Outsourcing

internal software infrastructure

Optimizing Your Infrastructure for LAW & Explore eDiscovery

By: Joshua Tucker

It’s safe to say Microsoft isn’t going out of business anytime soon. Last year alone they grew 18 percent, reaching 168 billion dollars*. They are continuously making updates to their software, improving their products and functionality, and purchasing emerging software. They want to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more*, but the power you obtain from the software is up to you. Microsoft does not know your intended purpose or use of their software; all they can do is provide the software and the barebone requirements to make it run.

CloudNine software is no different. Let’s take a deep dive into your infrastructure and how you can optimize it with the CloudNine on-premise processing platforms.

We see that several of our clients run their environments with the most minimal recommended resources. Just like Microsoft can’t know how large your SQL server needs to be, we don’t know the level of demand your client’s data is putting on your workstation. What we DO know is that the number of files per case is growing, the complexity of files is growing, and resources are sparse.

We will cover the areas where we can make vast improvements in the efficiency in the way you are using your CloudNine software.

Your Local Area Network

Let’s use the common “business triangles” as a frame of reference. Examples would be “people, technology, and process” or “team, leadership, and mission”, or, my favorite, “price, speed, and quality”. The more your balanced business triangle, the better. Too much or not enough emphasis on one side and that balance will start to wane.

The eDiscovery version of the business triangle is called the ‘Local Area Network’. The first side of this ‘Local Area Network’ is the hardware or the backbone of your infrastructure. The second side would be the software, or the muscle needed to use that backbone. The third side is your network file server or the brain’s storage area, which will hold all the knowledge that our software is going to discover for you. And finally, the three sides are then connected, like sinew, with your local network speed.

You want to find the sweet spot that balances cost, throughput demands, speed to review, and hardware budget. Let us go ahead and call this the “Goldilocks Zone”.

Real-life case study: About 8 years ago, we were working with a client that had a few virtual machines and a few physical machines. The virtual machines were 4 core and 8GB of RAM. The physical machines were 8 core and 16GB of RAM.  IT wanted to get rid of the physical machines, but there was resistance to letting them go because they were able to process so much faster than the virtual machines. We conducted some testing to find the Goldilocks Zone between the amount of data being processed, the expected speed, and the cost. We created a few virtual machines with 4, 8, and 12 cores and ran tests to determine the correct core count for our company. We determined that an 8-core box with 16GB of RAM was able to process data much faster than a 4-core box with only 8GB of RAM.

After we completed optimizing the processing machines, we ventured forth into the other areas of our infrastructure.

Next, we reached out to our SQL team to see what would happen if we added more RAM and more SQL cores. We saw the same result. As we added more resources, we found that we were able to increase the speed on LAW’s communication with SQL. Faster communication equals a faster read/write, which equated to a faster processing speed. During this testing we also found that the more SQL cores, the more we could horizontally spread out the processing tasks on our LAW machines (i.e., we could have more machines writing to the same database).

Note: Today, I have a simple equation to determine the correct size of SQL:  Take the total number of read/write instances that can be communicating or interacting with SQL. Divide that number by three. The resulting number is the SQL cores needed. For RAM, take the same number of instances and multiply it by four.

After we completed this environment review, we had larger machines, faster read/write capability, and more machines to process on each matter. The Goldilocks Zone for SQL ensures that you have the right number of SQL cores and RAM per instances that have read/write work with SQL.

(For LAW workstations is highly suggested at 8 core and 16gb of RAM. For Explore that was 8 core and 32gb of RAM.)

Note: Your LAN does not have to be local to your office, but SQL, the LAW database folder structure and the workstations all need to be in close proximity to each other. The closer the better.

Software and Upgrades

Let’s go back to our Microsoft analogy. Microsoft keeps improving their product and each version of the operating system has the potential of changing the location or how certain files work. It is imperative that the operating system that is installed on your workstations is supported by the version of the product that you are going to use. If it isn’t, the software could act in a way that is completely unexpected – or worse.

The data we process can be a threat to our organization (and this does go for everyone!) and the best way to protect yourself is to be up to date on patches and virus software. I highly suggest that you first patch in a test environment, testing each part of the tool and making sure that the patching will not interfere with your work. The more up to date you can test, the more secure your, and your client’s, data will be.

One thing I like about the right test environment is that once your testing is done, you can make an image and deploy that image to the rest of your workstations. It is fast and efficient.

How your processing engine gets metadata to you matters. For instance, there are engines, like LAW, that will expand the files and harvest all the metadata. This type of processing is slower in getting the data in review, but much faster in the final export. There are also engines, like CloudNine Explore, that will hold off on expanding the data but harvest all the text and metadata extremely quickly. This workflow is great for ECA purposes.

How deep these tools dig into your data is also important. You never want a want privileged document produced because your processing engine did not discover it. Find out if your engine is collecting all the natives, text, and metadata that you need for these legal matters, and then come up with a workflow that will accentuate the strengths of your tool.

Having an Investment in your File Storage

The price of data storage has been coming down for years. Which is great news considering the fact that discoverable data keeps growing and will continue grow at an astounding pace. It is estimated that this past year, that each person on the planet created 1.7 megabytes of information each second. Every matter’s data size has increased and with it, the speed to review. All of this must run efficiently, all of it must be backed up, and all of it must be in your disaster recovery plans.

