The Education organization chose Vitrium Security as it was identified to be the best-in-class software for document security and digital rights management software.
JapanConsuming uses Vitrium Security to preserve its revenue streams by protecting the valuable intellectual property in its reports
By Santiago Henderson | May 30, 2018
“I get peace of mind knowing JapanConsuming’s research reports are protected, but our clients have the convenience of being able to access the reports on any of their devices: desktop, tablet or smartphone.”
- Michael Causton, Partner & Founder
Company Overview
JapanConsuming is a specialist research company that provides Japanese consumer and retail markets’ intelligence to brands, investors, retailers, and government agencies. The company combines business insights and market analysis to deliver consulting services, seminars, and reports covering all consumer sectors of Japanese markets.
Key Challenges
JapanConsuming was facing a challenge common to companies that publish research on retail trends, product developments, consumer buying trends, financial performances, and company strategies: how to keep the reports from being shared with the public or being sent to people who had not paid for the reports.
Even though most customers could be trusted to respect the copyright of their work, without a content security system in place, JapanConsuming reports were vulnerable and the company’s revenue at risk. Due to the nature of their business model, the company found that reports sold to customers were being accessed by customers’ temporary staff and consultants that were sending out reports to their mailing lists. “Our revenues were suffering from reports being sold by third parties without our knowledge,” summarizes Michael Causton, Partner and Founder of JapanConsuming.
The Solution – Vitrium Security
JapanConsuming caters to two types of customers: those that purchase individual reports from their website and annual subscribers to their digital content library. In both cases, a customer visits JapanConsuming’s eCommerce platform on their corporate website where they either place an order for a report or sign up for a corporate subscription. Once the purchase is completed, customers have access to a download link for the purchased report or receive it via email.
JapanConsuming needed a content security solution that not only ensured their reports were accessible in a personal and non-transferrable manner, but also aligned with their subscription-based and individual report sales model. When Michael Causton set out to find a content security system, he found most systems were not a good fit. “There were some protective systems out there but they were often clunky and would annoy clients, and others were far too expensive,” says Causton. That is, until he found Vitrium Security and was able to protect JapanConsuming’s valuable intellectual property and revenue generating reports from copyright infringement, unauthorized sharing, and illegal distribution.
The Result
Vitrium Security’s intuitive approach to uploading files and applying content security and Digital Rights Management (DRM) settings made protecting reports easy for JapanConsuming. With Vitrium Security’s device and browser limit abilities, JapanConsuming was able to allow customers flexibility in accessing purchased reports while limiting the risk of unauthorized sharing and illegal distribution. In addition, Vitrium Security lets JapanConsuming establish expiration dates for files on a per user basis, limiting access permission over a specific span of time.
Michael Causton finds that having a content security solution like Vitrium Security lets him protect his company’s intellectual property and copyright without hassling his customers. Since Vitrium protected content is accessible as PDFs on Adobe Reader and Acrobat DC, or via a browser as a secure web link, his customers never have to download any viewer application or plug-in. “We found that Vitrium Security makes it easy to distribute our reports, whether in protected PDF form, or as a secure web link,” says Causton. “I get peace of mind knowing JapanConsuming’s research reports are protected, but our clients have the convenience of being able to access the reports on any of their devices: desktop, tablet or smartphone.”
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