The e-mail archiving vendor adds new features to its e-discovery software for Exchange.This week Sherpa Software launched Discovery Attender 3.5. The software is designed to help organizations conduct e-discovery and compliance searches for relevant e-mail, attachments and common file types, including Office documents, PDFs and ZIP files.

Discovery Attender can search live Exchange mailboxes as well as e-mail and PSTs stored in Sherpa's archive product, Archive Attender. Customers can also use the software to search files stored on servers or local drives, as long as the folders are available as Windows network shares. However, the software can't be used to search competing mail archives.

E-mail and attachments are a key information source in discovery events and lawsuits. Organizations that fail to produce an accurate and complete set of responsive data to a discovery request risk fines, sanctions and even the loss of a lawsuit.

The latest version of Discovery Attender adds new features, including exception logging. If the software can't search a file for some reason, such as password-protected e-mail or corrupted document, it will report on that exception and generate a complete list of all exceptions encountered during the search. This log is important in discovery because it serves as a record of the search in case of later dispute. It also gives those conducting the discovery search an opportunity to go back and ensure that potentially relevant items do get reviewed. The software can export exception items to a separate repository.

Also new is a text viewer that shows the content of files and messages, such as Office documents and PDFs, without the need to open a separate application to view those files. This feature also highlights the search keywords that were found in the content.

Sherpa is far from the only archiving vendor with discovery capabilities in its arsenal. Symantec's e-mail archive includes a host of e-discovery-related features, including searches and legal holds. Mimosa Systems offers the NearPoint eDiscovery option, an application that provides discovery features for its e-mail and SharePoint archive products, including search, legal hold and early case assessment.

Meanwhile, this spring EMC revamped its own archiving line under the SourceOne brand to bring more discovery capabilities to its product line. And just last month, the company acquired e-discovery vendor Kazeon.