Text and SMS Message Archiving
What is Text Message Archiving?
Text message archiving describes the process by which organizations capture and digitally preserve the contents of text and SMS messages within a secure, centralized repository. With text messages being an extremely common way that communication occurs, including within official capacities and on both organization-owned and personal devices, the requirements for archiving this kind of communication fall directly under the electronic document and transmission retention requirements of many state and federal regulations.
At a high level, text and SMS archiving tools automatically capture and make a copy of all incoming and outgoing messages, just like the common Journaling functions of most email servers. Those copies are then ingested into the archiver which indexes and saves them to a secure data store, where they’re preserved in their original format and made searchable for the future.
With investigations and Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests for text communications becoming another daily frontier in the eDiscovery and transparency battlefields, texts can prove decisive in changing the outcome of any given situation.
For organizations looking to incorporate text messages into their communication and marketing strategies, or organizations who already formally or informally use them between employees, there is a strong business case for investing in a text message archiving solution. Here are just a few reasons why text and SMS archiving is necessary:
Compliance: Depending on which industry your organization is in, you may be subject to certain regulations that include language around electronic data archiving and storage. For example, state government institutions are subject to Sunshine laws, which make government records — including text message data — available to the public in the interest of ensuring open and ethical conduct. Most states’ Sunshine laws include specific language about how text message data must be captured, stored and reproduced upon request. Nearly every public institution has similar rules for electronic document retention, ranging from K-12 schools, municipalities and counties and even various public agencies. The private sector is far from immune either: public corporations are subject to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), which mandates rules for document retention and the storage of electronic records, including text and SMS messages. For organizations with even heavier regulations, rest assured that we can meet SEC, NARA, FINRA and other regulations with ease.
Data Security: With DataCove, you can set automated alerts for certain keywords that might point to inappropriate conduct or data leaks within text communications and take proactive steps to resolve those issues. Additionally, DataCove features built-in tools, such as redaction functions to obscure classified, confidential or otherwise sensitive information and audit logging tools to monitor all user access activity in the system.
eDiscovery: When a lawsuit or Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request comes through for your organization, having a comprehensive (and easily accessible) record of all business communications, including those that took place over text and SMS, is essential. Oftentimes, businesses will receive eDiscovery requests as part of legal proceedings, which require them to locate, procure, review and exchange electronically stored data — which, again, includes text message data — for evidentiary purposes. EDiscovery requests come with strict deadlines; failure to meet these deadlines could result in heavy penalties for your organization. Keeping all of this data ready to go for these requests, combined with rapid search capability and the ability to monitor the SMS/Text communications, means you’ll never be caught flat-footed.
Business Insights: Text communications contain a wealth of information that can be used for business purposes, such as analyzing prior customer interactions or training new hires. Storing these exchanges within a single, searchable location prevents data loss and ensures easy access for authorized users. With DataCove’s highly customizable user access options, access to a predecessor’s communications - but no one else’s - can also be made available for users taking on someone else’s previous relationships. This is invaluable for marketing and sales relationships in particular, providing insights that were built over years that would otherwise take just as long to recreate with someone new.
Okay, got it! Let me get with Legal to draft who we need to archive and I’ll get back to you.
Users in Group Chats can be quickly discovered by simply selecting the Chat Participant button, which shows all of the personnel who would’ve received the message without having to hunt through long text chains.
The Chat Participant View shows everyone in the conversation all at once, complete with phone number and email address association.
Pull a quick estimate of what it costs to add Text Message Archiving to your organization using our estimator below.
Get the full context for every conversation with our Message Threading feature, which visually groups all messages, images, videos and files included in a conversation cohesively in chronological order.
No more sorting through individual texts back and forth and trying to understand the sequence of events!
Need to provide text message support for landlines or other services, like RingCentral, that cannot normally receive them? DataCove can help with that via our Enterprise Number Archiver (ENA) application.
For BYOD users, ENA can also provide a separate phone number for your employees to use for business communications. This keeps personal and business communications separate, even when on the same device.
This can also allay privacy concerns from employee’s using their own phones for corporate use and being afraid of their own personal data being archived.
Why Is Text Message Archiving Necessary?
DataCove’s flexible archiving options enable us to support any ownership model, including bring your own device (BYOD), corporate-issued employee devices, mixed environments and more! You can always find the right blend of tools based on your unique requirements with us.
Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, USCellular; yes to all! DataCove supports all major mobile service providers. Our archiving software is also compatible with all mobile devices, including Apple, Google, LG and Samsung products.
DataCove’s Text Message Archiving service is available on-premises, for organizations who need to keep their data onsite, as well as in a cloud hosted platform.
Whatever your needs may be; DataCove can meet them!
All data sent is captured, including images, documents and even MP3’s and videos. Anything that can be sent via a text is archived all in one spot.