Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Barry Murphy. Published: 2010-06-09 07:47:10Format, images and links may no longer function correctly. Yesterday’s article on the Kroll acquisition highlighted some of the early market shifts in eDiscovery. There is more of that today with the announcement that Autonomy will buy CA’s Information Governance division. CA slowly built the IG group with the purchase of iLumin in 2005 and then MDY in 2006. That gave CA the archiving and records management capabilities necessary to have the information governance foundation. Sadly, CA was just never the right fit and the information governance message was perhaps a little bit ahead of its time. Autonomy, meanwhile, doubled-down on eDiscovery with laser focus and has emerged as one of the most successful companies in the industry due to that commitment. It now has even stronger records management capabilities, even if it also has to deal with supporting a lot of duplicate technology.
Make no mistake about it – this acquisition is mostly about adding customers. But, I think that is due to Autonomy’s commitment to the information governance market (including the sub-market of eDiscovery). The best way to lead a market is to have the most customers. I’ve not been briefed on the plans for this acquisition, but I would assume that Autonomy will do the following:
– Look to move CA archiving customers over to the Autonomy archiving platform. That may include EAS, Digital Safe, or the hybrid of those on-premise and SaaS solutions.
– Push the records management capabilities from the Meridio acquisition for customers with heavy SharePoint environments and basic records management needs
– Use the MDY records management capabilities to gain federal government customers with DoD certification requirements or customers with complex records management processes.
– Convert CA information governance customers to broader Autonomy customers by introducing enterprise search, eDiscovery, document management, legal hold, and other applications to the mix.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, so it’s difficult to judge this move on an economic basis. But, I’m bullish. To be fair, I’ve always liked the Autonomy strategy and think the company’s bet on the eDiscovery market is paying off. When CA launched the information governance unit, I loved that strategy, too, but CA did not have all the piece parts necessary to fulfill information governance. Essentially, CA went too broad too early. Autonomy told a story focused on eDiscovery and related technologies like archiving. Only recently has Autonomy shifted to an information governance message – and the timing is right. This market is starting to coalesce and gain some momentum. Grabbing the CA customer base now is a smart move. But, the move will only pay off if Autonomy can quickly convert the customer base into Autonomy strategic customers. I would guess that competitors like Iron Mountain, Recommind, and IBM will launch sales campaigns with incentives for CA customers to switch over to non-Autonomy solutions.
Here again, we have an example to the pawns on the chess board starting to move. Will my prediction of more large-scale consolidation in the eDiscovery market being 18-24 months out be too long? Perhaps…only time will tell. Autonomy is certainly staking its claim for the largest customer count, so now it’s time for the competitors to respond.