Smarsh®, the leading provider of hosted archiving and compliance solutions for email and electronic communications, today announced its selection by the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) as an approved software vendor. Smarsh helps government, public education and other public entities meet the electronic message retention and e-discovery needs required for compliance with the Federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and state open records laws, such as the Texas Public Information Act.

The Texas DIR provides statewide leadership and oversight for the management of government information and communications technology. Smarsh services are now available through the Department’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Cooperative Contract program, a streamlined cooperative purchasing program designed for state, local and public education institutions across Texas, as well as public entities from other states.

The Smarsh message archiving platform enables public sector organizations to:

• Extend electronic recordkeeping, e-discovery and data protection initiatives to include email, public social media platforms, Salesforce Chatter, instant messaging and mobile messaging
• Support cloud (such as Microsoft Office 365) or on-premise (such as Microsoft Exchange or Groupwise) email hosting deployments
• Realize immediate cost savings on storage, data center management and infrastructure
• Improve IT efficiency and minimize operating burden by giving records managers the tools to search and produce email and electronic messages in seconds

“The addition of Smarsh to the DIR-approved vendor list provides public sector entities throughout Texas with convenient access to our message archiving and compliance solutions,” said Stephen Marsh, CEO and founder of Smarsh. “Organizations can responsibly support the platforms they use to communicate, leverage the cost and operational benefits of the cloud and be a leading voice in today’s conversations about open government and transparency.”

About Smarsh

Smarsh® provides hosted solutions for archiving electronic communications, including email, instant messaging, websites and social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Founded in 2001, Smarsh helps organizations manage and enforce flexible, secure and cost-effective compliance and records retention strategies. For more information, visit www.smarsh.com, follow @SmarshInc on Twitter or like Smarsh at www.facebook.com/SmarshInc.