Actiance
 | |
| Private company | |
| Industry |
Computer software Computer security Regulatory compliance Unified communications |
| Predecessor | FaceTime Communications |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Redwood City, CA |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
Kailash Ambwani (CEO) |
| Products |
Socialite Enable Socialite Engage Unified Security Gateway (USG) Vantage |
| Website | Actiance.com |
Actiance Inc (formerly known as FaceTime Communications) is an American-based multinational corporation that develops the platforms required to enable the security, management and compliance of unified communications, Web 2.0 and social media channels. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, Actiance supports all leading social networks, unified communications providers and Instant Messaging platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, AOL, Google, Yahoo!, Skype, Microsoft, IBM and Cisco.
History
1997–2007
Established in 1997, Actiance provided call center and CRM enablement for instant messaging, web chat and email. Working closely with AOL, Yahoo!, MSN and Microsoft, Actiance established the industry's first CAP agreements (Certified Access Programs) providing enhanced access to the public IM networks. In 2000, Actiance was awarded "Most Innovative Use of Real-time Collaboration"[1] at the Microsoft Exchange Conference.
In 2001, the company launched its first compliance and security solution for IM networks, IM Auditor. Aimed specifically at the financial services sector that needed to comply with government regulations enabled financial services organizations the ability to leverage the power of public instant messaging networks from AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo! for time-sensitive communications, while ensuring administrative controls are in place to comply with government regulations.
By 2003, over 50% of the top 100 financial services firms worldwide that needed to comply with Securities and Exchange Commission and NASD[2] record retention and supervisory requirements were using IM Auditor,[3] whilst others were still questioning whether IM had a place in business networks.[4]
Actiance introduced the first network appliance to control the use of IM in the enterprise in 2004. Capable of preventing unauthorized IM connections and stopping peer-to-peer (P2P) filesharing on sites such as KaZaA, Grokster and Morpheus, Real Time Guardian (RTG) identified and controlled access to the growing number of applications that traversed the network without the IT department’s knowledge. Actiance continued to add features to RTG including support for unified communication platforms such as Microsoft Office Communications Server and IBM Lotus Sametime and in 2005 in response to the growing threat from worms and spyware traversing IM networks a zero day defence system was added.
2008 - present
In 2008, Actiance added new capabilities to RTG’s successor, Unified Security Gateway (USG), providing IT managers with management, security and control over 140 social networking sites, 20,000 individual Facebook widgets and more than 400 Web and real-time applications. Making USG the first secure Web gateway to combine content monitoring, management and security of Web 2.0 applications, such as social networks, instant messaging and Unified Communications, with URL filtering, malware and Web antivirus protection.
2010 saw another first for Actiance when it launched Vantage, IMAuditor’s successor, which included stringent security and compliance controls for Skype [5] in the enterprise. Vantage provides granular security, policy controls and compliance features for real time and unified communications (UC) – providing management for the widest variety of UC and real time communications platforms; including Microsoft Office Communications Server and IBM Lotus Sametime, public instant messaging platforms such as Windows Live and Skype, web conferencing and industry focused networks like Reuters, Bloomberg and YellowJacket. Later that same year it include support for Microsoft Lync Server.
Also in 2010, Actiance launched Socialite Enable, a security, management and compliance solution for enterprises using social networks. Socialite provides granular control of applications such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and allows organisations to comply with regulatory compliance demanded by organizations such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Financial Services Authority.[6] Available as both a software-as-a-service deployment (SaaS) or as an on-premises installation as a module of USG, Socialite Enable allows for organizations to control social media features and communications for users both on the corporate network and situated remotely.
In June 2011, Actiance announced Socialite Engage, a new platform that allows distributed teams to share content, engage with clients and prospects, and analyze the impact of the content on social media sites. Designed specifically to enable investment and insurance professionals to distribute pre-approved content, Socialite Engage enables any organization to manage social media in a secure and compliant environment, while allowing users to see at a glance which content had the most impact. It also leverages third party data sources, such as internal systems and data feeds, highlights channels that are the most effective and identifies potential sales leads.