The Best Place to Perform Technology Assisted Review (TAR)

The resulsts of eDiscovery Solutions Group (eDSG) Weekly Survey on "Where is your Technology Assisted Review (TAR) done?" are in and they reveal that 43% of the respondents are outsourcing  their Technology Assisted Review (TAR) to third party document review providers.  These results seem to be somewhat contradictory to the prime objective and overall value proposition of the Legal Services Outsourcing (LSO) or Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) vendors to provide less expensive manpower for labor intensive tasks such as document review.

However, according to a report on the Top Ten Trends in Legal Outsourcing for 2012 by Fronterion LLC,  legal technology platforms (such as TAR) will be increasingly bundled together with traditional LPO offerings, combing two of the most important trends shaping  the legal profession today.  This means using software systems as well as low cost human labor to provide  cheaper  and more efficient legal services.

This trend seems to actually have been evolving for years as legacy LPO players have long been utilizing software tools and techniques during the document review processes including: document clustering, email thread management and keyword and concept search to cull and organize the documents in order to increase the speed and reduce the overall cost of review.  Adding predictive coding to mix as a way to reduce the cost even further seems like a logical progression in the evolution of the LPO as they strive to maintain their margins.

The percentage of the respondents  that chose something other than an LSO for where they send their Technology Assisted Review (TAR) also provided some interesting results:

• Outside Counsel (14%)
• Internal as part of Document Review Software (14%)
• Internal as separate Technology Assisted Review (TAR) Software (29%)

The fact that 14% of the respondants chose Outside Counsel for where they send their Technology Assisted Review (TAR) indicates that although the eDiscovery market is going through a paradigm shift with corporate legal departments bringing eDiscovery services in-house, there are still some legal departments relying on their outside counsel for eDiscovery services.  An interesting question for a future eDSG poll would be whether or not legal departments send their TAR to outside counsel because their outside counsel is proficient at TAR or because they send all of their eDiscovery work to outside counsel.   It would also be telling to investigate whether or not these outside counsel are performing the TAR services internally or sub-contracting them to an LPO or LSO.

The results of the eDSG 2012 Survey of the General Counsel from the Global 250 indicated that 86% of the respondants send their document review to either outside counsel or an LPO.   However, the survey also revealed that 75% of the respondants were frustrated that neither outside counsel nor legacy LPOs were providing adequate support for eDiscovery.  This survey also revealed that 80% of general counsel from the global 250 were frustrated with having to deal with software vendors.  This statistic leads into the last two facts from the eDSG weekly poll on where respondents are sending TAR.  The poll reveals that 43% are performing TAR internally which indicates that they are having to "deal" with software vendors.  The eDSG weekly poll is open to anyone that wants to vote and therefore the respondants are not necessarily general counsel from the global 250.  In fact, I would venture to say that very few is any of the respondants to this week's poll were general counsel.  However, it is still significant and shows a trend that 43% of the respondants indicated that they are performing TAR internally.

The fact that 14% of the respondents chose Internal as part of Document Review Software for where they send their Technology Assisted Review (TAR) indicates that some of the document review vendors have successfully integrated TAR into their review platforms.

However, the fact that 29% of the respondants chose Internal as separate Technology Assisted Review (TAR) Software for where they send their Technology Assisted Review (TAR) indicates that eDiscovery users are not yet comfortable with TAR and may not be ready to use it as part of their stand document review process. However, this statistic is significant enough to indicate that eDiscovery users understand the value of TAR and are therefore using in those situations where it satisfies the technical and legal requirements.

The resulsts of eDiscovery Solutions Group (eDSG) Weekly Survey on "Where is your Technology Assisted Review (TAR) done?" reveals that users within the eDiscovery market is still trying to figure out when, where an how to best utilize Technology Assisted Review (TAR).  Complicated by the ongoing paradigm shift of responsibility for eDiscovery services moving to the legal deparments and exaserbated by the evolution of both LPOs and outside counsel trying to refine their business models, TAR users should take the time to understand their internal requirements and then investigate the best approach, partners and place to perform TAR.  It may not be as straight forward to they think.

