Exterro Inc. – the industry’s first provider of Legal GRC software, which unifies e-discovery, digital forensics and data privacy to drive successful, defensible outcomes for in-house legal, IT teams, privacy and law enforcement worldwide, has announced that increased demand for Legal GRC has contributed to huge company growth in 2021. The company is experiencing vast global expansion, increasing company headcount and growing its 200-strong partner channel, with the company primed for significant momentum in 2022 as the drive for Legal GRC intensifies. In India particularly, the company anticipates major growth owing to the Personal Data Protection Bill, which will increase the demand for Legal GRC software.
“While the PDP Bill is a step in the right direction, its implementation will be challenging for businesses in India. As organisations await the enactment of the bill, the time is now for identifying resources, processes, policy changes and technologies to manage the expected change. At Exterro, we’re looking to help create awareness and provide solutions to these future problems, today,” said Dr Kavitha Thangasami, VP Global Talent Management & Chief Data Scientist, Exterro.
As a step towards creating awareness about the company’s solutions, Exterro plans to set up the Centre for Excellence in India to showcase its latest innovations and technologies to customers, partners and stakeholders. The company’s Research and Development facility is located in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, where a majority of the product teams are based. The R&D teams in India are responsible for global innovations in legal GRC and digital forensic among other spheres. Currently, Exterro has over 250 employees in India across two offices and plans to hire more people in the country.
Exterro has partnered with local universities in India to bridge the gap between academia and business and continue to hire India’s brightest minds. The company has been actively hiring talent from tier-2 and tier-3 cities in India as it aims to include people from diverse backgrounds into its workforce.
Exterro has also hired over 50 employees across the globe, including Simon Whitburn as General Manager and Vice President of International Sales, where he is responsible for overseeing the sales, channel, business development and customer success departments, while leading the international business. Exterro plans to continue to invest significantly in India and operations in the region. India is a major strategic location for Exterro, and will be a hub to help the company grow in other markets, such as China, APAC an, Middle East and Africa.
“Fuelled by data regulations like the GDPR and PDPB, we have seen a major shift in how ediscovery is undertaken, and organisations now need an integrated strategy, process, information, and technology architecture to govern legal, meet legal commitments, and manage legal uncertainty and risk in a way that is efficient, effective, and agile. As organisations start waving their white flags, we can step in and help customers to discover, understand and manage their data in a defensible, scalable, repeatable and efficient way and use these opportunities to build on Exterro’s success as leaders in the market,” commented Whitburn.
Buoyed by a strategy to increase headcount and actively recruit new partners, Exterro aims to further expand its channel network and is actively seeking new partners in the corporate market, with plans to invest heavily in Channel Marketing in 2022.
This commitment to expand the Channel is further bolstered by the promotion of Ian Rainsborough to drive growth in his role as International Channel and Partnerships Director, bringing over ten years’ experience in digital forensics and IT security to the role. Having already tripled the international channel team and signed new partners, including Cyber Security South Africa, Rainsborough has been instrumental in establishing and strengthening partner relations.
“I plan to continue to leverage our strategic partnerships and alliances to drive growth and support the company to meet the increasing demand for Legal GRC. We are collaborating with our channel partners to create and deliver an effective platform solution that addresses their challenges, and we continually seek to provide innovative technologies to deliver value,” Rainsborough said.
Following the acquisition of AccessData in 2020, Exterro has introduced a suite of products/solutions including Exterro Review, FTK Central, FTK 7.5, Smart Breach Review, Incident and Breach Management indicating that the company is committed to technological investment and to enabling customers to proactively and defensibly manage their legal governance, risk and compliance (GRC) obligations while maintaining and ensuring the highest levels of data integrity.
Stuart Davidson, Senior Director of International Marketing concluded, “We are in the midst of a perfect storm, with a multitude of industry changes and challenges generating a surge in demand for Legal GRC. We have spent years developing and building a robust scalable solution and our commitment to our customers is evident through our continued investment in our technology, our people, and our vision for the future: a single unified Legal GRC solution.”