Outsourcing

 

Yesterday, we talked about a couple of different ways in which law firms work with litigation support and eDiscovery vendors.  And, we talked about the advantages to a centralized approach and establishing a preferred vendor program.  What, exactly, is a preferred vendor program?  To most people, it’s having a list of pre-approved vendors that that can be called on as the need arises.  That is certainly the core of a preferred vendor program.  But, a good program goes a bit further.  A good program has three basic components:

1. It starts with a preferred vendor list.  The first step in establishing a preferred vendor program is an evaluation and selection process.  For each service for which you use vendors, you need to establish a list of vendors to do the work.
2. It includes a formal mechanism for on-going evaluation of the work done by vendors on a case-by-case basis.  You need to ensure that your list is “fresh”.  Things change.  Staff leaves.  A vendor that is doing great work for you today may not be doing so eight months from now.  You need a mechanism in place to evaluate the work a vendor does on every case.  And that mechanism should include an easy way to incorporate input from end-users. 
3. It should include scheduled, formal re-evaluations to ensure that you’ve always got the best available vendors on your list.  In addition to evaluating a vendor’s work after each project, the preferred vendor list should be periodically re-assessed.  Are their new vendors that should be added?  Are their better technologies that aren’t offered by the vendors on your list?  Are the vendors on your list still consistently meeting your expectations?  A formal re-review should be a planned, scheduled activity and done once a year or once every eighteen months.

In the next posts in this blog series, I’ll walk you through a step-by-step approach to establishing a preferred vendor program in your firm.

Does your firm have a preferred vendor program?  What are the components of your program?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.

 

Law firms take different approaches to working with vendors.  In some firms, individual litigation teams evaluate, select and manage vendors on a case-by-case basis.  Other firms take a centralized approach where all vendor activities are coordinated and managed by a centralized litigation support department.  And taking that a step further, many firms that use a centralized approach, establish a preferred vendor program.  What works best?  That probably depends on the culture and organization of a law firm. 

For most firms, there is a strong argument to be made for a centralized, preferred-vendor approach.  It has several advantages: 

1. Vendor evaluation and selection is more likely to be done by those with the most knowledge and broadest experience.  Litigation support professionals are experts in the services provided by litigation support and eDiscovery vendors.  This is what they are trained to do and it is a primary focus of their jobs.
2. Vendor evaluation is likely to be more thorough and careful.  When vendor evaluation and selection is done when faced with short case deadlines, it may be rushed.  Corners might be cut. 
3. Working with vendors is likely to be more efficient.  You won’t be reinventing the wheel on every case.  The time-consuming task of evaluating vendors is done once.  On each case, it’s simply a matter of selecting the most appropriate vendor from a list of pre-approved vendors.
4. You’ll have a stable of good vendors that you trust on-call for rush cases.
5. Project start-up will be faster and easier.  On each case, you’ll need to communicate case-specific requirements and nuances, but overall expectations, work flow procedures, and communication protocols are already in place.
6. Expectations regarding deliverables are already in place.  The vendor will know what you expect and will be in a better position to get things right, the first time.
7. For many tasks, vendors offer pricing based on volume.  You may be able to negotiate preferred-pricing based on overall business with the firm rather than volume on a case-by-case basis.
8. A centralized, preferred vendor approach will facilitate good working relationships with individuals in the vendor organization.  This can only help with maintaining consistent, high-quality work.

In the upcoming posts in this blog series, we’ll discuss the components of a preferred vendor program and how to go about establishing a program in your firm.

How does your firm work with vendors?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.

 

In the past few posts in this series, we’ve discussed ways to minimize the possibility of problems with costs and meeting deadlines.  There are also steps you can take to increase the likelihood of high quality work that will meet your expectations. 

It starts when you are evaluating and selecting a vendor.  Based on your review of a vendor’s qualifications, procedures and technology, along with feedback you’ve received from references, make sure you select a vendor that is likely to do high quality work and that has a good track record. 

Once a project is underway, look at the vendor’s work to ensure it meets your expectations.  This is especially important with work that is labor-intensive.  In fact, there are three levels of quality control that you should be doing:

1. A review of initial work done by each staff member:  As staff members finish initial batches of work, look at it right away and verify that it is correct.  This way, mistakes made because someone misunderstood instructions can be cleared up very quickly, before a lot of work is done that will need to be re-done.
2. Ongoing QC of work throughout the project:  Even if everyone on the staff knows how to do the work, that doesn’t mean they will do it right all the time.  Mistakes are inevitable and work should be spot-checked throughout a project to ensure that errors are kept to a minimum.  It’s a good idea to have project staff dedicated to doing on-going quality control reviews.
3. Random sampling done by senior litigation team members:  In addition to routine quality control done by project staff members, its always a good idea to ask senior members of the litigation team to periodically look at a sampling of the work, to ensure that stakeholder expectations are in sync with the work of the project staff.

