Imagine that your company is in a legal dispute with a client. It starts off as the classic he said / she said battle....until their lawyer presents an SMS text received by the client from one of your sales managers that completely destroy the basis of your argument. Now ask yourself, do you know what your employees are saying via text to your clients on company issued or subsidized phones?
Think about it. This is a very real possibility for you and your firm. Texting has become common in the workplace. Employees text employees. Customers text account managers. Executives text subordinates. Every text goes out into a virtually uncategorized and unregulated black hole. It's the communication world's version of the wild west.
You may be lucky if you have your own Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) that tracks all of your handset communications. But, even then, is anyone regulating that conversation? Sure, every risk or legal department sends out messages to employees about email etiquette and warns of disclosure rules. But does anyone really talk about texting? I would bet less than 1% do.
It is time to realize that texting has become the new covert channel of communication for the business world. You don't need to be on a PC - which is standard fare for instant messaging. SMS texting is much easier to pull off at any time, anywhere. A flip phone with a keyboard is all it takes to rifle off hundreds of inflammatory and potentially damaging texts a year. The current bevy of SMS lawsuits are just focused on spam. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Just wait until millions of employees tip the scales of justice.
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