Network speeds matters. It ties your infrastructure together. If the processing machine can’t talk to the SQL machines quickly, or to the network storage efficiently, then it won’t perform at top speed, no matter how many cores you have. Network speed should be considered not only for the processing department, but for your whole company. We highly suggest a gigabit network, and if you are a firm or legal service provider, you might want to be looking at a 10-gigabit network.

Even with a gigabit network, your workstations, SQL server, and file server need to be local to each other. Having one data center or a or central location helps keep those resources working more effectively, getting you a higher return on investment on your machines.

Pro tip! There is a quick and easy way to test your network speed without having to contacted IT. Find a photo that is near 1mb and put it in the source location. Log into one of your workstations, open a window to that source location, and drag that image to your desktop. Then, drag it back. Both times that you move this image should be instantaneous to you. If either move takes a more than one second, then your network speed needs to be improved.

RECAP

It is our responsibility to figure out what we need to get full capacity out of outside tools. To run CloudNine’s LAW we need workstations that have at least an 8 core and 16gb RAM. For CloudNine Explore workstations, we need 8core and 32gb or RAM and SQL environment that adjusts to number of instances that are interacting with it.

Ensure that your software matches up with the recommended versions for your processing engine. If you are on or are working with an operating system that wasn’t on the list of that processing engine, we know that you could get unexpected results – or worse data. Line up the programs, test before you deploy, and stay up to date.

Know where your data is stored and the speed at which your systems talk to each other. Keep your environment in close proximity.

All in all, in order to get the top speed and performance out of CloudNine’s tools (or our third-party software your purchase), you must invest into the right resources.

Keep working towards your “Goldilocks Zone” – the sweet spot between speed, price, and quality.

If you are interested in having a CloudNine expert analyze your environment and provide recommendations for efficiencies, please contact us for a free Health Check.

 

*https://www.statista.com/statistics/267805/microsofts-global-revenue-since-2002/

* https://www.priceintelligently.com/blog/subscription-revenue-adobe-gopro-microsoft-gillette

* https://www.comparably.com/companies/microsoft/mission

* https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/install/hardware-and-software-requirements-for-installing-sql-server-2019?view=sql-server-ver15

 

Three Things to Consider When Moving to the Cloud

By:  Kyle Taylor

Cloud computing is trending today, and for good reasons. Reports from Flexera show that 50% of decision-makers in organizations believe that migration to the cloud will continue to increase.

While some consider it a risky move for data security, others think it’s necessary for business in many ways. What benefits do companies stand to enjoy by moving to the cloud?

Reduce Internal Infrastructure Demands and Hardware Costs

The traditional on-premise Concordance platform has many demands, especially when a company wants to scale upward. It must incur the cost of acquiring additional infrastructure when new employees come on board or it expands operations.

Cloud infrastructure is easier to grow, with a business only having to pay for other resources as required. The cloud environment requires no hardware investment.

Eliminate Time-Consuming Installs, Upgrades, And System Downtime

Migrating legacy systems to a cloud computing solution saves a company time rolling out new software and training. The team has no data centers to update regularly, saving time for more crucial activities. Cloud-based solutions also experience fewer downtimes.

Routine Backups and Disaster Recovery Process

Cloud solutions provide data encryption, regular automatic backups, and speedy data recovery. Cloud hosting providers regularly update security features based on the newest technology to keep your data protected at all times.

Other benefits of moving from the on-premise Concordance platform to the cloud include:

  • No database corruption and data integrity concerns
  • Data migration assistance from professional cloud service providers
  • Access new features, performance improvements, and bug fixes as soon as they are released
  • Unlimited data storage and processing space
  • Flexibility in using the software from anywhere with an internet connection
  • Easily collaborate with internal and external parties
  • Optional overflow services and consulting are available
  • Easy to use modern interface designed for a positive user experience
  • Automated seamless workflows
  • Customizable tag options and formats
  • Cloud-based databases support modern data formats
  • Reviewer statistics
  • Flexible database customization at the user level

The benefits of moving from an on-premise platform (like Concordance) are endless. If you would like to start the migration or get support for your cloud solution, contact us today to schedule a consultation.

Click to Download: Moving to the Cloud: Lessons from the Experts

Managing the Unpredictability of eDiscovery Costs

Client fees are the lifeblood of the legal industry which means unpredictability isn’t congruent to the financial stability of a successful law firm. This means your eDiscovery document review solution can be as much of a liability as it is an asset when striving to remain profitable.

As every case differs in the volume and type of data collected, processed, and reviewed, the costs associated with it can be unpredictable. Without a balanced and consistent cost structure, the result can lead to an undesirable profit loss.

When eDiscovery was first utilized in the late 1990s, it was only in special cases involving email correspondence. Today, the American Bar Association (ABA) estimates that eDiscovery accounts for more than 80% of costs.  That translates roughly to $42 billion a year, with 70% of costs directly associated with document review.

Today’s eDiscovery has evolved further to include device data derived from multiple sources which can quickly inflate expenses and severely impact your operating budget.

At CloudNine , we are dedicated to guiding you towards eDiscovery cost recovery through our streamlined and optimized data solutions; read on for more of our tips to getting to the truth and your revenue goals more efficiently.

Get to The Truth Faster: The Biggest Challenges to Profitable eDiscovery

Controlling eDiscovery costs and charging your clients appropriately comes with certain challenges.

eDiscovery Insourcing vs Outsourcing: The profitability between these two options isn’t always black and white. There are a variety of factors when considering if outsourcing eDiscovery is the right choice for you, including:

  • What pricing models do vendors offer?
  • Are there additional fees?
  • How do hosting costs change over time?
  • Does the vendor own their technology or do they lease it?
  • What’s the full extent of capabilities the vendor has to offer?

