World’s largest ship management company complies with legislative requirements such as Sarbanes Oxley to support major public clients
Waltham, MA, October 12, 2005 - V.Ships, the world’s leading ship management company, is using IMlogic IM Manager™ software to secure and manage its instant messaging (IM) communications and ensure employees comply with corporate Internet usage policy, IMlogic announced today. IMlogic IM Manager is controlling real-time communications over the public Yahoo! and MSN networks between its Glasgow, London and Singapore offices.
Like many global organizations, V.Ships communicates with customers, suppliers, partners and its operations teams through a combination of phone, e-mail and instant messaging. The escalating costs of communicating with customers around the world and the need for presence awareness have spurred the rapid growth of IM throughout the company. V.Ships wanted to protect and manage these conversations and mitigate the security and compliance risks associated with unmanaged IM.
“Instant messaging is a valid business practice at V.Ships,” said Walter Wilson, Group Network Security Engineer at V.Ships. “Our customers use a variety of IM clients, and we need to ensure our employees can communicate with them securely over all public IM providers. Our management team acknowledged this growing use and wanted to ensure its safe and compliant usage in line with our existing corporate Internet usage policy, which adheres to Sarbanes Oxley guidelines.”
IMlogic IM Manager provides all the tools V.Ships needs to fully realize the benefits of IM while minimizing the risks and challenges associated with this form of communication. V.Ships selected IMlogic IM Manager for its support of all public IM service providers and for its strong Microsoft links, as V.Ships operates a Microsoft-centric IT strategy. IMlogic IM Manager has also enabled the creation of a best practice for IM use, including no file sharing and no personal use.
“In our business, insurance claims can be enormous, and an IM conversation between one of our employees and a customer or an internal conversation can be used as evidence to support a claim,” said Wilson. “IMlogic IM Manager provides a searchable record of these conversations and ensures V.Ships is complying with legal requirements such as Sarbanes Oxley.”
“V.Ships’ approach is indicative of the growing acceptance of IM by organizations that want to benefit from the productivity and cost savings provided by real-time communication without the risks of unmanaged IM,” said IMlogic Managing Director of EMEA Derek O’Carroll.
About V.Ships V.Ships provides ship management and related marine services to the global shipping industry and a fleet of over 800 vessels. With 55 offices in 26 countries worldwide, V.Ships is responsible for every aspect of ship management including servicing and insuring vessels, crew training and recruitment of the 22,000 crew members on its books. For more information on V.Holdings / V.Ships visit www.vholdings.com
About IMlogic, Inc. IMlogic, Inc. is the market leader in enterprise software for instant messaging, the world’s fastest growing communications medium of all time. The largest Fortune 1000 companies across the financial services, energy, healthcare, government, media, telecommunications, technology, and manufacturing industries depend on IMlogic to manage, control and secure corporate IM usage, while satisfying compliance requirements associated with real-time electronic communications. For more information on IMlogic call 877-IMlogic or visit www.imlogic.com.