eTera consulting

If you follow the press releases from legal technology vendors, it seems like corporations are buying products to address multiple steps in the EDRM process. The anecdotal information gathered from our clients during the first quarter of 2011 also indicated that a number of in-house electronic discovery teams were moving ahead from simply collecting data to take much more direct control of additional steps in the EDRM process.

Last week, we conducted a quick survey of 25 prospective clients regarding their 2011 plans. The questions allowed each respondent to select multiple answers. Listed below are the answers to each question with the percentage of respondents who participated.

QUESTION 1:  What in-house electronic discovery trends are you currently experiencing?

88% - Increasing number of projects

50% - Supporting more steps in the EDRM process

25% - Increased number of non-litigation projects (e.g. Audit)

19% - Increasing amount of iPad and smart phone collections

QUESTION #2:  What legal technology are you currently implementing or plan to implement in 2011?

18% - Information Management

45% - Collection

36% - Early Case Assessment

36% - Processing

36% - Repository and Review

These answers provide additional validation to our current collective experience.  As in-house electronic discovery teams expand their responsibilities and capabilities further across the EDRM model, they are likely to find a number of new challenges.

• Skills being developed on-the-go, increasing the chances of making mistakes
• Developing new processes including exception handling and quality assurance
• If using a best-of-breed approach, how to integrate the technology for efficiency
• If using a single vendor solution, how to address areas where the single vendor solution lacks capabilities

While most technology product vendors have very good “feature” usage training, they often do not provide the level of consulting necessary for you to more easily implement and rapidly obtain ROI from your investment. Instead of doing all of this work yourself, there are two alternatives to consider.

Option 1: Implementation Consulting

One approach is to partner with a technology independent consulting firm who is innovative and has experience integrating people, processes and technology into an efficient, defensible environment that support the entire EDRM model.  Your consulting partner should have the skills necessary to assist you with everything from project planning and requirements through full service implementation.

Option 2: Managed Services

For over a decade, managed services has been a proven methodology in the information technology arena, helping information technology professionals provide enhanced services through the use of outside experts. The idea of managed services is to provide 10 or more outside experts for the price of 2 or less full-time employees.  These experts would be multi-disciplinary and would provide extensive, specialized knowledge to an IT department that otherwise would not be readily available to them.

Posted by Alan Brooks, Vice President, Marketing