They will bring together complimentary skills to offer a Holistic Information Assurance solution and platform, to help companies address the abundance of confusing, (and sometimes conflicting) regulatory and legislative demands. The solution is more than just a "tick in the box" to the conundrum of compliance – it demonstrates how, by aligning business strategy and an information architecture, compliance can be achieved AND competitive edge gained.

Both parties are passionate in their beliefs and approach, and insist that Holistic Information Assurance is the only way to effectively address the growing complexities of compliance and governance. Achieving good governance is vital for organisations to contend with the unstoppable initiatives – including US, European and UK regulations.

"Protecting the information assets of a business is of paramount concern to today's board members. With increasing regulatory and legislative pressures, compliance is clearly an important issue, but it is only one facet of the Information Assurance story. Only by taking a holistic view,and looking beyond the technology to consider the people, processes and policies in the organisation, can a business reap the full benefits of good Information Governance. Many solution providers out there are only tackling part of the problem, and may even be making things worse. A truly holistic view requires a superset of skills and experience that we can now offer to all our clients by working together," comments John Baskerville, MD of Anite Finance.

Bruce Potter, head of lawyers Morgan Cole's Technology Practice continued: "We have joined forces with Anite because we share the belief in taking a holistic view of Information Assurance. No matter what regulations you face, be it "SOX", Basel II Data Protection, or Freedom of Information, it will impact your IT systems – and that creates a whole new set of challenges.

IT systems can help address those challenges, but organisations need to start thinking more broadly about all the Information Assurance challenges they face. Morgan Cole, as leading commercial and IT lawyers, recognise that dealing with compliance alone will not deliver improved business performance. Organisations need to look more broadly at the whole way they collect, use store and secure information, and this exciting initiative with Anite will give organisations the integrated solution to meet that challenge."