Adobe Systems has introduced Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server 7.2, an enterprise rights management (ERM) solution for protecting and controlling documents throughout their entire lifecycle, from creation, through distribution and collaboration, to archiving and destruction. Now, organizations can conduct critical business processes more securely by protecting a broad range of financial, government, and engineering documents or other files across multiple formats, including Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Dassault Systèmes CATIA V5 files.

“Collaboration is the heartbeat of business. Whether working with a colleague in the same building or a partner across the globe, it’s crucial to have persistent control of sensitive information wherever it goes,” said David Mendels, senior vice president, Enterprise and Developer Business Unit at Adobe. “Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server 7.2 delivers the flexibility to exchange sensitive information in the source formats in which they’re created and used. Now, businesses can accelerate the pace of innovation and reduce time-to-market by allowing collaboration to occur earlier in the process, with greater assurances that proprietary information is more effectively protected against intentional or accidental disclosure.”

With the Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server 7.2, organizations can update or revoke usage rights regardless of where the information is stored or distributed, while monitoring document activity captured in an audit trail— helping organizations to increase their technical, legal, and regulatory confidence for conducting sensitive business electronically. As a result, organizations can gain a greater return on their business intelligence, better meet regulatory compliance, and reduce liability exposure. In addition, Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server 7.2 offers a multi-platform solution that enables organizations to aggregate group information and check user credentials against existing authentication directories.

As a leading design and engineering firm, our engineers and designers collaborate frequently with partners and customers. Secure collaboration and exchange is critical to our business,” said Randy Fix, director of automation, Fluor Corporation. “We look to Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server 7.2 to protect our designs and methods by applying rights management policies to sensitive documents, in their native file format. By protecting these documents throughout the entire lifecycle, we will significantly reduce threats to confidential information by denying access to electronic documents by employees and contractors who no longer have a relationship with the company.”

Additionally, Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server 7.2 for CATIA offers engineering professionals the ability to apply document-level access and usage controls to Dassault Systèmes CATIA V5R16 engineering and design documents. CATIA users can apply policies to separate parts of an assembly that may require different levels of protection. Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server 7.2 extends back-end systems such as product lifecycle management (PLM) and enterprise content management (ECM) systems to help protect valuable engineering workflows, including supply chain collaboration and external version control.

Adobe also announced today Adobe Document Center, a hosted service that allows individual knowledge workers to protect, control and track PDF, Word and Excel documents via the web (see separate press release). The service provides Policy Server 7.2 functionality directly from Adobe Acrobat 8 software, plug-ins to Word and Excel and, moving forward, directly from the web-based service.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server 7.2 is available immediately. Pricing starts at $100 per author. For more information, please visit www.adobe.com/products/server/policy. Existing Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server customers with a current Maintenance and Support contract can download the Word 2003 and Excel 2003 extensions at no cost from www.adobe.com/products/server/policy .