By understanding the hidden costs of outsourcing, you can determine if it will allow you to balance cost and functionality effectively.

Delays in Court Proceedings: According to an article in the Washington Post, district attorneys are facing some of the longest case backlogs in living memory due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These delays mean more costs for longer hosting and storage times for important eDiscovery data, especially when being billed by the gigabyte.

Unpredictable Timing: The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees a person accused of a crime the right to a speedy trial. That means by federal law, a criminal case must proceed to trial within 70 days of indictment. However, felony trials can sometimes linger for well over a year.  The unpredictability of time between indictment and trial means costs can run higher than expected.

Managing Multiple Vendors and/or Systems: With many vendors specializing in different features and functions, it’s difficult to find a one-stop shop for all your eDiscovery solution needs. To compensate, you’ll need to engage with different vendors resulting in more contracts, more fees, and more time wasted learning how to operate the different systems.

By using a single solution to collect and assemble multiple modern data types, you can better retain the relevant context and timeline to tell the whole story. Putting together all the pieces of the puzzle becomes simpler, faster, and more strategic.

Making eDiscovery Costs More Predictable: A consistent cost recovery model can help predict and recuperate many eDiscovery expenses, but you’ll want to evaluate the pros and cons to identify the model best suited for your firm.

Examples of common cost recovery models include:

Billable Hours: The majority of law firms traditionally charge clients the billable hours they spend performing processing and project management. This model results in the least amount of pushback from clients as they’re paying strictly for the attorneys’ time. However, this can become less profitable if your law firm is forced to host its eDiscovery data long-term due to delays in court proceedings.

Billable Hours + Hosting Fees: To compensate for increased expenses, your law firm can add hosting fees to billing statements in addition to billable hours. However, clients often push back as they may not view hosting fees as actual legal work. These fees, usually charged per gigabyte, can help you recoup eDiscovery costs, but only if the client is willing to pay.

Third-Party Vendor Style: Another option for cost recovery is to invoice your clients with line items similar to how a third-party eDiscovery vendor would operate. You can include billing for individual items such as:

  • The number of gigabytes processed
  • The volume of data hosted
  • Any analytics applied to the data
  • Any licensing fees for software used

While some clients may be familiar with this model based on their experience with eDiscovery vendors, others may balk at these types of expenses. Learn more about how to optimize your eDiscovery cost recovery by downloading our eBook: Optimize eDiscovery Cost Recovery: 6 Steps to Make Your Review Process More Profitable.

Streamline with CloudNine. Optimize eDiscovery in Minutes.

As a proven leader in eDiscovery, CloudNine has provided innovative data collection and review solutions for hundreds of law firms and legal service providers since 2002.

Regardless of the type of cost recovery model you choose, CloudNine’s eDiscovery platform delivers a complete and flexible suite of solutions at a predictable and affordable price. Some of the benefits include:

  • SaaS Hosting for All Data – CloudNine’s SaaS offering allows analysis and review of all modern data types to include email, text messages, corporate chat applications, and geolocation.
  • Data and Storage Control – Right-size your data by culling it upfront to reduce your storage needs and control your costs.
  • User-Friendly Solutions – Every CloudNine solution is easy to use and operates on a self-service basis including smartphone collection data.
  • Dedicated Support – Our services teams are always available if you need additional support.
  • Flexible Storage – Optimize your spending whether you choose our all-in storage option or choose to pay for storage as needed.
  • Low Overall Pricing – Get predictability and affordability without compromise and leverage the features you need without paying for the ones you don’t.

Improve and optimize your eDiscovery by simplifying and streamlining the process. You’ll make it easier on your clients and more profitable for your firm.  Reach out and book a demo to  learn how CloudNine can make your eDiscovery most cost-efficient.

Ready, Set, Recover: Attain eDiscovery Cost Recovery with CloudNine

There’s a simple truth to running any business, including legal service providers and law firms: Profitability means you need to make more money than you spend. While this seems like an easy concept to follow, there are hidden or unexpected costs which can jeopardize your ability and financial performance. 

One of the biggest culprits behind your firms’ rising operating costs is legal data collection and review. As data sizes and timelines become more unpredictable so does the price of eDiscovery services. 

eDiscovery costs are on the rise for three main reasons:

  1. Exponential growth in data: As our communications have become more sophisticated, so has eDiscovery. Previously, cases including paper files now include financial transactions, geolocation, slack messages and more. This has led to an ever-expanding amount of data associated with new cases.
  2. Complex technology: Many eDiscovery solutions operate more like IT systems, requiring servers, networks, desktops, applications, etc. This requires firms who insource their eDiscovery to maintain a team of IT professionals to manage any updates that may arrive. 
  3. Complex infrastructure:  The fear of missing critical deadlines has driven system architects to prepare for extreme one-off situations versus everyday matters resulting in overbuilt and overcomplicated review solutions. 

The Most Common Cost Recovery Models

Despite the unpredictable cost of eDiscovery, nearly 82% (1) of LSPs and law firms continue to pass these costs along to their clients even though they typically recover only 77% of the costs (2).

