GBS IM Control!

Reliability, Performance and Compliance for Lotus Sametime

Highlights of GBS IM Control! (formerly Permessa) for Lotus Sametime

• Ensures business-grade Lotus Sametime reliability with synthetic transactions that continually test all IM services.
• Archives chats in high fidelity for compliance and legal discovery.
• Enforces IM policies.
• Inserts customized text in real-time based on sender attributes and metadata, such as language, location and organizational unit. 
• Creates extensive user, activity level, productivity, topology, security and chargeback reports for Lotus Sametime.
• Instantly blocks messages that violate compliance and abuse policies.
• Reduces costs with a native server-side software solution without an expensive proxy appliance.

Real-time IM Control for Policy Enforcement, IM Archiving and Reliability Testing 

GBS IM Control! enhances your IBM Lotus Sametime enterprise IM system with business-grade performance and compliance features.  In addition to its extensive reporting capabilities, GBS IM Control! makes sure that your Lotus Sametime unified communications system is ready for critical meetings and real-time communications. 

Synthetic transactions continually test all Sametime services, such as chat, electronic meetings, whiteboard sharing and buddy lists.  GBS IM Control! logs in and simulates a user’s experience.  The tests not only show that IM is working, they also measure performance to identify problems before they happen.

Compliance features can block messages, insert text and report violations in real-time.  Actions may be based on who participates and keyword phrases, likely pattern matches or attachment types.  Highly customized disclaimers and branding may be added based on sender attributes and metadata, such as language, location, and organizational unit.  Chats are archived in high fidelity with the bolding, images, emoticons, file transfers and more. 

Extensive user, activity level, productivity, topology, security and chargeback reports reduce IT management time and provide useful information.  For example, GBS IM Control! answers such critical questions as: Which users use Lotus Sametime? Can licenses be freed up and reassigned?  What is the load on the servers over time?  How are meetings being used?   

Real-time Lotus Sametime policy enforcement can block improper communications and report  policy violations.  Chats are archived in high fidelity with the bolding, images, emoticons, file transfers and more.  These are critical for understanding the context of IM communications.

GBS IM Control! does not require the purchase of expensive gateway or proxy appliances.  It is a software application that integrates tightly and natively with your Sametime IM server. That means it can act closer to the sender and it does not require a redirection service.  As a result, GBS IM Control! provides comprehensive coverage at lower cost.

GBS IM Control! Features

• Ensures the availability of all IM services.  Synthetic transactions test each IM service for reliability and performance, including chat, electronic meetings, whiteboard sharing and buddy lists.
• Sends a real-time alerts via email, IM or to HP OpenView™ when there is a significant service problem.
• Enforces corporate and IM compliance polices in real-time. Can block communications or add text to a message based on who participates and on message content.
• Inserts customized disclaimers and branding based on sender attributes and metadata, such as language, location and organizational unit.
• Provides dozens of detailed user, activity level, productivity, topology, security and chargeback reports.  Enables IT to measure IM adoption and manage license deployment.
• Archives Sametime chats with formatting, graphics, emoticons, attachments, or explicit file transfers for full compliance and legal discovery, when used with a records management system.  Captures the tone of each chat.
• Reduces overall costs caused by wasteful user behavior, such as creating unattended scheduled meetings and leaving open many idle IM windows.
• Enables IT to measure IM adoption and manage license deployment.
• Native software-only solution that does not require the purchase of an expensive proxy appliance.
• Supports all IM services, including chat, electronic meetings, whiteboard sharing and buddy lists. 

Examples

• Content Blocking:  Can terminate a chat session in real-time based on keyword phrases, likely pattern matches or attachment types for compliance and other purposes.  For example, messages may be blocked that contain social security and credit card numbers.  IMs, message fragments or individual attachments can be blocked to prevent dissemination of sensitive or inappropriate content.
• Custom Disclaimers and Branding:  Legal disclaimers, branding and other text can be automatically added to chats based on sender attributes and metadata.
• Restrict Access to External Domains:  Limit external IM connections to only authorized users.
• Create One-Way Firewalls:  Let key personnel, such as IT and executives, send IM to anyone, but allow only selected people to send messages to the key personnel.
• Criteria-based Chat Archiving: Chats can be archived based on sender or recipients, on the communication domain, on the longevity of the chat, as a random sampling of all chats, as well as other criteria.  Criteria may be changed dynamically to help ongoing investigations.
• Improve Performance:  Meet SLAs by finding communications that slow the network during peak demand.
• Enforce Ethical Firewalls (“Chinese Wall”):  Block select employees or departments from messaging each other.