Is Integrated E-Discovery the Best Approach?

The e-discovery market is changing at an ever-increasing rate. Almost daily, we hear news of a merger between two vendors with talk of providing an integrated solution for law firms. Indeed, integration has quickly become one of the buzzwords of 2010.

With law firms increasingly feeling pressure to adapt to client demands to reduce bills and expenses, an integrated e-discovery solution may seem like a wise investment. Having fewer vendors providing necessary services is always beneficial. It means less administrative overhead, less potential for miscommunication, and less time spent training staff on new software. However, when it comes to e-discovery, an integrated solution may not always provide a law firm with exactly what it needs. An integrated e-discovery platform must provide the firm with the ability to process, review, analyze, and then produce electronically stored information in a consistent, defensible, and economically sensible manner. This is of paramount importance. Without understanding the many nuances involved in each of these phases, a law firm may quickly find out that it has purchased an integrated solution that fails to perform an essential task. At that point, the firm is faced with outsourcing this essential task or purchasing stand-alone software, defeating the purpose of investing in an integrated solution. In light of this, firms should carefully consider the essential software components for each phase of the e-discovery life cycle before investing in an integrated solution.

ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS FOR ESI PROCESSING

Processing ESI is one of the biggest hurdles for any e-discovery solution. Data comes in many forms and formats, and often requires many steps in order to be made ready for analysis. Removing duplicate copies, especially of e-mails, is also crucial. An integrated tool must address all of these issues.

When it comes to the processing phase, law firms should consider whether an integrated solution provides the following.

Identification of file types. Obviously, the most basic function of a processing application should be to identify files by file type, and truthfully, most solutions readily perform some level of file type identification. However, file extensions can often be misleading. A better tool can process files by analyzing their contents, not simply their extensions.

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Source: law.com
By: David Deusner