Click Here to view the results of the eDiscovery Solutions Group (eDSG) Weekly Survey on "Where is your Technology Assisted Review (TAR) done?".

Labels: Document Review, eDiscovery, General Counsel, global 250, Legal, Litigation, Litigation Software, Predictive Coding, TAR, Technology Assisted Review

posted by Charles Skamser @ 9:21 AM 1 Comments

eDiscovery in the Cloud is Obviously Working

eDiscovery in the cloud is obviously working as this week Autonomy. a global leader in eDiscovery and GRC infrastructure software for the enterprise, announced that  they are now managing over 17 Petabytes of email, documents, and multimedia data on 6,500 servers on 8 data centers around the world. Seventeen Petabytes is equal to more than 11 times the size of the 10 billion photos on Facebook, or 226 years of HD video.

I think that this announcement answers questions about whether or not the enterprise will allow its data outside the firewall.  And, to a certain degree answers the debate about the future of cloud computing in the eDiscovery and GRC markets.

As a cloud based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) evangelist of the past 10 years,  I am really pleased to see that cloud based computing is gong mainstream and gaining momentum within the enterprise.  And, I am even more pleased to see these trends in eDiscovery and GRC market.

However, as I am also a best-in-class advocate and evangelist, it is disappointing to see that a vendor with a monolithic solution based on a proprietary database (IDOL) seems to have taken the lead in cloud based computing.  Don’t get me wrong, I am very impressed with what Autonomy has accomplished and have tremendous respect for their technology.  That being, said I am now curious about market penetration and acceptance, hosted data amounts and SaaS based application utilization by best-in-class component technologies in the same markets that Autonomy is playing.

We all know about the success of salesforce.com.   I wonder which technology vendor or technology vendors will take on Autonomy with an more open systems best-in-class type approach and rise to the level of success as a salesforce.com?

In some respects, the answer to the question of who is competing with Autonomy may be found in the fact that there are no other providers that have put all of the “best-in-class” solutions together along with workflow management under a single enterprise class data center.  And that each of the individual SaaS based technology providers is only marketing a component of the overall solution and therefore doesn’t really have a single source solution to compete with Autonomy.

So, is the answer that some service provider needs to bring all of this together?  I have been studying several potential candidates over the past 12 months and will be reporting on their offering(s) and their potential impact on the market before the end of the year.  Stay tuned.
The full text of the Autonomy press release is as follows:

Cambridge, UK and SAN FRANCISCO – October 12, 2010 – Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU. or AU.L), a global leader in infrastructure software for the enterprise, today announced that Autonomy's private cloud computing platform has reached a new data processing milestone, extending its lead as the world's largest private cloud. Autonomy private cloud now manages over 17 Petabytes of email, documents, and multimedia data on 6,500 servers on 8 data centers around the world. Seventeen Petabytes is equal to more than 11 times the size of the 10 billion photos on Facebook, or 226 years of HD video.

The continued dramatic growth of Autonomy's private cloud is the result of Autonomy's unique, meaning-based approach to cloud computing, as well as the rapid adoption for multichannel marketing applications. Powered by Autonomy's Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL), Autonomy's private cloud automatically recognizes concepts and patterns in the billions of files it ingests and indexes every day. The ability to automatically understand the meaning within all forms of data provides a significant advantage to the customer, whether it's a compliance officer or lawyer responsible for archiving and reviewing emails, video, and social media posts around a particular case, or a chief marketing officer looking to deliver the most relevant and proven content to a website visitor in real-time.

As a result, Autonomy is now the dominant leader in a range of private cloud computing applications. Autonomy is driving rapid uptake amongst marketers looking for a cost-effective, fast, and turnkey platform for hosted marketing applications. For instance, a marketing team can form a virtual chain with its network of design and advertising agencies, to securely collaborate on the development of rich media content. Autonomy's cloud-based marketing modules include Autonomy Optimost, Autonomy TeamSite, and Autonomy Virage MediaBin.

