Compliance issues are moving beyond e-mail as providers of other collaboration technologies begin to address the growing need for companies to store and track online communication.
This week, Web conferencing was the latest to join the compliance fray. WebEx Communications Inc. on Wednesday launched a new option for its online meeting applications that allows companies to automatically store and transfer saved conferencing sessions in archiving systems.
Called the WebEx Retention Solution, the service is targeted to financial services companies, which are facing a range of requirements to save electronic communications from the Securities and Exchange Commission and laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley, said Doug Louie, senior industry manager for financial services at WebEx.
“We recognized that [compliance] will become an increasing burden for these companies,” Louie said.
WebExs compliance service can retain meetings, chat sessions, data, audio and logins across applications on its MediaTone Network. The saved communications then can be indexed for searching and delivering to WORM-based archival systems, said Santa Clara, Calif.-based WebEx.
To run the WebEx Retention Solution, customers pay for an additional seat in online meetings. That seat acts as the recorder of session information, Louie said.
WebEx has 23 of the top 30 financial services companies using its Web conferencing applications, and a top 10 investment bank is already using the WebEx Retention Solution, Louis said.