The vast majority of organizations have little to no understanding of their file data. The data that they are legally responsible for. The data that is the result of thousands of hours of invested effort. The data that forms a key asset and source of competitive advantage. • What is valuable to us and what is not? • What is valuable to our competitors? • Which files contain data subject to external regulations? These are fundamental questions that, incredibly, remain unanswered. Organizations have been in a state of paralysis. Fixed in the belief that efficiency gains were the only benefits available from pro-active data management, and that these rewards could not warrant the investment necessary. The situation is changing. Tightening regulatory frameworks, high-profile data loss cases, the adoption of off-premise storage solutions, the advent of process-oriented solutions. There are numerous factors behind the accelerating realization that user data must, and can, be scrutinized. Founded in Stockholm, Sweden in 1995 Northern has from the beginning served a global market focusing solely on User Data Management [UDM]. The in-house developed software solution, NSS, is used by organizations around the world with large numbers of users and/or large amounts of unstructured data to decrease risk, cost and better realizing the value of data. Northern's customers, organizations that have implemented (or begun to implement) user data management processes, are realizing value in multiple business areas: • Improved regulatory compliance • Improved risk management • Rationalized data retention • Improved dissemination of business knowledge • Adoption of innovative new working practices • Improved process and cost efficiency These vital gains are achieved through a sequential approach of revealing and then fixing broken processes that give rise to significant business problems