TeleMessage is transforming business mobile messaging with its messaging solutions which include different product lines like Mobile Archiver, Secure Enterprise Messaging, and Mass Messaging. TeleMessage is a company that enables the building of a robust, scalable, and telecom-grade multi-channel messaging platform and is also a profitable company. It has been providing state-of-the-art messaging solutions On-premises and in the Cloud for over 20 years. The software they use is successfully deployed and is used by thousands of enterprises at large.
How do you define the term Regtech?
It is not easy for me to define Regtech since we are really a company that has built cutting-edge technology to help solve various problems and one of the main uses for our technology is in the Regtech field. So we, first of all, define ourselves as a Technology company. Our Mobile Capture and Archiving solutions can fit many markets, although Regtech is the main and fastest-growing market for us.
How big is your team and who are the critical players in your journey to build the successful Regtech Company?
We are 55 people and continuing to grow since we have many new customers, both small and large enabling us to grow. Our company journey is not the most standard one in the Regtech world, since our tech stack has been focused on messaging for more than 20 years, enabling us to build a robust, scalable, and telecom-grade multi-channel messaging platform and also a profitable company. In the last few years, we have built a new product line, the “Mobile Archiver” which has established us as a leader in the Regtech market.
The main players in this journey are the Email/Voice/Surveillance vendors which we integrated with so our customers can store their messages in the same archive where they store their email/voice calls and perform surveillance. Partners include companies like Microsoft, Global Relay, Proofpoint, Veritas, Bloomberg, Nice, Verint, Relativity, Behavox, and others.
A brief overview of Mobile Archiver and other product offerings?
The “Mobile Archiver” product line enables financial enterprises to capture and archive the SMS/MMS/calls/WhatsApp/WeChat/Signal/Telegram of employees in line with current regulations such as FINRA, MiFID II, and MAS. In addition, TeleMessage integrates with leading email archiving vendors, so you can store the messages in the same archive where you store your emails.
We provide several archiving methods for BYOD and Corporate phones including:
- Enterprise Number Archiver – via a virtual number assigned to App users thus solving GDPR, BYOD, and “2 phones” issues.
- Android Archiver – copies messages/records calls in the background and routes it to the TeleMessage router/archive
- Network Archiver – archives directly from leading mobile carriers, currently: Verizon, AT&T, Bell, Telus, and O2.
- WhatsApp Archiver – archives standard WhatsApp chats and calls with all the content (and voice calls) included.
- WeChat Archiver – over the WeChat (Tencent) official APIs by using WeCom and capturing all content and voice calls.
- Signal Archiver – an additional App with the identical Signal User Experience (Android only, iOS later in Q3).
- Telegram Archiver – an additional App with the identical Telegram User Experience.
What inspired you to build the mobile archiver?
I don’t think ‘inspiration’ is the right term since it was truly customer demand. We were actively selling our ‘Secure Enterprise Messaging” which is built for internal secure communication between employees. We were selling this product mainly in the US Healthcare market for HIPAA compliance, but when we approached some of the financial companies for this internal secure messaging solution, they told us that although they love the fact that the internal communication is secure and managed by our user-friendly App, their real requirement was to communicate with their customers who may not be installing this secure App.
Their end customers would need to get the messages over SMS/WhatsApp/etc. The regulation in finance was different than in Healthcare which financial regulations require “Archiving” of the communication. That brought us to think about adding a ‘virtual’ number to the App for capturing the SMS/Voice calls in the cloud so communications can be captured and recorded. That became our first product, “Enterprise Number Archiver” and continued to evolve to include all the products above.
What was the most challenging/critical aspect of your journey as the CEO of TeleMessage?
TeleMessage is a marathon since when we founded the company in 1999, there were no “Smartphones”, nor “Apps” (like WhatsApp/WeChat, etc), nor was a “cloud”. So I think the most challenging aspect is continuous change, evolution to new technologies, answering the newest market demand, and being able to respond quickly to customer requirements.
How did you overcome the initial mindset challenges of the regulators/supervisors?
I don’t think we ever needed to overcome the mindset challenges of the regulators/supervisors since our whole concept and product line is built as a result of the mindset of the regulators/supervisors. Our products simply reacted to their mindset and actual requirements.
Where do you see yourself in the next three years?
Personally, I just hope to continue to be healthy and happy. TeleMessage-wide, we have a huge roadmap of continuous development of features and products which solve our customer needs. We believe that this will continue our growth which was fantastic during the last few years. That includes adding many more IM capture such as LINE; App such as Slack; and many more network operators.
Which countries do you feel you can expand to with your offerings?
We at Mobile Archiver are focused now mainly on North America but also Western Europe, Singapore, and Hong Kong. These are the countries we saw the most demand for since they have the most robust financial community backed by a strong financial regulator. That said, we are seeing global demand and we also sell in other countries expansion will continue in other countries in the APAC region such as India, China, and LATAM.
Have you built any consulting models for consultants from different countries?
Our solutions which are built on a strong technology stack don’t really need consultants since the implementation is fairly straightforward (in many cases, just installing an App). We do have resellers, agents, and other partners in many countries globally.
Your thoughts on the use of technologies like AI, Blockchain, RPA, and Machine Learning in the Regulatory Domain.
I think that AI and Machine Learning as going to be extensively used in the Regulatory domain that Mobile Archiver is working in. Using those technologies to analyze text and other content to understand what needs to be pulled out and what is standard, is key.
