Tool Overview:
ActiveNav

About ActiveNav

ActiveNav is a data management platform headquartered in Reston, Virginia, specializing in unstructured data governance and privacy compliance. The company has operated for over 15 years, focusing exclusively on unstructured data management rather than providing general-purpose data solutions. With a reported customer satisfaction score of 96%, ActiveNav serves organizations globally through its cloud-based platform.

What does ActiveNav do?

ActiveNav Cloud, the company's primary offering, creates and maintains data maps across an organization's repositories to support privacy compliance and information governance. The platform identifies and analyzes various types of data, including personal information, client matter, and redundant or obsolete content. Through its dashboard interface, users can monitor data locations, assess risks, and initiate disposal actions when necessary.

The platform emphasizes the business aspects of data governance rather than treating it solely as an IT responsibility. It implements a data ownership model where specific individuals are assigned responsibility for data retention and disposition decisions. This approach aims to distribute accountability throughout the organization and align authority with responsibility for data management decisions.

A key function of ActiveNav is its support for privacy compliance through data discovery and mapping capabilities. The platform includes targeted search functionality for handling Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs) across discovered data repositories. It configures to an organization's specific data security policies and provides monitoring tools for ongoing compliance maintenance.

What makes ActiveNav different?

ActiveNav distinguishes itself through its specialized focus on unstructured data, positioning this as an advantage over vendors offering broader 'do everything' solutions. The platform supports scalable, cross-repository data review without requiring spreadsheet-based tracking, providing a centralized view for managing unstructured data across the organization.

The platform takes a business-centric approach to data governance, moving beyond traditional IT-focused solutions. This methodology emphasizes sustainable governance programs that integrate with business processes rather than existing as separate technical initiatives. The platform's architecture supports customization to align with specific business requirements rather than imposing a standardized approach.

Use cases and industries

ActiveNav serves multiple use cases in the data governance and privacy space. The platform supports regulatory and client compliance initiatives, facilitates client matter discovery, and aids in breach readiness and recovery efforts. Organizations use the platform for proactive information governance, implementing sustainable monitoring and management of unstructured data.

The platform extends its capabilities to knowledge management and artificial intelligence readiness. It helps organizations prepare their data for AI initiatives by identifying and organizing relevant information assets. Through its data mapping and classification capabilities, ActiveNav enables organizations to understand their data landscape before implementing AI solutions.

Recent developments indicate ActiveNav's evolution in the market, with the company spinning off its Actfore division, which focused on AI/ML-powered data mining for cyber breach incident response. This organizational change suggests a sharpened focus on ActiveNav's core unstructured data management capabilities.