Protecting content from non-subscribers

At GreenbergMeritz Research & Analytics, research papers are distributed to hundreds of customers via e-mail or through the company’s Web site portal. It’s critical that those materials are maintained within the group of paying subscribers and not passed along to unauthorized parties. GreenbergMeritz describes itself as an independent research firm that combines the skills of financial journalism with the insight of forensic accounting and financial analysis.

Complicating the need to control and track the firm’s information is the fact that many of GreenbergMeritz’s customers are not tech-savvy; they also use different computing platforms and lack the time to deal with software installation and passwords. To facilitate and protect the sharing of sensitive documents, the firm opted initially to implement a digital rights management system. But that system was expensive, required IT help for installation and deployment, and also imposed tough restrictions on clients. Soon customers began complaining about the hassle and compatibility issues resulting from the various computing systems.

GreenbergMeritz turned instead to WatchDox, an online software-as-a-service solution from Confidela. According to the solution provider, WatchDox offered ease of use and better security at less cost. With the new system, customers can use their browser to view any document online, no matter what platform they are using. The solution authenticates users based on their e-mail addresses, making accessing the documents seamless. WatchDox allows the company to easily upload documents to share with its customer base, ensuring they cannot be copied, printed or forwarded without authorization.

GreenbergMeritz co-founder Herb Greenberg says, “We believe WatchDox has discovered the secret sauce to document control. It’s simple to use and works as advertised. As a publisher, we appreciate the ease of use not just for us--but for our customers. We switched to WatchDox from a more traditional enterprise encryption provider, which required a plug-in that proved cumbersome to our users. The conversion was easy. Even our customers who had complained about gaining access to our reports found WatchDox a snap.”