What steps do you take to ensure high quality work from a vendor with which you are working?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.

 

Of all the problems you might have to report to an attorney, the worst may be that you are going to miss a production deadline.  Deadlines get missed because document or data collections are larger than expected, the task is more difficult than expected, sufficient technical resources aren’t allocated to the project, or the project simply isn’t staffed properly.  Good communication up front with a vendor, and good monitoring throughout a project can minimize the chance of missing deadlines. 

Here are some steps you can take to prevent deadline problems and keep a vendor on track with your schedule requirements:

• During the vendor evaluation and selection process, get commitments from a vendor on scaling up to accommodate changes in volume.  Ask about their ability to add staff, technical resources, or second shifts to meet deadlines if things get off track.
• Before signing a contract with a vendor, ask for a schedule that includes weekly estimates of completed work, and that includes expected staffing levels for labor-intensive work.
• In addition, require that the vendor provide you with weekly status reports that include estimated weekly numbers, actual weekly numbers, estimated to-date numbers, actual to-date numbers, and variances.  This will enable you to see – each week – how the project is going and whether the schedule is slipping.  Carefully review status reports as they are received and speak to the vendor right away if things are getting off-track.  Be proactive in requesting additional resources if the project is getting off-schedule.
• Require that the vendor notify you in writing – in advance – if a deadline will be missed.
• When you communicate schedule information to a vendor, build in pad!  For example, give the vendor a deadline well in advance of a production date.
• Stay in constant communication with the litigation team about discovery issues.  The more notice that you have about additional documents or data, the more notice you can give to the vendor.

What steps do you take to prevent schedule problems with vendor work?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.

 

Unfortunately, it’s just not possible to know up-front precisely what a litigation support or eDiscovery project will cost.  There are too many unknowns, and, therefore, too many opportunities for surprises regarding costs.  You can, however, avoid some of those surprises with good upfront communication with the vendor.

Here are some steps you can take to prevent surprises and control costs:

• Make sure that you have a clear understanding of every unit price the vendor provides to you in an estimate.  Some tasks may be charged per-page, others per-document, others per gigabyte, and others on an hourly basis.  Make sure that you understand how the work is being charged and that you agree that the price model makes sense.
• Require that the service provider prepare an estimate of total project costs in addition to providing unit pricing.  That estimate should be based on a reasonable estimate of the size of the collection and on assumptions about the project that you provide to the vendor.  Ask the vendor to include all incidental cost components in the estimate.  For example, it the vendor charges for project management, supplies and shipping, require that the estimate include these costs based on their experience with similar projects.
• Before signing a contract, come to agreement on how any changes in the assumptions will affect the price.
• Review a sample invoice and make sure that you understand its components.  You may need to verify the vendor’s invoices, so make sure that they provide an invoice you understand.  Changing the format of an invoice may not be easy for a vendor, so it’s probably not reasonable to ask them to do so.  You could, however, ask for a cover letter with each invoice explaining charges that may not be clear or evident .  It’s always better to ask for these types of “extras” before signing a contract with a vendor.
• Find out what the vendor’s policy is on price changes or notification of such.

These are easy steps that don’t take much time.  This extra effort up-front, however, can avoid surprises and disagreements down the road.

What steps do you take to prevent cost problems with vendor work?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.

 

So many law firm litigation support folks that I know have an unpleasant war story or two about a project they did with a vendor.  I usually find these frustrating, because more often than not, the problems could have been avoided.  Taking a few preventative steps early on, and doing a good job of monitoring project activity can make all the difference.   In the next few posts in this series, we’re going to look at ways to make the projects you do with vendors run smoother.

First, let’s look at the potential problem areas.  There are three:

• Unexpected project costs
• Missed deadlines
• Poor work quality

Very often, the problems in these areas result from poor communication between the litigation team and the service provider.  Sometimes, the problems stem from poor up-front communication, which results in a misunderstanding of requirements, priorities and expectations.  Other times, the problems arise because of poor communication during the project itself.

There are several steps you can take up-front to minimize the potential for problems.  These steps will foster a good understanding of expectations and requirements and build lines of communication into the process.  Constant communication with the service provider throughout the life of the project is likewise important.  If you are in frequent communication you are likely to catch problems before they get out of hand and before they turn into major headaches.

The next several blog posts will cover steps you can take to minimize the potential for problems with unexpected project costs, problems with meeting deadlines, and problems with sub-standard work quality.

What steps do you take to prevent problems with vendor work?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.

