Vamosa Goes for Extended Records Management, eDiscovery

Not long ago, we discussed Vamosa’s work in the Enterprise Content Governance (ECoG) field and their new Check and Fix tool.

Recently, the vendor extended its Check and Fix functionality to cater more to eDiscovery and web records management scenarios.

Web governance can be tricky, even with a formal approach in place. That’s why we have tools to help us out. Vamosa Check and Fix can be used for multi-domain/multi-author website monitoring and reporting; and fixing issues with compromised standards, that are checked against a set of standard and custom measurement points. They can include HTML standards, compliance, branding and governance.

Vamosa’s Check and Fix is one of the tools on the market that can be used to take a snapshot every time content changes, providing a full audit trail. This version of the tool is sold at an additional license charge based on the volume of content monitored.

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IBM Updates ECM Portfolio, Offers Starter Packs

IBM announced fairly significant updates to its Enterprise Content Management (ECM) product families, including Business Process Management (BPM), eDiscovery and Archiving.

Apparently having heard the market scream for leaner, smarter product options and cost efficiency, the Big Blue has also introduced starter packs — licensing-wise slimmed-down product versions targeted for smaller or departmental deployments — for four of its ECM product lines.

More on CMSWire: IBM Updates ECM Portfolio, Introduces Starter Kits

(Some) Reasons Why EMC Wants to Grab eDiscovery Vendor Kazeon

No longer rumored in the halls of the ILTA conference, the intent of Enterprise CMS and storage vendor EMC to acquire Kazeon is now official. The unconfirmed deal size is at about US$ 75 million.

What does that mean for the two companies? How did the eDiscovery industry take the news? Let’s take a look at some first reactions and thoughts.

Kazeon’s software is said to be able to perform early case assessments and eDiscovery activities across multiple ESI sources — in addition to analytics, concept-based search and collaborative review. Exactly what EMC needs to round up its SourceOne software suite and to make it all in-house without having to OEM any of its parts.

EMC positions the outcome of the deal as an “end-to-end eDiscovery solution” that will extend capabilities of the existing SourceOne family of products from eDiscovery, archiving and compliance perspectives.

But can Kazeon really support that claim? The competition doesn’t think so. According to Recommind’s Craig Carpenter, Kazeon can do collection and legal hold, but doesn’t have sophisticated review capabilities, which will need to be either built or acquired.

Coincidentally, EMC has been reselling eDiscovery software from Kazeon, StoredIQ and Clearwell Systems in the past. But it was Kazeon that was welcomed to the family. Carpenter told us that the acquisition plans were “not a very well-kept secret.” But the “heavy-betting money was on StoredIQ. Clearwell was also an option ahead of Kazeon.”

What helped Kazeon to differentiate from other candidates, says Carpenter, is its enterprise search capabilities, which are considered a critical component in today’s eDiscovery.

This acquisition is a long-awaited chance to pop that champagne for Kazeon’s “long-suffering shareholders,” as Clearwell’s CEO, Aaref Hilaly refers to them. Kazeon raised a whopping more than US$ 60 million in funding in the past several years only to report less than optimistic revenues of around US$ 8 million.

The jury is still out on whether this acquisition will be successful and have any impact on the business of the biggies like IBM, Microsoft and Open Text.

More on CMSWire:  Why EMC Wants to Buy eDiscovery Vendor Kazeon?

State of the ECM Industry 2009: Content Still a Mess

AIIM has released its annual State of the ECM Industry research report. And although the term Enterprise Content Management was coined about eight years ago, the research findings are still not very optimistic in some areas.

Not surprisingly, the bottom line is that electronic content in many of its shapes and forms in the organizational landscape is still (mainly) a mess.

AIIM has found that managing electronic documents is still a challenge for a whopping 47% of organizations. On top of that, business communication channels like IMs, text messages, blogs and wikis are uncontrolled and off the corporate radar for 75% of businesses.

Looks like ECM is still an industry in the process of growth with all the growing pains that come along with it.

Full article on CMSWire: State of the ECM Industry 2009: Content Still a Challenge

Open Text Extends eDiscovery Capabilities to eDOCS

Open Text has extended its Open Text eDiscovery Early Case Assessment solution released in partnership with Recommind late last year to its records management eDOCS customers.

Open Text eDOCS customers will get eDiscovery capabilities woven into their overall content, records and e-mail management practices. Will this solution play the get-out-of-(recession)-jail-free-card for struggling lawyers?

Legal Market and Importance of eDiscovery, or Open Text Got You Covered

Open Text is certainly at the top of its game in the legal market. The company says that 70% of the AmLaw 100 firms are using Open Text’s content management solutions. It is only logical to continue embrace the customer base by providing a full range of applications and legal industry expertise to support law firms’ business practices. No one is going to say “no” to support throughout the legal matter lifecycle from client intake to final disposition.

With 2009 eDiscovery trends being discussed here and there, there’s a direct impact of these trends on Enterprise Content Management in the legal market.

The current global economical crisis has affected everyone, law firms included. The legal market (just like everyone else) is looking to cut down costs and improve efficiency. One way to do it is to engage better tools to get the job done. Most likely, if the solution is essential to operations and (somewhat) easy to implement, IT will invest in it even in these times of economic downturn.

As Open Text outlines, these are some of the projects at the top of the IT list:

• Elimination of duplicate systems: This happens as a result of migration from one vendor to another and comes with a need to stop maintaining separate hardware and software.
• Integration with MS Office and SharePoint: With Office and MOSS being popular in the legal industry, there’s always a need for extensions and connectors, and Open Text has demonstrated its support for MOSS on a number of occasions.
• Automation of e-mail filing: Regulatory and firm policies require good record keeping practices around e-mail, and Open Text is again ready and eager to help. Automation of e-mail filing, as part of e-mail lifecycle management, requires specific tools along with integration with e-mail clients like MS Outlook.

With eDiscovery certainly being a hot topic lately, make sure to check out our eDiscovery coverage and learn about many other players in the market. When looking for a new technology solution, it’s always best to do your homework and research several vendors before deciding on the one that seems to be the best fit for your organization and business goals.

Full article on CMSWire: Open Text Extends eDiscovery Capabilities to eDOCS

How Content Management Can Save the World

Ever think about global warming, air pollution and dying out populations of polar bears? Or whether your grandchildren will be able to leave the house without an oxygen mask?

Scary picture, huh?

With Obama reigning and his plans to save the planet, Gartner’s research  is right on time. Recently, Gartner offered its take on six strategic areas in which enterprise content management can deliver both green benefits and business efficiencies.

There are multiple advantages to a green(er) enterprise. With green IT practices being strategic this year, businesses can not only control costs and efficiency, but also reap environmental benefits.

Full article on CMSWire: Why Obama Loves Enterprise Content Management