Interest in enterprise rights management (ERM) software
is increasing as companies work to meet obligations for regulatory
compliance, legal risk mitigation and intellectual property
protection, according to a report from Forrester
Research.
ERM technology allows organisations to establish and enforce
policies regarding who can do what with electronic messages and
enterprise content, inside and outside an organisation. Policies
can cover, for example, open, copy, share, e-mail, forward or print
functions.
ERM can also be used to secure and protect business content such
as e-mails, spreadsheets, documents, drawings, models and
forms.
ERM is different from digital rights management, which is
designed to protect commercial content such as songs and
videos.
Companies spent about £16.4m in 2004 on ERM systems, but
Forrester predicted this would grow at 20% a year, to reach £27.4m
in 2008, with ERM an important part of the workplace. The analyst
firm advised companies to evaluate ERM as an experimental but
critical technology.
ERM suppliers include Adobe, Authentica, Gigatrust, IBM, Liquid
Machine, Microsoft and Sealed Media.
Erica Rugullies, principal analyst at Forrester Research, said
companies should look for ERM suppliers that have partnerships with
their strategic content management supplier. "An example is
EMC/Documentum, which works with Authentica and Sealed Media," she
said.
"Look for systems that support ERM standards and fit with
enterprise architecture. Look for systems that support the XRML or
MPeg REL standards. Standards support will ease interoperability
and integration and make it easier to swap out one solution for
another, should the need arise.
"Determine whether business requirements involve protection of
information sent outside the firewall. Ensure that the ERM
suppliers you are considering support these needs without creating
additional work for IT when new external users need to be added to
the system."
Rugullies also advised firms to assess the impact of ERM on
their message archives. "Messages and attachments must be protected
throughout their entire lifecycle, from the point of creation
through to destruction at the end of its retention period. Some ERM
suppliers, such as Authentica, Liquid Machines and Microsoft, have
integrated, or are working to integrate, their products with
message archiving software," she said.