IBM added some fresh intellectual
property and expertise in the growing e-discovery space on Oct. 13 by acquiring PSS Systems, a privately held company
based in Mountain View, Calif. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
PSS Systems’ Atlas software platform, designed for use by corporate counsel and
IT management at large enterprises, enables companies to analyze their body of
corporate information to automate governance and compliance policies across
massive amounts of data. IBM plans to combine the Atlas package with its Information Lifecycle
Governance software, according to Ron Ercanbrack, vice president of enterprise content
management at IBM.
The applications within Atlas help legal departments and IT managers get
rid of outdated company information in an automated, policy-driven manner.
Because there is less data to save, this timely disposal of old data helps keep down
storage maintenance costs.
PSS, founded in 2004, currently has more than 210,000 active holds under
management involving more than 15 million custodians. Atlas is used by seven of
the Fortune 10 companies. IBM and PSS Systems had been working together on legal compliance for the Bank
of America for a number of months.
A recent study by the Compliance, Governance and Oversight Council finds that fewer
than 25 percent of organizations are able to dispose of data properly
because they lack rigorous legal hold management practices and effective record
retention programs. The report estimates that costs associated with legal electronic
discovery average more than $3 million per case, and that about 70 percent of
information is often needlessly retained.
For more, read the eWeek article IBM Acquires E-Discovery Provider PSS Systems.