The most common cost recovery models are:

  1. Billable hours for time spent performing eDiscovery services:  This typically results in minimal pushback from the clients since they’re accustomed to paying by the hour. 
  2. Billable hours + hosting:  Usually charged per GB, hosting fees allow you to recoup more of your eDiscovery costs but are not always accepted by clients as actual legal work. 
  3. Third-party style:  Charging fees like a vendor allow you to recoup costs for specific line items like GBs processed and hosted, analytics, and licensing fees. 

Surprisingly, 13% of LSPs and firms simply absorb the cost of eDiscovery rather than bill their clients (3).   The most common reasons for this are:

  • They practice in an ultra-competitive market
  • They honor previous agreements
  • They take on non-billable projects

To recoup more of your eDiscovery investment, read on to learn the steps you can take to optimize your cost recovery efforts or download our eBook: Optimize eDiscovery Cost Recovery: 6 Steps to Make Your Review Process More Profitable for a more expansive look into cost recovery. 

1.  Quantify Your Current Cost Recovery Challenges

Identifying all the costs associated with your eDiscovery lets you know where, how, and when you’re losing money. A few of the factors you should assess include:

  • Total annual eDiscovery and document review costs
  • Total revenue from eDiscovery
  • Cost comparison of running eDiscovery document review solutions in-house versus outsourcing. 

2.  Re-examine the Cost of eDiscovery Insourcing versus the Benefits of Outsourcing

While larger law firms can afford complex eDiscovery technology, smaller LSPs and firms need to balance cost and functionality to optimize cost recovery. They need to consider things like:

  • What pricing model makes the most sense?
  • What technology is more economical to own versus lease?
  • What features and functionality do you need to provide your users?

3.  Right-Size Your eDiscovery Data

With data volumes increasing exponentially, you need to be smart about what data you’re hosting in the cloud. By culling your data on-premise, you can reduce your hosting costs before you move it to the cloud. 

4.  Be Strategic About Your Storage

Not every client needs a lot of data storage. Adopt a solution that allows you to adapt your storage strategy on a case-by-case basis so you’re not stuck offering a single standard storage model to clients that may need smaller options.

5.  Choose Self-Service, Easy-to-Use Tools

Your cost recovery is much easier when your internal staff can perform eDiscovery during billable hours. By adopting a solution that’s simple and easy to run, you reduce the need for additional external services.

6.  Standardize Through One Primary Vendor

The more eDiscovery vendors you engage with, the more complex things get – more contracts, more fees, more systems to learn. Look for a single self-model with lost costs, flexible storage plans, and easy-to-use tools to optimize your cost recovery.

Now that you have a better idea of what it takes to improve your eDiscovery cost recovery, it’s time to go a little deeper to understand the benefits of an eDiscovery solution that’s perfectly suited to help you earn more than you spend. Click here to request a demo of CloudNine Review and learn how to make your review process more profitable. 

 

Sources

(1), (2), (3):  2019 eDiscovery Billing Survey

Remote eDiscovery: Uncovering eDiscovery Best Practices From Home

When businesses and governments began shutting down due to the COVID-19 virus, it fast-tracked the slow and cautious transition to remote work begun by legal service providers

LSPs had already begun finding success operating in remote environments, using the cloud for eDiscovery data storage, processing, review, and analytics. 

However, it wasn’t until companies were forced to send their employees home to work that traditional legal departments and law firms began adapting to remote work environments. This led to finally upgrading, optimizing, and strengthening their infrastructure to accommodate this new normal. 

While this transition was a nerve-wracking experience for some, statistics tell us that remote work environments are not only possible but preferred:

  • 71% of companies have a new, positive view of remote work environments. (IDG).
  • 59% of remote U.S. workers would prefer to continue working remotely. (Gallup).
  • 69% of remote U.S. workers reported their productivity levels are the same or higher when working from home. (Citrix).

With a more productive eDiscovery solution, your LSP is set up for success. Learn about four other ways your organization can build value and boost margins in our ebook here.

The Benefits of Remote eDiscovery Tools

As foreign a concept remote working seemed to be, the benefits were obvious from the very beginning. Roadblocks were quickly reconciled, increasing efficiencies and reducing costs associated with eDiscovery

This was expedited by the realization that while personnel were becoming increasingly more dispersed, the eDiscovery data they were working with was becoming more centralized due to the cloud. Secured cloud environments allowed for a more efficient and effective workflow to collect, process, host, review and produce critical data. 

Other benefits of remote eDiscovery tools include:

  1. Lower-touch processes so you have fewer discoverable copies and less movement and enhanced control of data
  2. No geographical workforce restrictions so you can bring in the best people no matter where they live
  3. Easy scalability for near-instant provisioning or decommissioning
  4. Cost-effectiveness that allows you to shift from CapEx to OpEx

How Secure is Remote eDiscovery?

For some traditionalists, as well as others that are simply more cautious by nature, there’s a question of data security that has them hesitant to embrace a remote eDiscovery solution. However, there’s nothing to fear with the right eDiscovery solution.

Simply put, eDiscovery cloud computing provides a secured digital environment that protects the integrity of your data. To ensure this, there are certain security protocols your LSP must follow to guarantee your data security. 

  • Personnel should only use company devices or assets when working remotely
  • Data encryption must be used in transit
  • Multi-factor authentication must be deployed
  • Secured connectivity must be ensured for all employees 

With these protocols in place, your data is secure from all but the most devious and skilled cybercriminals. The only thing you’re missing is the perfect partner to provide a solution that makes sense for you and your clients. 

