$1.2 Billion eDiscovery Market by 2014

A press release as posted on Marketwire on October 11, 2010, indicates that a very recent study by The Radicati Group, titled, “eDiscovery Market, 2010-2104”, predicts that the eDiscovery market will reach $1.2 billion in sales by 2014.

This is considerably less than the $2.8 billion market size for 2009 as indicated in the The 2010 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey.

And, unless we assume no growth over the next few year, less than the $1.2 billion forecast by The Gartner Group earlier this year.

I am sure that there are differences in the exact revenues sources that these studies are looking at and also differences in statistical methodologies.  However, under I any circumstances, eDiscovery is a big market and I believe from personal experience that it should continue to grow.

Over the past 12 months I have talked to numerous CIOs and other “C” level information technology executives from the Global 2000 that have jumped into the eDiscovery discussion internally, added the requirements to their radar and expect to budget funds to cover infrastructure to support bringing some aspects of eDiscovery in-house.

According to a somewhat related study that adds an even more interesting twist to the expected growth and direction of the eDiscovery market,  The Cowen Group recently conducted a study of the AmLaw 200, the highest-grossing law firms in the United States, and found 87 of the 200 currently have internal eDiscovery practice groups.  According to David Cowen, founder of the Cowen Group, the results signify the importance of reliable eDiscovery solutions and practices for firms of all sizes and specialties.

The Cowen Group study goes on to state that many of the firms with practice groups reported that their current and prospective clients showed interest in their services due to the presence of the eDiscovery experts. However, the report also found a number of organizations with practice groups still do not have the adequate IT and human resources required to fully support the initiative.

"These findings are significant for corporations who require law firms with legitimate eDiscovery experience," said David Cowen, founder of The Cowen Group. "Many firms realized that they needed to establish an eDiscovery practice group to market themselves to savvy clients, but far fewer made the necessary investments in people, process and technology to develop a group with true eDiscovery expertise."

To improve the standards of eDiscovery use and practice, Cowen expects to release an essential guide for firms planning to implement practice groups.

Having talked to partners from most of the AMLaw200 over the past 12 months, my take is that they are seeing their corporate clients either already brining eDiscovery and associated activities in-house or planning to do so over the next couple of years.   I also have heard time and time again that many of these partners are pleased to see this trend as they never wanted to be in the IT business in the first place.

Summary Questions I have a few questions about the results these various studies:

1.  Is the eDiscovery market in fact growing?
2.  Who is buying? Is is the Global 2000 or the AMLaw200
3.  Are  per unit eDiscovery costs coming down?  And, if so, is the overall cost of eDiscovery going up because of the accelerating increase in the amount of ESI?

The full text of the Radicati Group press release is as follows:

The latest study by The Radicati Group, "eDiscovery Market, 2010-2014," offers an in-depth analysis of the worldwide market for eDiscovery solutions. The study includes market trends, vendor revenue market share, market size and four-year forecasts, and breakouts by region.

eDiscovery solutions enable organizations to identify, collect, analyze, process, and present data stored in various corporate repositories. The data may be collected in response to lawsuits, internal investigations, or regulatory compliance requests. 

eDiscovery solutions today range from custom-built for each individual customer, to pre-packaged solutions that work out-of-the box in less than an hour. About 80% of all eDiscovery solutions are deployed by legal departments of large organizations, and the remaining 20% by law firms. 

This study includes an analysis of leading players in the eDiscovery market, including: Anacomp, Autonomy, CaseCentral, Clearwell, EMC, Guidance Software, Iron Mountain (Stratify), Recommind, StoredIQ, Symantec, and others.

To order a copy of the study, or to subscribe to our market research services, visit our website at http://www.radicati.com/, or call Todd Yamasaki at (650) 322-8059 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting   (650) 322-8059 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

About The Radicati Group, Inc. The Radicati Group is a leading technology research and advisory firm focused on all aspects of email, security, email archiving, regulatory compliance, wireless technologies, web services, instant messaging, unified communications, social networking, and more. The company provides both quantitative and qualitative information, including detailed market size, installed base and forecast information on a worldwide basis, as well as detailed country breakouts.

The Radicati Group works with corporate organizations to assist in the selection of the right products and technologies to support their business needs, as well as with vendors to define the best strategic direction for their products. We also work with investment firms on a worldwide basis to help identify new investment opportunities.

The Radicati Group, Inc. is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, with offices in London, UK.

Labels: Autonomy, Clearwell Systems, eDiscovery, Gartner, Recommind, Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey, StoredIQ

posted by Charles Skamser @ 10:35 AM