Enterprise search and content management software specialist Autonomy this week launched a new module designed to help firms track and discover structured and unstructured data, and better comply with new laws requiring the rapid discovery of sensitive electronic data.

The new Idol Echo suite integrates with Autonomy's Intelligent Data Operating Layer (Idol) content management and monitoring technology, and provides users with the ability to track and trace the lifecycle of data within a business "in an accurate and legally reliable way".

A spokesperson for the company said that the new data trail auditing and e-discovery functionality will help firms comply with the recent US Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, "which mandate that, in the event of litigation, the defendant must produce all accessible electronic information within 99 days of the request".

She added that the new module had "productised all the interfaces, functions and modules" found in previous compliance-focused deployments of the Idol platform "to enable rapid and painless implementation".

The company added that the ability of Idol to monitor and analyse both structured data, such as spreadsheets, and unstructured data, such as emails and voice mail message, allows the technology to more accurately report on who has seen certain information and how it has been distributed through a business – an important consideration in many litigation cases.

"Idol Echo can also trace information as it jumps from mail to phone conversation to document," the company said in a statement. "For example, person A receives a call from person B who then relays it out of ear shot in the parking lot to person C who then instant message these ideas to person D. Echo can then be asked ‘who has heard this?’."