The CloudNine Remote eDiscovery Solution

Offering speed, security, and simplicity, CloudNine Explore empowers LSPs with a remote eDiscovery solution that allows you to investigate issues, assess risks, confirm compliance and begin early case assessment quickly and easily. 

More importantly, with CloudNine Explore, you’ll maintain the highest quality of data processing by leveraging these benefits:

  • Process as many as 1 million records per hour
  • Deploy CloudNine anywhere through a single workstation deployment
  • Easily scale up or down across multiple secured devices with mobile access
  • Effectively manage remote teams with powerful administrative and user controls
  • Remove bottlenecks by reprioritizing projects and reviewers as needed
  • Use deduplicate, filter, and search functions to reduce your data and hosting fees

Discover what CloudNine Explore can do for your remote eDiscovery team here.

Finding Value in CloudNine Explore’s eDiscovery Tool

CloudNine Explore gives you early visibility into the size and scope of your eDiscovery data so you can determine costs upfront. By insourcing your eDiscovery solution, you can cull data before you send it out, resulting in a significant ROI by:

  • Reducing costs associated with data collection, processing, hosting, and review
  • Mitigating risks by identifying problems easier and quicker
  • Opting to deploy on-premise or in the cloud

While most eDiscovery solutions only work with traditional datalike documents, emails, and spreadsheets, CloudNine now has the ability to work with modern data like:

  • Communication (texts, MMS, etc.)
  • Computer Activity
  • Geolocation
  • Financial Transactions
  • Social Media

To learn more about our modern data solutions, read the announcement on our acquisition of ESI Analyst.

By providing you with the ability to work remotely, scale quickly to take on more clients, or pivot for new types of data, CloudNine Explore allows you the flexibility to explore your options as an LSP so you can decide best practices for your organization and your clients. 

To see firsthand how CloudNine Explore can improve your remote eDiscovery solutions, schedule a free demo today.

 

The Hybrid eDiscovery Solution: The Best Of Both Worlds

When deciding on the most efficient processes to run eDiscovery in your organization, the options are nearly limitless with hundreds of products and service providers vying for your attention.

Not all document review solutions are the same. Before you commit to your eDiscovery solution, you need to determine whether you would like to perform eDiscovery in-house, outsource it or do a bit of both.

Regardless of which path you take, CloudNine can provide you with a solution that is perfectly right-sized for you, learn more about CloudNine’s review solutions here.

What is eDiscovery Insourcing?

Insourcing is the delegation of a task or operation to a specialized unit within your organization rather than a third party. For legal service providers and large law firms, this includes both the technology used to perform legal data collection and people assigned to collect and review electronic discovery documents.

Insourcing is the traditional method for eDiscovery. Ten years ago, cloud solutions weren’t widely used for eDiscovery due to cost and the fact that most professionals were not aware or comfortable with it yet. Larger law firms invested heavily in developing an in-house infrastructure and software to process and review electronic documents.

Today, the organizations with the infrastructure already in place continue to insource their eDiscovery because it allows them to control both the cost and the data. Typically, these organizations are large law firms.

Benefits of insourcing your eDiscovery:

  • No data hosting or processing fees
  • Complete control over data collection
  • Protection from cybersecurity attacks on external parties

100% control means 100% responsibility. With this responsibility comes the cost of maintaining your eDiscovery environment which includes hiring IT professionals and updating the infrastructure regularly.

If your organization chooses to insource your eDiscovery process, you will need to hire a software company to develop your new software or hosting platform. Of course, you can avoid this if you already have a software engineer on the payroll.

In addition, your new eDiscovery software will need a robust infrastructure to support it. This requires a large investment of capital. If you already have the infrastructure in place, you may have to expand it before you are ready if your organization scales quicker than you’re prepared for.

Lastly, an insourced eDiscovery solution requires trained professionals to make it operational. Not only will you need a team of dedicated attorneys to review the documents, but you’ll need IT staff to maintain the network, software, and hosting platform.

Interested in learning more about the pros and cons of corporate legal insourcing? Check out our blog, Insourcing vs. Outsourcing Your eDiscovery Review Process.

What is eDiscovery Outsourcing?

Outsourcing is the transfer of day-to-day operations of a business function or task to an external service provider. For eDiscovery, this means an outside organization is responsible for providing the technology and personnel to collect and review electronic discovery documents.

Because of the high expense associated with maintaining an in-house infrastructure, many legal organizations contract legal service providers or legal technology companies to host and process their eDiscovery documents.

This also means you do not need to keep IT staff or review attorneys on payroll full-time. Instead, your expenses are tied to a few laptops and a reliable connection to the internet.

With less investment in infrastructure, accounting becomes much easier because you’re not looking to make money back on an expensive investment. Your books and budget are simplified, only paying predictable monthly hosting and processing fees.

Other benefits to outsourcing include:

  • Up-to-date software patches to protect you from cybersecurity threats
  • Hosting and processing fees are based strictly on volume
  • Data can be culled to reduce the number of documents processed

Outsourcing means you have to frequently communicate with your legal service provider. The more you outsource, the more management you need to ensure communication is being relayed correctly and different pathways mean the odds of miscommunication increases.

Data transfer time could pose a problem if one party is suffering from a connection issue or if a hard drive has to be physically shipped to the service provider for processing.