 

Last week, we started and continued a list of questions to ask when you are doing a reference check.  So far, the list includes general project questions, questions about communicating with the vendor, questions about costs, and questions aimed at evaluating the quality of a vendor’s work. Today we’ll complete the list with questions about the vendor’s ability to meet schedule requirements, and questions aimed at assessing the vendor’s overall performance. 

Questions regarding schedule requirements, meeting deadlines, and flexibility:

1. Did you establish a schedule with milestones and deadlines for the vendor?
2. Did they meet your milestones and deadlines?  If not, why was there a problem?
3. Did the scope of the project – in terms of volume – change after the project started?  How did the vendor handle that? 
4. Did the vendor need to add additional resources to your project to meet deadlines?  If not, should they have?
5. If deadlines were missed, how much advance notice were you given?
6. Did you change priorities that required adjustments to work flow during the project?  If so, how did the vendor handle that?  Were they able to accommodate changing needs?

Questions aimed at assessing overall performance

1. Will you use this vendor again?
2. Are there changes you would make to the way in which you work with this vendor?  Or changes you would request regarding their services?
3. Are there project thresholds under which you wouldn’t use this vendor (for example, not for a collection above a certain size, or not for a rush project)?
4. What do you believe is this vendor’s greatest strength?  Weakness?
5. What is the one thing you would change about this vendor if you could?
6. How would you rank this vendor against other vendors you have used?  Are they on your list of preferred vendors for future projects?  Under what circumstances might you choose another vendor over this vendor?

The list of questions we’ve compiled in the last several posts should be a good starting point for you!  Remember, though, that a good reference check session will be interactive.  Some of the answers you get will prompt additional questions.  Don’t be afraid to do some digging to uncover what you need to know.

Do you get good information when you check vendor references?  What questions do you ask?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.

 

Yesterday, we started a list of questions to ask when you are doing a reference check.  That list included general project questions, questions about communicating with the vendor, and questions about costs. Here are some questions aimed at uncovering information on the quality of the vendor’s work:

1. Were you satisfied with the quality of the vendor’s work and did it meet your expectations?
2. Were you involved in initial project training of the vendor’s staff?  Do you recommend that with this vendor?
3. Did you do quality control checks of the vendor’s work?  How did you check the work?  How much of the work did you check?
4. Did you spend time checking work at the vendor’s facility?  Do you recommend that with this vendor?
5. Did you provide feedback to the vendor on quality?  How was that received?  Did the vendor incorporate your feedback and did the work quality improve?
6. If there were quality problems, were they dealt with quickly?  Was it necessary to escalate problems above the project manager to get them resolved?
7. Do you know what quality control procedures the vendor used?  How much work did they check?  What quality control was done manually?  What automated checks were done?
8. Do you know if the vendor needed to do rework?  Was rework precipitated by issues you brought to their attention?  Did you have to ask the vendor to do any work over?
9. If you had the technology tools and resources to do this work yourself, do you think you could have done a better job?  If so, in what way?
10. Do you feel that the vendor had a good grasp on your requirements and the experience to do the work efficiently?
11. Did the project manager have the right background and experience to handle your project?

In the next issue, we’ll continue this list with questions aimed at getting a handle on a vendor’s ability to meet schedule requirements and some closing questions aimed at assessing overall performance.

Do you get good information when you check vendor references?  What questions do you ask?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.

In observance of Good Friday, eDiscovery Daily will not publish a new post tomorrow.  See you Monday!

 

Getting good information about a vendor in a reference check is a skill worth developing.  As a starting point, you should be armed with a good set of questions.  Don’t limit yourself to the list, though.  A good reference-check call will be interactive and answers to some questions will probably prompt additional questions.

Here’s a good starting point list that might apply to any type of vendor or service you are inquiring about:

First, get a handle on the scope of the project the vendor handled for the client:

1. What services were provided?
2. What volume of data / documents were handled?
3. What deliverables did the vendor provide to you?
4. What was the schedule?

Ask questions about the communication frequency and effectiveness between the vendor and the client:

1. Were you the primary point of contact?
2. If not, can you point me to the person who was?
3. Did you have regular contact with the project manager?  With anyone else?
4. Did you get regular status reports from the vendor?  How often did you get them?  What information was included in the status reports?  Were the reports useful?  Could you tell if the project was on schedule?
5. How quickly did the vendor respond to phone calls?  Email?
6. Did you ever have trouble reaching the vendor, or reaching the right person at the vendor organization?

Ask questions about the project costs:

1. Were the costs what you expected?
2. Were costs within the vendor’s estimates?
3. Were the invoices clear and sufficiently detailed?  What information was included on the invoices?
4. Were there any cost surprises?  Any cost line items on the invoices that you weren’t expecting?

Tomorrow we’ll continue this list with questions aimed at getting a handle on the quality of a vendor’s work.

Do you get good information when you check vendor references?  What questions do you ask?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.