Jive and Actiance know communication laws and will keep you compliant (exclusive)

Social business company Jive Software is making it easier for companies to adhere to electronic communications laws by partnering with Actiance, a company hinged on keeping you compliant.

We aren’t talking through tin cans anymore. The business world is full of new ways to communicate with coworkers. But the idea of corporate surveillance is a very touchy subject, especially as social networks and personal devices enter the workspace. Some industries, such as financial and government institutions, require email, instant message and now “social business” records by law.

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Organizations such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) provide policies on how companies should keep track of internal and external communications and for how long the records should be kept. Indeed over 10,000 laws address electronic communications for these businesses. This provides a challenge for companies that are just starting to adopt social business programs, such as Jive, Salesforce’s Chatter or Yammer.

Because of this change to social business communications, Jive felt particularly compelled in the past year to build Actiance’s compliance products into its service, Jive senior vice president of business development Chris Morace explained.

Jive provides a suite of products under the header “social business software.” The company provides solutions for internal and external communications, tracking a company’s social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, in addition to an internal application marketplace used by employees to download add-ons specific to their needs. Actiance takes these communications and properly records and reports based on applicable laws. It also allows those with restricted access to certain areas of the business to interact with all employees through the social business software.

“It’s liberating,” said Morace in an interview with VentureBeat. “It’s a much more open, visible way of communicating.”

What may be really liberating is the money saved not battling legal issues resulting from non-compliance. According to Sarah Carter, Actiance’s vice president of marketing, over $60 million in fines are outstanding because companies fail to meet electronic communication laws.

Because the Actiance plugin is offered directly with Jive’s product, the end consumer doesn’t have to worry about extending compliance practices to the new social business package. The Actiance experience doesn’t change in the new Jive integration either. Emails will be archived without anyone ever having to take action or ever knowing it was done. Companies can opt-in to the service, which is helpful if you work in an industry that doesn’t work under these regulations, but there is an additional cost for adding Actiance. Jive is not releasing pricing details at this time.

[Photo via Supri Suharjoto/Shutterstock]