Did you know that in the event of a hack, your customers are more likely to blame your organization, rather than the hacker? It sounds outrageous, but it is true. If nothing else, this raises the stakes for ensuring that your organization is on top of security measures, and that those measures are used.
They are used…right?
Maybe. Or maybe not–especially if those measures are complicated and time-consuming, and get in the way of getting work done.
You can see where this is going.
Security, compliance and usability are three elements that often work against each other. Many organizations, particularly those in regulated industries, must adhere to stringent compliance requirements. But if security is complicated to use, it won’t be used, leaving an organization wide open for a breach, and an ensuing damage to customer trust. In addition to the PR, regulatory, and financial nightmares that follow a breach, odds are that a breach won’t inspire confidence among your existing and potential customers. To add insult to injury, according to a survey, 64% of respondents said they would blame a company for a breach over the hacker. Read that again.
Staying secure and compliant while delivering a smooth, friction-free internal workflow and customer experience is a difficult equation to balance. But there is a solution.
In the “Meet the Secure Message Center” series, I spoke to DataMotion’s secure message center, and how it has helped numerous organizations in their quest to balance security, compliance, efficiency, and usability. In part one, I explained what the secure message center is, and how it works. In part two, we discussed several real-life customer case studies where integrating the secure message center created smoother internal workflows and an improved customer experience. In part three, we shared potential use cases for organizations in both regulated and non-regulated industries. In today’s final installment, we’ll wrap up the series with a few commonly asked questions.
What is the secure message center?
In short, the DataMotion secure message center is a flexible, highly-secure communications solution. It allows your organization to easily, securely, and compliantly communicate with customers, vendors, and partners. Security is especially important when exchanging Personal Identifiable Information (PII) and other sensitive, confidential messages and documents. The secure message center can be integrated into your existing systems and workflows leveraging our APIs and connectors, implemented as part of an omnichannel approach, or as a stand-alone solution. Additionally, the secure message center is part of DataMotion’s governed, zero-trust core, providing top-notch security for your data.
How does the secure message center balance security, compliance, and usability?
The secure message center connects an organization’s back-end systems (including call centers, CRMs, case management, and email) to client-facing mobile and web apps and portals, enabling easy to use and secure communications. The actual workflow will depend on your existing processes, but as I outlined in the first series installment, the flow can be as easy as listed below:
- Client logs in to the customer portal or mobile app
- Client creates a message (potentially including sensitive information, such as account numbers)
- After creating a message, your client attaches documents and hits send
- Once the message and documents are sent, they are protected by military-grade encryption
- The message and documents are securely accessed and responded to by an agent or employee from their internal system or business process
Once the steps are completed, both the client and authorized agents have access to this message and any previous exchanges within a secure repository. Additionally, all message activity is logged & tracked for compliance, which will delight your compliance officer and auditors.
I’m not in a regulated industry. Do I need the secure message center?
Fair question. But a better question is, “What would happen if this information was leaked outside my department or company?”
You might not be legally required to adhere to privacy regulations. That said, it is certainly a good idea to send and store confidential and sensitive communications, documents and data in the equivalent of a digital armored car and secure lockbox. This is especially true if the experience is easy and transparent for all involved. Regulations aside, there are many types of confidential communications, including proprietary design discussions and client information, that should be transmitted and stored securely. And let’s not forget communications to and from human resources, such as performance reviews, confidential surveys and forms, onboarding information (which can include bank routing numbers), etc.
Additionally, while the secure message center simplifies the secure communication experience for all users, DataMotion’s military-grade encryption protects your messages and documents while in transit and at rest. In other words, in the event of a breach, your information is not readable by the data thieves.
To sum up, here is how I look at it. What if you were to accidentally leave the paper version of something when packing up your laptop bag at, say, a coffee shop or an airport? You would panic when you realized it went missing. If so, you need simple, secure exchange for that type of document and others like it.
How will implementing the secure message center affect our existing IT infrastructure?
As a wise person once said, you do you.
The secure message center is highly flexible, and the integration process generally differs across organizations, with a range of APIs and connectors available to seamlessly stitch into the right place in your workflows. Implementation also depends on your current architecture and any other solutions you may wish to add. For instance, one of the customers I discussed in the second installment simplified their environment by consolidating the number of apps they needed to support after they implemented the secure message center. Other customers were able to integrate the secure message center into their workflows with no additional changes—save, of course, changes that resulted from a smoother, frictionless workflow and fewer steps for senders and recipients.
Do I need to re-train my staff?
Probably not. As we mentioned above, the secure message center is designed to seamlessly integrate into existing workflows, so it depends on your process. Your staff will likely need to learn about a new feature instead of a new system. However, if you’re implementing the solution to simplify your workflow, you’ll likely just need to cover the shorter, smoother process steps.
Really, the only thing your staff (and customers) will need to get trained on is what to do with all of the extra time they save from simple secure communications!
My organization is part of the healthcare ecosystem. Is the secure message center an option for us?
If an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is involved in sending or receiving clinical data, we strongly recommend you learn more about Direct Secure Messaging for clinical exchange and interoperability. That said, however, health insurance companies can for sure benefit from the secure message center! In the second installment of this series, I spoke about a health insurance start-up whose process for sending secure communications involved a lot of steps for both agents and members and forced members to navigate an unfamiliar third-party portal (and likely, also forcing these customers to question all of their life decisions that led them to that portal.) Integrating the secure message center created an easier, shorter, and smoother experience for everyone involved, drastically reducing both frustration and the steps and time required to exchange information.
Key Takeaways
Implementing security into your organization’s digital exchange is more important than ever; doing so in a manner that is simple and efficient and allows your staff and customers to communicate in ways that are natural to them, is just as important. DataMotion’s secure message center offers a number of critically important functions and helpful benefits—let’s revisit our key takeaways from part one of this series:
- Frictionless Customer Experience Enables easy-to-use and secure communications as part of your existing customer-facing portal and/or web and mobile applications. No need for customers to go to a third-party portal for secure message and document exchange.
- Increased Efficiency Employees can access previous message exchanges and, without gathering physical documents or going through additional security steps, quickly and securely take action.
- Versatile and Integrable The secure message center seamlessly integrates with, and securely connects, back-end systems, including email, contact centers, case management, etc.
Features
- Ironclad Security DataMotion uses a zero-trust, governed database and military-grade encryption, helping to keep data secure and your organization compliant.
- Ease of Use The secure message center improves the security and usability of systems by enabling single sign on for customers, therefore eliminating additional passwords. It also integrates with your current workflow–there is no need to retrain staff.
- Co-branded Portal A pre-built message center UI is available that can be customized with your organization’s logo, colors and branding.
- Tracking Messages and documents are logged and tracked, with reporting available.
Still have questions, or are you ready to get started? Please reach out to me personally, or contact our team of security experts to learn more about the secure message center and how it can assist your organization with balancing security, compliance, and usability. We can also arrange to set up a quick demo. Additionally, I encourage you to follow DataMotion on LinkedIn and Twitter for security-related industry news, thought leadership, and more.
We’re looking forward to helping you get started!
