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Smarsh CEO Kim Crawford Goodman Talks Oversight on NYSE Floor Talk

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Earlier this month, Smarsh CEO Kim Crawford Goodman joined host Judy Shaw on NYSE Floor Talk to discuss the trends and outlook of communications data and the future of regulatory oversight.

Watch the eight-minute interview and learn how Smarsh is helping customers navigate the complexities of digital communications compliance as regulatory scrutiny and data volumes increase.

 

Transcript below:

Judy Shaw:
Joining me today on NYSE Floor Talk is Kim Crawford Goodman. She is the CEO of Smarsh. Kim, fantastic to have you here. Thanks for joining me today.

Kim Crawford Goodman:
Thank you very much for having me. It's a privilege to be here.

Judy:
I want to start off by talking about the company. What is Smarsh?

Kim:
Smarsh is a leading-edge technology company that works very specifically in the space of a company's data, its communications data, and all of the intelligence around that data.

We know now in society that people are communicating more and more through electronic means. I may pick up a phone and call you, but I could easily text you, be in a Zoom meeting or Teams meeting with you that way, or send you a message, et cetera.

Increasingly, companies of all types — with a primary focus on financial services and regulated industries — need to really understand what is truly going on across their enterprise. One of the tactics that is utilized is to capture all of the data of their employees in all of these communications, to keep that data in a very safe way, and then to use artificial intelligence to crawl through that data.

If you're in financial services like a major bank, the regulators actually require you to do this. But increasingly, many people are doing it across many industries because they’re able to preserve, record, and recall the truth. Many times, people need to have the truth clearly stated as the world is moving so quickly and there are so many threats.

Judy:
Why is the oversight of communications data and communications data itself important?

Kim:
The communications data is the record of truth. In communications data, many times, is every single email, text message, Zoom chat, Teams chat — on and on and on — that employees have sent. In that data, there is a richness of what has happened between employees, what has happened that has been most productive, what has happened between employees and customers. That richness of data gives companies quite a lot of insight.

Of course, there's a lot of regulatory insight because if anything starts to happen — you all would certainly be familiar with this at the New York Stock Exchange — that is disruptive to the system that does not have integrity like insider trading or collusion, you can see that in the data pretty much immediately.

So, communications data and the intelligence around communications data is what Smarsh specializes in. We are the worldwide leader. We are more than two times the size of our nearest competitor.

We spend two to three times the amount of R&D budgets on our technology in order to make this data as rich as possible for our clients, which are typically financial institutions all the way from the largest banks in the world to individual advisors right around the corner. We are their trusted partner to help them meet their requirements, but we also understand what's really happening in their organizations.

Judy:
Now, Smarsh is at the nexus of several major trends. Talk to me about these trends.

Kim:
There are a lot of very favorable trends that Smarsh — being the largest and most strategic in communications data — are right in the middle of.

First and foremost, the data is growing. The data is growing almost exponentially, because there's not only more and more communications, there's more and more ways to communicate. Second, there is new technology that allows us to mine this data in a very effective way. The data is stored in things like the public cloud, which has a lot of scalability and security.

I'm sure you've heard a lot about artificial intelligence. We all have. We are a real use case for artificial intelligence in a way that is defensible, in a way that is repeatable, in a way that is secure. What I mean by that is you can utilize — and we do, we're the leader in this — artificial intelligence to crawl through all of this information and to find the things in a reliable and effective way that financial institutions, regulated companies, companies of all types need to find to keep their enterprises secure and working effectively.

Judy:
How are financial firms keeping up with their requirements?

Kim:
I've had a career now, at least the last 10 years or so, in the technology associated with financial institutions. Whether that's the technology for people to advance things like FinTech and payments, or — what we do at Smarsh — help institutions in the technology inside their banks and investment firms.

We see several things happening. Number one, these firms are getting much better at focusing their technology resources at the things that are strategic for them and make sense for them.

Number two, these companies are utilizing platform players. Smarsh is a platform player in the space of communications data and the intelligence around it. We're a platform player because we have every single piece of technology that people need to utilize in order to collect and observe this data well.

What we see in banks and financial institutions is that they're partnering with Smarsh because of our platform and because of our ability to continue to advance that platform, including with things like AI.

Judy:
Finally, how are forward-thinking organizations looking at their valuable communications data?

Kim:
If you're forward-thinking, you have a laser focus on this data and you have a laser focus on communications data from a number of different angles. Of course, you care a lot about compliance. Compliance keeps the entire system running, and none of us wants disruption to our financial system.

However, inside the communications data, there aren't just things that protect firms from regulatory oversight or compliance. It also gives firms insight into how they can do a better job. For example, sitting in the data is, how did someone sell the best deal to the best customer in record time, in the most effective way?

You get to see what information was presented. You get to see what questions were asked and answered. You get to see the interaction. All of that is sitting in the data. So, because Smarsh is the leader in communications data and all of the intelligence around it, we partner with our customers, we work closely with them.

One of the things that we're seeing is that this data is being tapped not just for compliance. It's being tapped for HR. It's being tapped for growing the enterprise, and — this is part of what we're very excited to invest in across our platform — how we utilize artificial intelligence to find what our customers need.

Judy:
Well, Kim, it's been wonderful to talk with you. Thanks for joining me on Floor Talk today.

Kim:
Thank you for having me. It's been a privilege.

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