Likewise, corporate legal departments are increasingly turning to Autonomy to form a virtual private chain with their law firm partners, in order securely collaborate on relevant information for a particular investigation or case. This cloud-based approach to eDiscovery results in radically compressed timeframes for the eDiscovery process. Autonomy's private cloud processed 36,000 eDiscovery audits year-to-date, producing 48 Terabytes of eDiscovery data. Autonomy's cloud-based information governance modules include Autonomy Consolidated Archive, Early Case Assessment, Introspect, Legal Hold, Records Manager, Supervisor, and iManage WorkSite.

"Most technology providers consider cloud computing to be nothing more than making the contents and applications in a digital storage box accessible via the internet," said Mike Lynch, CEO of Autonomy. "However, Autonomy's meaning-based approach to cloud computing brings intelligence to a range of applications, from archiving to eDiscovery to marketing. Autonomy provides the ideal platform for our Protect and Promote customers, who are dealing with an increasing array of content to govern and apply policy to, produce for eDiscovery investigations and review, and who are seeking greater agility in launching multichannel campaigns that resonate with their customers."
Autonomy's private cloud is hosted in state-of-the-art and high-security data centers. The data centers are under 24/7 surveillance, and each one undergoes annual Statement of Accounting Standard number 70 or "SAS 70" audits. Two fully synchronized, geographically separated systems provide complete data and system redundancy and parallel processing of all tasks. The design addresses all aspects of multi-tenancy, such as multiple firewalls and virus protection, and is ideally qualified to support the performance and volume requirements that are necessary for processing the rapidly expanding number of corporate formats and unified communications – including all forms of text, audio, and video.

About Autonomy
Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU. or AU.L), a global leader in infrastructure software for the enterprise, spearheads the Meaning Based Computing movement. IDC recently recognized Autonomy as having the largest market share and fastest growth in the worldwide search and discovery market. Autonomy's technology allows computers to harness the full richness of human information, forming a conceptual and contextual understanding of any piece of electronic data, including unstructured information, such as text, email, web pages, voice, or video. Autonomy's software powers the full spectrum of mission-critical enterprise applications including pan-enterprise search, customer interaction solutions, information governance, end-to-end eDiscovery, records management, archiving, business process management, web content management, web optimization, rich media management and video and audio analysis.

Autonomy's customer base is comprised of more than 20,000 global companies, law firms and federal agencies including: AOL, BAE Systems, BBC, Bloomberg, Boeing, Citigroup, Coca Cola, Deutsche Bank, DLA Piper, Ericsson, FedEx, Ford, GlaxoSmithKline, Lloyds Banking Group, NASA, Nestlé, the New York Stock Exchange, Reuters, Shell, Tesco, T-Mobile, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. More than 400 companies OEM Autonomy technology, including Symantec, Citrix, HP, Novell, Oracle, Sybase and TIBCO. The company has offices worldwide. Please visit http://www.autonomy.com/ to find out more.

Autonomy and the Autonomy logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autonomy Corporation plc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Labels: Autonomy, Compliance, eDiscovery, Governance, GRC, Litigation Service Providers, Litigation Software, Risk and Compliance

posted by Charles Skamser @ 10:17 AM 0 Comments

New Litigation Software Review Site

With the potential changes to The Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey, I started to research alternatives for substanttive research on litigation technology. I am pleased to report that I have found LitiReview by Lexebe.com.

Launched in August of 2008, LitiReviews boasts the largest collection of free legal and litigation software reviews on the web. All reviews (100+) are full-text, and have been published in legal magazines, journals, websites and blogs. LitiReview links to copies of reviews available on the internet, or hosted by us at the author's request.

LitiReview enables users to:

- See the latest reviews listed below
- See only reviews from a specific software category or for a particular application by clicking on the links to the left
- Register for our free newsletter including recent reviews
- Receive our RSS feed in XML or in the following readers: Google Yahoo AOL
Send this page to a friend
- Find out more about the LitiReviews legal software reviews collection
- Add a legal software review to the collection
- Make a specific search in the box below

I would encourage anyone interested in researching litigation technology to take a look at LitiReview by Lexebe.com.