Also, you’re dependent on the service provider’s availability. If they have a system outage or are the victim of a natural disaster, you’ll potentially lose access to your data.

A Hybrid eDiscovery Solution

For some organizations, one solution- insourcing or outsourcing- may not be suitable. Different challenges require different solutions and those that find themselves in this position can always consider adopting a hybrid eDiscovery solution.

A hybrid eDiscovery solution finds the best balance between your internal and external resources to perform specific business functions or tasks like eDiscovery collection, processing, and review.

For example, you could use insourcing to cull the data before advancing it to your outsourced processing. Or you could reserve your insourced platform to handle smaller data collections while sending larger data loads to your external service provider.

Tasks to consider for your hybrid approach include:

To determine which solution is best suited to perform each task, you need to consider these challenges for each:

  • ROI – How much will the solution cost and is it cost-effective?
  • Time – How quickly will the solution allow you to perform your eDiscovery tasks?
  • Complexity – How complex is your eDiscovery process and what risks are involved with the solution?

By recognizing your specific needs and comparing them to the benefits and drawbacks of each solution, you can determine which solution – insource, outsource, hybrid – works best for your organization.

Regardless of your decision, CloudNine can help guide you to discovering the right eDiscovery solution for you. We offer an all-in-one processing and hosting solution that you can use on-prem or through our cloud-based eDiscovery platform, giving you the option for insourcing, outsource, or hybrid.

To learn more, request a free demo and see how CloudNine can make your eDiscovery solutions more efficient and affordable.

Improve Data Processing Efficiency, One File At A Time

One of the keys to success for any great legal service provider (LSP) is to reduce as many inefficiencies from your operations as possible. 

While there are several areas where you can make marked improvements, data processing can provide you with a great ROI so you can be more efficient and offer improved service levels to your clients. 

Common Inefficiency Challenges for Your LSP’s Data Processing

When it comes down to it, any eDiscovery process that takes unnecessary time or adds costs hurts your LSP. A few of the more common inefficiencies that affect your business include:

  • Overly-expensive data storage costs
  • Slow handoff time between steps in the eDiscovery process
  • Workflows that include too many unnecessary steps

However, one major inefficiency that doesn’t get mentioned enough is the thoroughness or depth of your data processing solution. 

Some data processing software has been found to miss as much as 3% of the files provided. We are not talking about junk embedded files but Word, PowerPoint, PDFs, Excel, etc. When you think of it as only 3 out of 100, it doesn’t seem that detrimental. However, when you consider that your LSP may have to process more than a million files, you’re now missing tens of thousands of documents.

The reason this happens is data processing software doesn’t go deep enough when extracting and indexing files. 

For example, you may have an email with a PowerPoint presentation attached. Your software will most likely pull both of these with no issues. The problem comes when you have a document embedded in that PowerPoint presentation. That last document isn’t extracted which means it’s not indexed or searchable. 

With a data processing software that does not provide your LSP with the value you need, your clients take note. Learn how you can grow your organization sustainably without sacrificing quality in our eBook: 4 Ways Legal Service Providers Can Built Value & Boost Margins.

How Data Processing Inefficiencies Impact Your LSP 

Data processing inefficiencies can lead to some major challenges to your LSP operations. They slow down your workflows, tie up key personnel that could be focusing their energies elsewhere and cost you money. 

Additionally, if your data processing solution doesn’t go deep enough and extract 100% of the files you’ve received through your eDiscovery services, you’re opening your LSP up to three primary risks:

  • Missing critical data that could either help or hinder your clients’ litigation
  • Neglecting to share requested data resulting in sanctions 
  • Inadvertently sharing privileged information with unauthorized parties

Any of these scenarios can negatively affect how you run your business while potentially damaging your reputation and your relationship with your clients. 

How to Make Your LSP Data Processing More Efficient

One of the easier ways to make your data processing more efficient is to simply streamline your workflow processes by following best practices:

  • Establish your settings/tagging procedures upfront
  • Make sure you have enough data storage and human resources for your machine/workflow
  • Allow for compound document extraction
  • Allow for language analysis
  • Get automated OCRs
  • Establish family relationships between the data 

In CloudNine Explore, you can create workflow processes that perform all of these tasks during the initial upload so the data is extracted, indexed, and prepared for the next step faster and with more automation. 

You just set up the tasks you want to perform and create the case. Automation handles the rest. This cuts out an unnecessary and irrelevant manual intervention that slows down the process and ties you to slow and cumbersome tasks. 

Plus, you can rest assured that CloudNine Explore will be thorough, so you don’t miss out on any important or critical documents. Then you can convert everything to text or OCR, index it all for search and cull the data so you have a more streamlined data collection. 

You shouldn’t be constrained by your data processing software. With CloudNine Explore, you can build unique workflows that leverage the automation so you can have full control over your workflow, using the software in new, inventive ways. This allows you to save time and money to explore new, revenue-generating ventures like offering improved levels of services. 

Discover what CloudNine Explore can do for your LSP, learn more about our eDiscovery engine here.

Using Data Processing to Offer Better LSP Service Levels

While your LSP may have launched offering a simple eDiscovery solution like data processing, there’s an opportunity to grow your business by offering additional services to your clients. 

Some LSPs perform data processing but outsource their document review services to 3rd parties. By doing so, you quickly lose control of the data and give away revenue that you can easily keep in-house. By controlling the data processing and review, you control the project, the timeline, and the costs. 

