for business communication and collaboration. It is estimated that two-thirds of employees (66%) use third-party messaging apps in the workplace. This presents a real problem for enterprises because popular consumer messaging apps do not contain the proper encryption and security protocols needed to lock down communication and align with compliance and regulatory laws.
Because consumer-grade messaging apps are not purpose-built for the enterprise, they open the door to increased data breach threats that can expose private company information. IBM’s most recent Cost of a Data Breach Report estimated the average cost of a data breach at $3.92 million. This calculation factors in the many damaging costs associated with a data breach including legal, regulatory and technical activities, loss of brand equity, customer turnover and reduced employee productivity.
In a digitally driven age, employees require state-of-the-art tools that help them work more efficiently, productively and securely. Enterprises are learning that if the right business apps for mobile messaging aren't accessible or effective, employees will turn to consumer apps that are not secure and limit productivity.
The solution is to introduce secure enterprise messaging in a way that it aligns with their organization’s communication workflows and existing infrastructure while incentivizing employees to abandon consumer-grade messaging apps and embrace the enterprise messaging platform.
Employees will embrace simple-to-use apps that provide the familiar features of consumer-grade messaging apps. NetSfere delivers a similar look and functionality that mirrors the popular consumer app experience but adds the security and compliance features necessary for the workplace, including global cloud-based service availability, device-to-device encryption, location-based features and administrative controls. Built to meet a variety of industry-specific needs, NetSfere also offers regulatory compliances, such as SOX and HIPAA.
Ultimately NetSfere’s unique implementation extends benefits of mobile messaging across all preferred channels for enterprise communication – text, voice and video. These benefits combined with the the convenience of mobile messaging drives not only collaboration, but productivity gains as well. For example, NetSfere users can initiate a group call with a single tap—offering a simple yet powerful way to connect with colleagues that eliminates user friction to enable instant decision making. Through this and more, NetSfere offers a way for enterprises to improve productivity and profitability within the workplace without compromising security or compliance.