Example Reviews

CaseLogistixReview: Anacomp’s CaseLogistix 5.2, by Timothy Piganelli. Overall this tool has to be one of the top choices for document review with its native file review capability. Attorneys and law firms that have an in-house IT or litigation support staff to handle the SQL application would find CaseLogistix useful and very workable. My top three features are the Document Native Review tool, the IntelliFolders and their functionality, and the prompted search feature. Category: Electronic Discovery. Written: 2008. Added: 8-15-2008. Techno Lawyers

Trident 4.0 SoftwareTrident Suite from Wave Software, by Randall Consulting. Trident 4.0 Software suite is composed of five unique applications to assist in processing PST files: Email De-Duplication, Email Re-Generation, Message Exporter, Message Importer and Snapshot software. Category: Electronic Discovery. Written: 2007. Added: 8-11-2008. Randall Consulting

OneO Discovery PlatformFerris Research on OrangeLT™, by David Ferris. The integrated analysis, processing, and review is certainly an attractive feature, making life a lot simpler for the user. Today, these different phases are commonly handled by separate products. Over the long term, such integration is likely to win out over cobbling together best-of-breed solutions. Category: Electronic Discovery. Written: 2008. Added: 8-02-2008. Ferris Research

SafeCopy 2.1 MobileReview: SafeCopy 2.1 Mobile, by Bruce A. Olson. SafeCopy 2.1 Mobile by Pivotal Guidance is an inexpensive tool that may enable you or your client to maintain document security and validity as part of the discovery process. SafeCopy is not, however, intended to be a forensic application that can create a forensic image of a drive. SafeCopy offers a cost effective option that fills a needed niche. Category: Electronic Discovery. Written: 2008. Added: 7-12-2008. Technolawyer

ConcordanceThe E-Discovery Hostess with the Mostest, by Dennis Kennedy. Lawyers beginning to delve into the world of electronic discovery often express surprise at how even simple cases can involve large amounts of electronic data. Help is usually the first word that comes to mind. With Hosted FYI, you and your team can review, process, store, retrieve, redact, and share documents in a secure, centralized, and always-accessible environment. Category: Litigation Management. Written: 2007. Added: 7-12-2008. Law.com

Discovery AttenderDiscovery Attender From Sherpa Software, by Brett Burney. Discovery Attender from Sherpa Software is a sturdy platform that enables you to search across electronic mailboxes, email archives, and folders of loose files. I found Discovery Attender to be an extremely simple and effective tool for searching through a hefty stack of email. It wasn’t overly complicated, and after a couple of searches, I became very comfortable with the logical steps involved in the Search Wizard. Discovery Attender is a nice addition to the tool belt of anyone who regularly needs to search through email to find messages relevant to a litigation matter. Category: Electronic Discovery. Written: 2008. Added: 7-10-2008. Technolawyer

CaseLogistixCaseLogistix Discovery Partner, by Jonathan Franklin. I like this product a lot. It’s powerful, easy to use and intuitive. Candidly, it’s the first program in this market segment that my firm wants to use. In fact, the firm now is using it. Dynamic document analysis and management. Its SQL-based system is powerful, highly scalable and robust. No predefined templates for library creation. An integrated training video would be nice. It exceeds expectations. Category: Electronic Discovery. Written: 2006. Added: 7-09-2008. Law Office Computing

IPROIPRO ePrint-IT, by Milton Hooper. EPrint-IT is very easy to use and features only one screen with which you mainly work. Once installed, you immediately can start putting ePrint-IT to use. The customizable options are easy to understand and adjust. It's a little pricey at $695 for the first year ($195 each year thereafter) and might not be worth the investment for someone who doesn't have a lot of electronic documents. If you are involved in EDD and don't have time to learn new software, ePrint-IT might be the right match for you. Category: Electronic Discovery. Written: 2008. Added: 7-09-2008. Legal Assistant Today

Labels: Lexbe, Litigation Software, LitReview, Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey

posted by Charles Skamser @ 12:19 PM 0 Comments