Vendor aims ComplianceAppliance at firms with staffs of 30 or fewer. ZipLip claims to have a comparatively low-cost product for small firms struggling to comply with email retention regulations. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is marketing an “all-in-one box” called the ComplianceAppliance that lets firms store messages in a tamper-proof format for up to seven years. It also lets firms – or their regulators – search, index and review email.

Less than 50% of small financial firms are compliant with Security and Exchange Commission, New York Stock Exchange and NASD email regulations “due to the high prices and complexity of email compliance solutions on the market,” according to ZipLip.

“Many vendors today are only trying to address the needs of larger firms, neglecting smaller ones with a critical need for compliance,” says ZipLip CEO Kon Leong. “Email retention has been challenging for [brokers], [registered investment advisors], and [asset managers] in particular: many of them have 30 users or fewer, and tend to be more price-sensitive.”

The list price of ComplianceAlliance is $14,500 for 30 or fewer mailboxes.

Companies that use ZipLip products to help them secure and control their business records, email, instant messaging, and efiles include ADP, Fenimore Asset Management and Morgan Keegan. –FWR