The Challenges of Messaging Apps in Business Communications

Messaging apps have become the preferred way people communicate today. This is true for personal or business use. They are fast, convenient, and fit seamlessly into daily life. They enable quick, real-time interactions without the typical delays of email or disruptions of phone calls. With features like voice notes, images, reactions, and file sharing, messaging apps in business offer an intuitive and engaging experience that aligns with modern communication habits.

In the United States and across many parts of the world, WhatsApp has become the go-to way people communicate in their personal lives. Naturally, WhatsApp has spread into business. Once people grew comfortable messaging friends and family, they quickly began using WhatsApp, iMessage, and WeChat to communicate with customers and colleagues. The simplicity and convenience of WhatsApp and others make them the obvious choice for messaging apps in business communication today.

Challenges – Governance, Compliance, and Security

For businesses, allowing employees to communicate with existing and potential customers over their preferred messaging channels has many clear advantages. However, despite the conveniences and other benefits, messaging apps in business present enterprises with a unique set of challenges they must address.

These challenges include governance (meaning monitoring and control of the company activities that take place on these communication channels), compliance with government regulations, and protection against ongoing cybersecurity risks.

The research and advisory firm Gartner refers to the framework and tools to address these challenges as Digital Communications Governance and Archiving (DCGA). Gartner defines DCGA as the enforcement of corporate governance and regulatory compliance across the digital communications channels available to employees. Gartner defines DCGA as a framework and set of tools that help businesses manage and enforce consistent messaging app policies across the enterprise. If today fewer than 10% of enterprises proactively manage employee digital communication content for corporate policy and general business insights, Gartner predicts that by 2028, 25% of all enterprises will. 

Challenge #1 – Governance

The biggest challenge for organizations is maintaining oversight and control over the business-related conversations happening on WhatsApp and similar messaging channels. Unmonitored messaging creates compliance risks, data security vulnerabilities, and legal exposure, especially in regulated industries. In short, when employees do business on unmonitored channels, it creates significant risks for the employer.

“Businesses must ensure that these conversations are captured, archived, and governed appropriately,” advises Avi Pardo, Chief Business Officer at business communications platform provider LeapXpert.

Challenge #2 – Compliance

Compliance is a significant issue facing enterprises, which range from data retention requirements to privacy laws and industry-specific regulations. For example, financial services firms must adhere to strict record-keeping measures, while healthcare organizations must protect patient data under HIPAA and similar laws. At the same time, governments are under considerable pressure to enforce regulations that preserve records for public access.

“Failure to properly govern messaging can lead to regulatory fines and reputational damage,” adds Pardo.

Challenge #3 – Security

Teams can layer messaging channels with security measures, such as antivirus and antimalware protection, content disarm and reconstruction (CDR) for file attachments, and AI-driven impersonation detection, when they properly monitor them.

Alternatively, if teams leave messaging channels unmonitored and unsecured, they constantly put sensitive company and customer information at risk of data breaches, fraud, and regulatory violations. In this situation, there is no way to detect or prevent unauthorized access, impersonation attempts, or malware infiltration through shared files.

“Businesses must ensure that all communications are secured, governed, and auditable to protect both their data and their compliance posture,” says Pardo.

AI and the Business Messaging Ecosystem

Artificial Intelligence can play a critical role in automating compliance, detecting risks, and ensuring governance. AI can be applied to analyze conversations to flag policy violations, assist with data classification, and streamline message archiving. AI-powered insights can also help businesses identify communication patterns and potential security threats.

“Beyond compliance, AI unlocks powerful communication intelligence, turning messaging data into actionable insights that drive productivity,” explains Pardo. This, he says, enables customer-facing teams to collaborate more effectively by surfacing key trends, automating workflows, and enhancing decision-making.

Best Practice Strategies

Corporate guidelines are essential for outlining and enforcing proper employee conduct and the handling of sensitive data.

Gartner highlights that best practices for DCGA involve proactively managing the complexity and volume of modern communications tools through AI-enhanced platforms that enable regulatory compliance, data capture, supervision, and analytics. 

Strict regulations drive the financial services sector, while the need for better governance, efficiency, and risk management drives adoption in industries like retail, manufacturing, education, healthcare, and legal.

Commenting on how businesses can approach best practice strategies, Pardo states there is a clear need to “bridge the gap between messaging app convenience and enterprise-grade governance and compliance.” According to Pardo, the main driver for a best practice strategy is “to enable businesses to communicate through WhatsApp, iMessage, and other apps while ensuring every interaction is captured, secured, fully governed, and compliant with industry regulations.” This will give organizations the control they need without disrupting the way employees and customers prefer to communicate, he says.

Any best practice strategies for messaging apps in business defined by an organization should also apply to other forms of digital communications used across the enterprise. This includes email, collaboration platforms such as Slack and Teams, and social media engagements.

“Businesses must establish clear policies for messaging app usage, invest in technology that ensures governance, and educate employees on best practices,” concludes Pardo.

Photo by Jakub Zerdzicki; Pexels

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