5 Tips for Deploying a Secure Messaging App
It's one thing to choose a secure messaging app. Getting employees to use it and training them on best practices is another matter altogether.
These days, it's well know that an enterprise-grade secure messaging app should provide a highly secure and private messaging solution that can increase collaboration and communication among employees without compromising sensitive company data.
The challenge, however, is getting employees to consistently use the secure messaging app and not fall back to old habits that involve messaging solutions that are not secure. In the worst case, you spend hours finding the best secure messaging app around, but then employees undermine the initiative by not using the product.
Best Practices for Deploying a Secure Messaging App
Rolling out a secure messaging app within an organization requires a plan. The fundamentals of change management apply, and those who take employee adoption of the new solution as a given are often surprised to see that they've invested in a messaging solution that nobody uses.
Here are a few tips and best practices to ensure a successful messaging app deployment:
- Have a Champion from Senior Management -- A senior executive should be involved in your secure messaging project from inception to completion. Executive involvement raises the visibility of the project and conveys the importance of the initiative.
- Have a Transparent Selection Process -- Unless you protect against it, there's always going to be somebody who thinks you made a bad decision and trash talks your selected app behind your back. Accordingly, it's critically important to let people know what your secure messaging solution process was, how you weighted the various secure messaging platform selection criteria, and why you ultimately chose the secure messaging app that you've decided to deploy. By keeping employees informed, you'll get their backing and their buy-in, both of which are key success factors for a smooth secure messaging app deployment.
- Provide Training and Education -- Don't assume that employees will understand how the app works and fall in love with it. We recommend short training sessions that teach employees how to use the new messaging app. As part of this training, it's important to drive home the importance of security to the organization. There are plenty of security breaches you can point to in the news that will let employees know that these are not only hypothetical issues you are addressing, and that security should be taken seriously.
- Carrots and Sticks -- All well-designed behavioral modification programs rely heavily on rewards (carrots) and penalties (sticks). As a carrot, consider buying lunch for the top five employees who send the most messages via your enterprise's new secure messaging app. A stick, on the other hand, can be as harsh as firing an employee who sends business messages on a non-secure platform. Alternatively, executives might refuse to respond to employees who send messages without using the new secure messaging app.
- Ask for Feedback -- If employees are not using the secure messaging app, ask them why. This is a simple tactic that can identify usage blocks that might otherwise not be well understood. When rolling out a communication tool, good communication is often the key to success.
These onboarding and deployment tips for rolling out a secure messaging app should get you on the right track to making your organization more secure and improving employee productivity. This is a transformation process that is no different from deploying an ERP system, a CRM system or a new phone system. Doing it right requires leadership and a plan. Of course, it also helps if you've chosen a great secure messaging app, but we'll save that discussion for another day.
NetSfere: The Practical Solution in a Secure Messaging App
At NetSfere, we specialize in providing industry-leading secure messaging apps for enterprise organizations. A user-friendly platform and bring your own device (BYOD) compatibility make our secure messaging app the best solution for companies seeking out new ways to enhance collaboration and communication between employees without compromising security.
To test the latest secure messaging app platform, call NetSfere at (224) 764-3400 or learn more about our free trial to get started today.