Ready or not, it’s time to up your offering and make your data processing more efficient. Discover how CloudNine offers the best eDiscovery software to help you save time and increase your revenue; schedule a free demo today.

 

Data Processing: The Key To Expanding Your LSP’s Bottom Line

Ask any legal service provider (LSP) about how they can increase their revenue and you’ll undoubtedly get a variety of answers, such as:

  • Go paperless
  • Use different fee structures
  • Fire non paying clients
  • Automate labor intensive tasks

While opportunities vary depending on a variety of factors, one consistent challenge you might come across is setting aside the time to explore any new possibilities. Freeing up time will allow your LSP to grow in new and unexpected ways and give your organization the flexibility to adapt to unforeseen demands.

All you have to do is find ways to increase your productivity and the easiest way to do this is through new technology. In fact, many law firms are already headed in this direction:

  • 53% of law firms think technology will boost their revenue by allowing them to offer better services.
  • 65% of law firms increased their technology investments in 2019.
  • 25% of tech budgets were allocated to ‘innovative technologies.’

Where’s the best place to start?  Simple. You need to streamline your data processing workflows.

 

Common Data Processing Challenges You Might Encounter

Not all data processing tools are designed equally. There are some that present their own unique challenges that could hinder your ability to meet your true potential.

In order to streamline and free up your LSP’s time, keep the following in mind when looking at potential data processing tools:

  • Can you edit and add newly discovered fields?
    • Having the flexibility to edit and add newly discovered fields will prevent your team from having to review data over and over again.
  • Should every piece of data be pushed to the review platform?
    • If every piece of data is pushed to the eDiscovery review platform, your LSP may have to pay higher hosting fees.
  • Is the data stored in a public cloud-based environment?
    • Storing data in the public cloud could cause your organization to lose control of the data and hosting costs.
  • Can you filter out data with a true NIST list?
    • This provides your organization insight into another level of data that doesn’t need to be reviewed, and sometimes, can be used to inflate your case.

Some companies charge $15 per GB per month to host your data in a public cloud environment. That doesn’t give you much room to work with when offering the best deal with your clients.

The alternative? Hosting your data in the private cloud allows you to have more control over hosting costs, which allows you to boost your bottom line. Having a data management tool in place will grant your LSP the data control and security you need.  For even more ways to build value with CloudNine, download our eBook: 4 Ways Legal Service Providers Can Build Value and Boost Margins.

The Perks of Being an Efficient Data Processing Tool

Storing your raw data on-prem or in a private cloud lets you control your hosting costs, often dropping the cost down to less than $1 per GB per month. This allows you to reasonably mark up your hosting costs, boosting your bottom line while still providing good value for your clients.

Determining the efficiency of a data processing tool comes down to two factors:

  1. How you’re using the eDiscovery tool
  2. Your data size

The more data you have, the longer it will take to process. Setting up your data processing engine to perform top-level culls removes duplicative or irrelevant data before your even begin. This cuts down on the amount of data pushed further down the line within the workflow.

An efficient data processing tool allows for more automation, allowing you to work on other tasks and optimizing your employee’s time on the clock.

A truly efficient tool allows you to set alerts that let you or the next person in the workflow know when processing is complete. This means you don’t have to have anyone sitting there, watching and waiting for the system to complete its task.

 

How CloudNine Explore Can Save You Time and Money

In many cases, CloudNine Explore saves you approximately 30% of your costs associated with the interaction between your data and your team. If you are asking how that is possible, we break down 4 money-saving tips in our latest eBook.

Through our data culling functionality that removes duplicate data points, we reduce the amount of data you send to review.

Plus, other platforms make a copy of your data as you expand it, creating duplicative and irrelevant data that you have to pay to store. In CloudNine Explore, your data is only expanded after it’s culled and filtered, removing irrelevant data along the way. It’s only then that your data is copied and exported to your review platform.

By reducing this initial data size, you save hosting costs and time further down the workflow process.

  • Analyze your data quicker
  • Process your data more efficiently
  • Speed up decision-making processes

If you’re ready to utilize eDiscovery law software to improve your data process efficiencies so you have more time and money to explore new, alternative revenue streams, let CloudNine help you. Sign up for our free demo today.

 

Even the Coronavirus Can’t Stop Legal Tech Companies From Pushing Forward: eDiscovery Trends

Sure, the COVID-19 (coronavirus) is disrupting many things from eDiscovery industry events to web teleconferencing solutions to even Federal and State court dockets.  But, at least according to one article, legal tech “vendors” are still chugging along.

According to Bloomberg Law (Legal Tech Companies Push Forward Despite Virus Disruption, written by Sam Skolnik), legal tech vendors say they are unbowed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, and are so far keeping new product releases on schedule despite volatile markets and disruptions in how their law firm and corporate clients operate.

