IBM Targets Regulatory Compliance

To support enterprises struggling to comply with the maze of government regulations for record-keeping, IBM Monday rolled out three new software products to help track and manage internal e-mails and instant messaging conversations.

IBM Content Management for Message Monitoring and Retention, IBM Lotus Workplace for Business Controls and Reporting, and the IBM Tivoli Security Compliance Manager all offer specific tools to properly manage business data and set up a compliance policy across the enterprise.

“To stay on top of the hundreds of rules and regulations, companies need a compliance infrastructure,” says Brett MacIntyre, vice
president of IBM’s software group. He adds that such an infrastructure is also important for dealing with “things like privacy, digital rights management (DRM), records and life cycle management, content and document management, and storage management.”

“Good businesses have these components in place today,” MacIntyre continues. “They know where information is, and they are in control of managing it.”

MacIntyre reports that the new content management software deals specifically with managing and archiving data subject to government regulations like SEC 17a-4 and NASD 3010/3110. In partnership with iLumin Software Services, IBM is offering “smart indexing” capabilities to scan and analyze electronic messages.

The Lotus Workplace for Business Controls and Reporting software helps companies comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. It handles archived data
and audit trails, allowing companies to identify, assign, test, and monitor business controls.

On the security side, IBM released the Tivoli Security Compliance Manager to provide automated policy compliance audits across a large enterprise. The software can be used to create policies to address requirements from regulations like the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and other local privacy regulations, according to MacIntyre.

IBM also released results of a survey that found that only one in ten CFOs and financial executives believe they are currently in compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. That section deals with assurances to shareholders regarding a company’s internal controls.

The survey found that the executives expected to be compliant within the required time frame even though this may require “significant changes” to established business practices.

Story courtesy of Internet News.

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