Content management firm Stellent announced it will be providing a records management agent for Symantec Enterprise Vault, the companys e-mail and content archiving application.
Stellent Universal Records Management is geared toward helping organizations to define and manage records as well as create retention management policies for all enterprise content.
The agent for Symantecs software extends the records and retention management capabilities of the Enterprise Vault application, according to the companies, since it automatically applies records and retention rules and litigation holds to e-mail and other content as defined by corporate policies.
“This is a big deal for us because Symantec is the leader in this area, and were first to market with this type of product,” said Dan Ryan, chief operating officer for Stellent.
The blend of Stellent and Symantec addresses the need for better management of e-mail within an enterprise environment, he noted.
An e-mail archiving application with retention management capability can not only help organizations to keep their growing e-mail stores intact, but also minimize both compliance and risk concerns.
“An e-mail archive is where the vast majority of legal discovery occurs, so to have proper records management is crucial,” said Ryan.
For Stellent customers, the move will allow them to have more messaging options within the companys ECM platform, said Forrester Research analyst Barry Murphy.
“Even though its not an OEM play per se, it gives Stellent a way to say they can be soup-to-nuts for records management,” he said.
Symantec customers will likely appreciate the option since many still have integrations with MDY, a records management software developer that had partnered with Symantec before it got acquired by CA in June 2006.
“For customers using MDY, it became questionable about how long that partnership would last, since Symantec and CA are competitors,” said Murphy.
“So, now they can choose Stellent rather than worrying about a possibly disintegrating partnership.”
However, there is always the possibility that history could repeat, and Stellent would also get snapped up by CA, or even Adobe or Hewlett-Packard, Murphy noted, since consolidation in the industry does not seem to be over yet.
“It could be only a matter of time before Oracle makes a move,” he said. “Stellent is a leader in the field, and that makes them an acquisition target. That could pose a big risk for Symantec.”
Murphy believes that to minimize any acquisition impact, Symantec is likely to partner with other ECM vendors to broaden the array of options for customers.