Kroll Ontrack has announced the launch of Ontrack Compass enterprise archiving solution version 2.1,an enterprise archive that incorporates Custodian-Foldered Output to reduce discovery processing time and Legal Hold Notification within the archive to reduce risk and streamline the legal hold process.

In addition to this new discovery-specific functionality, Ontrack Compass enterprise archiving solution v2.1 also includes archiving capabilities for SharePoint Server content and instant messages (IM), two of the most needed content types for compliance and discovery besides e-mail.

“Discovery, now virtually commonplace for organisations when responding to U.S. litigation and/or investigations, begins with an organisation’s retained data. As the leading discovery services provider, Kroll Ontrack saw an opportunity to address unmet needs in the archiving space. Both Custodian-Foldered Output and Legal Hold Notification enhance the solution’s ease of use and reduce risk and downstream discovery time and costs,” said Tom McCaffrey, director of archiving, Kroll Ontrack.

“Additionally, with the widespread use of Microsoft Office SharePoint software to store business data and IM to communicate internally and externally, the Ontrack Compass enterprise archiving solution v2.1 allows organisations to better ensure compliance and reduce storage management costs.”

Specifically, the Ontrack Compass enterprise archiving solution is uniquely designed to help corporations respond to requests for electronically stored information (ESI).

To date, many archives do not allow for pinpointed custodian-level output. Instead, data is exported to an electronic discovery provider that uses a manual process to reorganise the data by custodian, or data is processed under a general custodian, which requires more review time downstream.

The new Custodian-Foldered Output feature promises to:
Reduce discovery processing time by 50 percent.
Reduce risks including losing, modifying or improperly categorising data that can arise from a manual process.
Enable legal teams to make a strategic determination with regard to insourcing, outsourcing, budgeting, and when and whether to involve outside counsel.

In addition, Ontrack Compass enterprise archive solution v2.1 also includes the following enhancements:
Legal Hold Notification: Legal teams can now generate legal hold notifications from within the archive, at the point the search and legal hold occurs. Authorised users can systematically manage legal hold templates and notifications across multiple matters and generate e-mail notices informing identified custodians that they have a legal duty to preserve any and all material with respect to a particular matter.
SharePoint Archiving: As one of the largest growing sources of discoverable enterprise content, organisations need the ability to archive documents, wikis and blogs stored on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server to better ensure compliance with retention requirements and reduce collection time and costs for discovery. Ontrack Compass Archive for SharePoint enables organisations to meet these needs as well as improve server performance and reduce storage management costs with the power to migrate older versions of documents from the SharePoint Server to the archive.
IM Archiving: As IM is increasingly used by organisations to communicate, many organisations need to archive employee IM conversations in one, central location in accordance with their retention policies and to achieve compliance. Ontrack Compass Archive for Instant Messages archives this content to ensure that relevant data is produced for regulatory requests, litigation and investigations, which decreases the risk of sanctions and/or adverse inference.
Exchange 2010 Compatibility: Ontrack Compass enterprise information archive v2.1 supports Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, enabling IT teams to efficiently meet IT environment requirements as well as easily migrate to the latest Microsoft e-mail platform.