IntelliReach Corp. recently released two new software packages – Content Inspector and Content Auditor – which are designed to help users of Microsoft Corp.’s Exchange e-mail program to better manage, scan, and audit e-mail content both historically and in real-time.
Scanning thousands of messages an hour, Content Inspector is designed to scrutinize the entire Exchange information store, including users’ inboxes, deleted items, sent items and calendar notes. It searches for matches of up to 200 directly entered words or phrases, called the Critical Word List, which is determined by the user. Messages that match any of the words or phrases on the list can be deleted, copied for review and forwarded to the network administrator.
Content Inspector can also strip off attachments included with the matched message. All actions are invisible to the user, and Inspector has the added capability of eradicating viruses.
Content Inspector is a complementary tool to Content Auditor – front-line software from the company that monitors e-mail at the firewall without stopping normal message delivery.
“Auditor is a real-time auditing tool for messages coming in and out of the corporate messaging gateway,” said Bob Hanson, vice-president of marketing for IntelliReach at its headquarters in Dedham, Mass.
Scanning both internal and external e-mail at a rate of hundreds of messages per minute, those that are matched with the 200-word Critical List keywords are forwarded to the administrator. The administrator can then manually delete, forward or remove attachments that contain critical content.
Content Inspector is a re-branded improvement over MicroData’s CAMEO Recon. Enhancements included with the re-branding are the ability to search attachments by name and date and the ability to search messages and mailbox items by date. There is also the added option for exhaustive searching – searching of all message and text fields is possible, not limited to the body of the text.
The re-branding of Content Auditor, formerly MicroData’s CAMEO, features no enhancements.
IntelliReach acquired MicroData last April, expanding its customer base to 1,500 organizations in seven countries managing nearly two million mailboxes. Both Content Inspector and Auditor are compatible with the 5.5 and 2000 versions of Microsoft Exchange
Kit Adams, IT manager at Airbiquity Corp., a producer of GPS software on Bainbridge Island, Wash., purchased MicroData’s CAMEO, now Content Auditor, nine months ago for two reasons: to monitor e-mail for inappropriate content such as discriminatory jokes, and to protect against the lost of intellectual property. She said it does exactly what it needs to do. Another user’s views agreed with Adams.
“The best thing is that it doesn’t take any overhead off the server,” said Gregory Thomas, director of network operations for the Managed Health Care Associates in Florham Park, N.J.
“We set up a remote station just to run that application, the filtering of data is happening on the remote station and not on the server,” added Thomas.
The only drawback Thomas cited would be if a company has a great deal of data to filter – an issue Managed Health Care Associates is tackling.
“If you’re supporting over 5,000 users, and trying to do a report for the last three months and it won’t work in Access, you would need an SQL database,” he explained. “And there’s additional costs in purchasing such a database.”
While Hanson said having these “weapons in your arsenal” are crucial for effective e-mail content management, he advocates companies having a clear-cut, published policy regarding e-mail usage.
“We recommend companies both publish and make known what their e-mail policy is,” he said.
Content Inspector and Auditor are available together as a package called the IntelliReach Exchange Content Management Suite.
This is a move that marks the second wave of IntelliReach’s foray into the market of Microsoft Exchange compatible software. Last May it launched ExRay for Exchange that provides monitoring, alerting, SLA Reporting, and performance reporting for Exchange 5.5 and 2000. Later this year, IntelliReach will unveil Insight for Exchange, a complete enterprise level e-mail reporting system that builds on MicroData’s MELIA.
Intellireach already has a sizeable share of the e-mail security software market compatible with Novell Corp.’s GroupWise e-mail program; packages include Control 2.5, Insight 2.5 and Periscope 2.5.
“Getting into the Exchange market through the acquisition of MicroData opened up a much bigger market for IntelliReach,” said Michael Osterman of Osterman Research in Seattle. “I think they’re filling an important niche because being able to manage the content of e-mail coming in and out is very important.”
For more information and pricing, visit the company’s Web site at www.intellireach.com.