Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Barry Murphy. Published: 2010-10-13 11:55:26  IBM announced the acquisition of PSS Systems, setting into motion what might be a round of consolidation in the eDiscovery market.  I get asked all the time why the software giants haven’t bought eDiscovery vendors and the answer is typically that they are waiting until there are some internal winners in the market.  In the market for preservation management, the main vendors have been PSS and Exterro.  IBM must have decided that it was important enough to get some of the big clients that PSS brings to the table.What it really means is that the software giants will look first to the business process management (BPM) side of eDiscovery as the point of entry in the market.  That makes sense given that the large vendors want business from the large enterprises.  eDiscovery is a process – and it’s a complicated one to manage.  PSS did a good job of getting big-name corporate clients and put in place tools to manage legal hold notification and execution.  IBM should be a good landing spot – it has the wherewithal to handle the long sales cycles for such complex software.  PSS also fits in nicely with IBM’s records management and archiving products and gives IBM another component to an already strong BPM portfolio.  I’ve been seeing renewed effort from the information management group when it comes to packaging products specifically for information governance.The acquisition, at first glance, seems good all around.  PSS gets bought; IBM gains some big name customers and another product to take to existing customers; even Exterro should be happy – they are now the major independent in this market, which will only drive up value.  I don’t think this necessarily means that the software giants will begin consolidating the whole eDiscovery market.  There is still some evolution necessary in the processing, analytics, and review market.  Look for consolidation there in more of the 18-24 month timeframe.

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