TMCnet News

Industry Leader PSS Systems Launches Third Generation of Atlas Legal Hold and Retention Management Software
[August 29, 2007]

Industry Leader PSS Systems Launches Third Generation of Atlas Legal Hold and Retention Management Software


MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- PSS Systems, providers of Atlas LCC and Atlas ERM, today announced tens of thousands of Atlas users are managing over 100,000 legal holds and collections involving more than 500,000 custodians and millions of data sources or assets. These latest benchmarks for legal holds, custodians, collections and retention schedules under Atlas management demonstrate the reliability and prevalence of Atlas, and the scale and criticality of legal hold and retention management software to the Fortune 500. On the heels of this tremendous customer success, the company unveiled the third generation of the Atlas suite, the revolutionary platform that launched the legal hold and retention management software industry.



"Over the last year, our customers have experienced a significant increase in the number of holds and the number of custodians identified in those holds combined with an urgency to incorporate data sources into their preservation practices. In any large or global company, this new obligation has a substantial time, cost and risk impact -- as a result, many litigation executives are under pressure to improve predictability and precision," explained Deidre Paknad, President and CEO of PSS Systems and the acknowledged inventor of litigation communication and collection software. "Atlas 3.0 automates even more of these activities, provides more sophisticated tools for monitoring custodians and data sources in multiple matters to reduce the disruption of IT operations, and provides far greater visibility and predictability to executives on past and future costs and risks."

With Atlas 3.0, PSS Systems again advances the practice of managing legal holds and collection workflows for corporations while eliminating more of the risk and burden with its easy to use, enterprise-class software. "PSS Systems' subject matter expertise has long been demonstrated through their CGOC programs and their Atlas product offering," said Ronald Hedges, former magistrate judge, counsel at Nixon Peabody, and noted e-discovery expert.


New features in Atlas 3.0 include:

-- Process and business intelligence on all matters, holds, custodians, collections and data sources so IT operations can be normalized and legacy data disposition

-- An employee portal so all employees have immediate and current access to their current holds (without mining their email boxes) to reduce company risk and ensure continuous notification

-- Interactive and proactive tools to query employees, IT staff, and records coordinators and, based on their input and answers, automatically initiate follow up and alert the legal team to more efficiently monitor holds, collections, and data source accuracy

"We are excited to use the employee portal to communicate responsibilities more efficiently and the interactive communications tools to get facts faster," said Cathy Muir, Senior Counsel at Sprint Nextel and an Atlas suite customer. "The ability to triangulate custodians across holds and holds across business units is strategically important in our efforts to manage discovery, legacy data, and cost with more control and predictability."

This third generation of the suite goes well beyond the basics to optimize discovery, reduce internal costs, and remove the stranglehold on organizations with modest or significant litigation volumes. "Atlas 3.0 is right on the mark -- it's the latest example of PSS Systems' vision and leadership," said Tom Lahiff, an Atlas user and former assistant general counsel at a leading global financial services firm.

The Atlas software suite has two modules that leverage the Atlas enterprise map foundation and which work in concert to help companies manage and control information governance risk and reduce associated costs:

  Atlas LCC manages the legal hold and collection process for
   corporate litigation departments and the discovery delegates in
   IT and records departments; it enables continuous discovery
   readiness and goes well beyond compliance with the amended
   Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to provide both offensive and
   defensive strength.
  Atlas ERM enables and rapidly accelerates modern enterprise
   retention programs that encompass the diverse and disparate
   sources of information and records across large companies; it
   comes bundled with a full set of template retention schedules
   and a library of retention laws which can save companies
   hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and long delays
   to a rejuvenated retention practice.



Atlas 3.0 offers groundbreaking new functionality harnessed from the PSS tradition of innovation and input from customers that are leaders in their respective industries who proactively automated their legal hold and data retention programs with Atlas. Atlas uniquely provides those just now deciding to systematize legal holds and enterprise retention with tremendous cost and time savings as a result of this pioneering effort. As the definitive market share and thought leader, Atlas truly reduces legal and compliance risk.

About PSS Systems

PSS Systems started the legal holds and retention management software revolution in the early 2000s by envisioning the looming change in corporate legal requirements; its Atlas software suite reduces cost, burden, and risk for the world's leading financial services, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, telecommunications, technology, and consumer products companies. Atlas LCC streamlines the legal holds and collection processes end to end, while Atlas ERM enables corporate retention programs across disparate business units, information sources, and systems. With tens of thousands of legal holds, collections and retention schedules under Atlas management, few companies have more domain expertise than PSS Systems. PSS Systems continues to lead the industry through unparalleled innovation and the CGOC, which it founded in January 2004, as a practitioners community on retention and preservation. PSS Systems is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices throughout the United States including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. For more information visit http://www.pss-systems.com.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]