This product can protect Microsoft Office documents and Adobe PDF files from actions such as copying, printing, printing to a file, editing, saving, and being opened in a virtual machine or remote desktop session. Administrators can also set time restrictions for when a file can be opened or accessed. Additional functionality is brought to this product with the secure2mail plugin for Microsoft Outlook. This plugin can be used to assign the same types of control to email.
We found this tool to be quite easy to use. Installation is comprised of basically three parts: First, a web server must be created and configured to host the manger component. Second, the Manager component is installed and configured. Lastly, the clients are deployed. The installation process is easy and intuitive, and clients can be deployed using a group policy via Active Directory. From the client side, this product is also simple and intuitive to use. A drop down menu is created in the appropriate applications, so users can seamlessly protect documents and email.
From a performance standpoint, this is a solid product. Both components plug into the environment using the already existing Active Directory structure, so there is no need to configure separate users and groups for policy. Also, since the product integrates directly into user applications, it is easy for users to protect a document, which makes the product effective and effortless to users.
Several PDF guides are provided for documentation. These guides are all well organized and segmented in an intuitive way, rather than being one 1,000-page manual. All the guides include easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions and many screen shots for further illustration of installation and configuration tasks.
Avoco offers both phone and email support, as well as an online support ticketing system. There are also a few nice resources available on the website.
With prices starting at $370 per user, this product is an excellent value for the money. Avoco's tool provides a high amount of document protection and granularity with simple administration for a fairly low price.