Social Business Boom Brings Legal Obligations

Workplace communication has been transformed over the past decade. Recently, the emergence of “social business” platforms has allowed organizations to improve business performance by engaging with customers, employees, partners and suppliers. The world of social business comprises dozens of evolving products and services. For example, organizations are using enterprise platforms with instant messaging (IM), such as Microsoft Lync and IBM Sametime to promote easier communication among employees. At many companies these services replace conventional email.

Companies must be prepared to preserve and collect potentially relevant electronically stored information (ESI) associated with legal and regulatory matters, regardless of the media from which it derives. For years, the primary source of discoverable ESI was email. As email is replaced with newer forms of communication, legal and IT teams must adapt to a far more complex data environment. Many of the emerging social business platforms are cloud-based, so legal and compliance professionals face new challenges meeting their obligations, particularly because data recovery protocols vary from one cloud provider to another.

Organizations can take steps to mitigate the risks associated with the social business boom. A good policy starts with establishing parameters regarding which systems employees are permitted to use to disseminate company-related information. The policy should also delineate acceptable and unacceptable use of social business platforms. But a policy alone, even one that is well thought out, will not be effective if not properly enforced, regularly revisited and updated as necessary.