Microsoft has snapped up text analysis software startup Equivio, with aims to enable users to sort out legal and compliance challenges inherent in managing massive amounts of email and documents.
Equivio’s machine learning technology, which detects documents relevant to their legal and compliance requirements, will be integrated into Microsoft’s Office 365 platform.
Microsoft Outlook and Office 365 corporate vice president Rajesh Jha said: "We are making this acquisition to help our customers tackle the legal and compliance challenges inherent in managing large quantities of email and documents."
"Traditional techniques for finding relevant documents are falling behind as the growth of data outpaces peoples’ ability to manually process it."
Products under Equivio’s court-approved machine learning platform Zoom will assist businesses in better managing documents through the adoption of machine learning techniques. These techniques automatically gather documents into relevant groups and detect unique documents.
Jha added: "It uses advanced text analytics to perform multi-dimensional analyses of data collections, intelligently sorting documents into themes, grouping near-duplicates, isolating unique data, and helping users quickly identify the documents they need."
Once trained, Equivio’s information governance tools can then classify records according to their retention needs.
"Microsoft is serious about providing customers with tools to manage the legal and compliance requirements that are key to responsible business practices."
"Office 365 includes robust eDiscovery and information governance capabilities today, and we’ll use Equivio’s machine learning technology to make these vital tools even more intelligent and easy to use in the months ahead."
