Early Case Assessment (ECA) Moving to The Corporations

Many eDiscovery vendors and consultants have seen more eDiscovery work moving back to the corporations. And, based on surveys over the past 12 months and direct discussions with eDiscovery decision makers within corporations, most industry analysts have predicted that eDiscovery work is moving back to the corporations at an accelerating rate. Now, The Cowan Group has confirmed this trend through the results of its "Q1 Critical Trends Survey". Collecting responses from 47 major corporations on their current workload, as well as near-term plans for technical and talent acquisitions, The Cowan Group is reporting that 22% of the corporations that they surveys are expecting to in-source more eDiscovery work within the next 90 days.

According to The Cowan Group Survey, 15% of the 47 major corporation indicated that they planned to move more eDiscovery collections in-house within the next 90 days. 35% of the respondents indicated that moving Early Case Assessment (ECA) in house was a top priority. 19% of the respondents indicated that they were considering an investment in Clearwell and 10% indicated that they were anticipating an investment in Relativity.
It appears that the trend of eDiscovery moving back to the corporations is indeed true.

So, the last 3 quarters of 2010 should be really good for the eDiscovery vendors and consultants that are fulfilling the requirements of the corporate legal departments.