Even though some vendor executives recognize that a prolonged national emergency spurred by the virus could cause legal industry clients to reassess their need for new products and services, many in legal tech—especially larger, well-established companies—say disruptions to the pipeline to develop and implement legal technology caused by COVID-19 seem far away.  Examples:

  • Technology and legal services company UnitedLex isn’t delaying any product or service rollout as a result of the virus, CEO Dan Reed told Bloomberg Law in a statement. Digital is in our DNA and we are designed as an organization to deliver even with a primarily remote-first work model,” said Reed. “We continue to monitor and assess the situation and can wholeheartedly speak to our clients’ ongoing reliable access to business applications and information.”
  • Veritone, which offers artificial intelligence-enabled eDiscovery and transcription and translation services, said they haven’t seen a drop-off in work since the coronavirus hit. They say this is reflected by the new contracts they’ve signed with police department and advertising agency clients, as well as one legal client in a transcription matter.
  • For Ben Levi, co-founder and chief operating officer of InCloudCounsel, a legal tech provider, the outbreak has been “unprecedented” in some ways. Yet the pandemic hasn’t been as disruptive to his business as it could have been, he said, citing a strong company balance sheet and the fact that his team was already set up to work from home.  “We’re well-positioned to ride this out,” he said.
  • Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe is still poised to roll out the next version of the Orrick Dashboard on May 1, according to partner Don Keller. The tool would enable the firm and its tech company clients to access clients’ corporate legal information and to collaborate.

CloudNine is also continuing to push forward with new software releases as well.  On Monday, we rolled out the latest release (version 1.08.05) of our Concordance Desktop product, which focuses on a brand-new document viewer (the first new image viewer in many years!) and related production and printing functions.  If you’re a Concordance Desktop client, you can download the new release here.

So, at least one thing – legal tech “vendors” churning out product releases – hasn’t changed in this very unusual time.

So, what do you think?  Has the COVID-19 pandemic changed how you use and purchase legal tech software?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Sponsor: This blog is sponsored by CloudNine, which is a data and legal discovery technology company with proven expertise in simplifying and automating the discovery of data for audits, investigations, and litigation. Used by legal and business customers worldwide including more than 50 of the top 250 Am Law firms and many of the world’s leading corporations, CloudNine’s eDiscovery automation software and services help customers gain insight and intelligence on electronic data.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

eDiscovery Markets Are Growing and Legal Tech Investments Are “Skyrocketing”. So, Who’s Buying?: eDiscovery Trends

No, I don’t mean who’s buying the drinks.  Though the growth of the markets and the growth in legal tech investment is certainly worth celebrating (especially for those who’ve seen their investments pay off).  ;o)  But what I’m asking is: who’s buying the technology?

First, the investment part.  As discussed earlier this week in Legaltech News® (As Legal Tech Investments Skyrocket, Startups Combat Tech Adoption Perceptions, written by Victoria Hudgins), it’s been a record-setting year for investments in legal tech, with the industry reaching the $1.2 billion threshold this year for the first time, according to Bob Ambrogi’s excellent LawSites blog.  And, that was as of the middle of September!

Hudgins has some excellent quotes from several C-Suite execs from legal tech companies that have received funding from investors and part of the tone of the article is the challenge associated with convincing investors that tech-averse lawyers will really buy the software.  As an example, Litify chief revenue officer Terry Dohrmann, whose law firm management software company raised $2.5 million in 2018 and $50 million last June, noted that there are differences in pitching legal tech to investors.

“The short answer is yes, there is a difference,” Dohrmann said. “A lot of that is driven by the universal acceptance that law firms are a little behind in adoption of technology.”

So, it’s the law firms that are fueling this growth in the market?  Maybe partially, but I’m not so sure they are the major factor.

As we’ve covered many times before, Rob Robinson on his terrific Complex Discovery site tracks the eDiscovery specific mergers, acquisitions and investments here (he’s got them all the way back to 2001).  By my count, we’ve had 44 such transactions so far this year (that we know of), with a total estimated amount (at least where amounts are available) of over $560 million, just for eDiscovery company investments.  And, that doesn’t include two investments of over $2.5 billion which have been announced, but not closed.  So, that $1.2 billion threshold could be shattered before year’s end.  Crikey!

Also, as we covered just last week, Rob presented his worldwide eDiscovery services and software overview for 2019 to 2024 on Complex Discovery last month and his annual “mashup” of industry estimates shows the eDiscovery Software and Services market is expected to grow an estimated 12.93% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) per year from 2019 to 2024 from $11.23 billion to $20.63 billion per year.  Here’s the combined eDiscovery markets for 2019 to 2024, represented graphically:

Of that, the eDiscovery Software market is expected to grow at an even larger estimated 13.05% CAGR per year from $3.39 billion in 2019 to $6.26 billion in 2024, growing about 85% in five years.  Here’s the eDiscovery software market for 2019 to 2024:

Which leaves the eDiscovery Services market, which is expected to grow at an estimated 12.88% CAGR per year from 2019 to 2024 from $7.84 billion to $14.37 billion per year.  Here’s the eDiscovery services market for 2019 to 2024:

Charts courtesy of Complex Discovery.

So, who’s buying?  Seems a lot of the technology is being purchased by the service providers, who are (in turn) using it to provide services to corporations, law firms and government entities, who are buying those services.  Obviously, corporations, law firms and government entities are buying some of the technology as well and law firms providing some of the eDiscovery services.  But, it seems like it’s the service providers who have the biggest impact on the growth of the market.  Do you agree?

So, what do you think?  Will the growth of the market and the “skyrocketing” investment in legal tech continue?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Sponsor: This blog is sponsored by CloudNine, which is a data and legal discovery technology company with proven expertise in simplifying and automating the discovery of data for audits, investigations, and litigation. Used by legal and business customers worldwide including more than 50 of the top 250 Am Law firms and many of the world’s leading corporations, CloudNine’s eDiscovery automation software and services help customers gain insight and intelligence on electronic data.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by CloudNine. eDiscovery Daily is made available by CloudNine solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Daily should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.