Buying something because you have to is no fun.

In this regard, many of today’s first and second-generation mobile call recording systems currently being implemented by investment banks are, frankly, dull.

They may help you meet the FSA phone recording regulations. (Provided you pick the right one.) They may move your governance controls up a notch. (If you can retrieve and use the stored data intelligently.) To use sales parlance, you avoid a pain; but where’s the gain?

Banks have been grumbling for a while that none of the systems are perfect.

When SIM-based solutions appeared on the scene earlier this year, people got excited, egged on, of course, by the vendors. “Banks don’t want applications on the handset,” trumpeted one mobile recording vendor earlier this year, having introduced an “app-less roadmap”.

I’ve covered the shortcomings of today’s SIM solutions in previous blogs. Nonetheless, using the network to control the routing of calls to a recording infrastructure has advantages. There’s no doubt that this will become part of the future story of mobile recording technology.

One of their problems is that today’s SIM solutions aren’t very clever. A SIM alone can’t enable compliant use of IM, video and social media. Or bring integrated turret capabilities to their BlackBerry. Or deliver location-aware or push-based services. It’s a question of what intelligence you put where: on the handset–in an app–or on the SIM or both.

Given the beneficiaries of this new era of compliant mobile working, are your most valuable, time-poor staff, it makes sense to consider how your mobile recording investments drive value beyond compliance.

If its staff productivity, efficiency and competitive advantage that floats your boat, then one thing is for sure: App-less is a hapless place to be.