eDiscovery Daily Blog

• February 19, 2013

We’ve mentioned Ralph Losey from Jackson Lewis several times on this blog, including last year’s thought leader interview at LegalTech New York and our interview with him again this year, which will be published on March 1.  We’re discussing another interesting article from Losey, but this time it’s Adam Losey.  His article 10 Tips for LegalTech Vendors, that appeared in Law Technology News has some interesting tips that all vendors (especially those exhibiting at trade shows) should bear in mind.  Here are his tips, along with some of my comments:

1. Hand over the mouse. As Losey notes, “If you get time in front of potential clients to demonstrate a product, give them the mouse. Let attendees try your tools, with you serving as their guide.”  That sounds great in theory.  It has been my experience, however, that most attendees that stop by and request a demo are reluctant to “drive” right there at the show (believe me, I’ve offered).  Giving them the ability to “test drive” the product for free in their offices after the show tends to get a better response, in my experience.
2. Add value. Losey advocates more “than just delivering high-quality work product and hyper-responsive client service”.  There are plenty of ways to do this.  For example, helping a client out by directing them to the right vendor that provides a service that you don’t can be just as helpful as the services that you provide for them.
3. Be humble and keep innovating.  Especially in the ever-changing eDiscovery industry, it’s important to continue to adapt.  That doesn’t just mean offering the latest “buzzword” technology, it also means providing a mechanism for clients to request features and enhancements and addressing those within rollout updates.
4. Don’t bad-mouth the competition.  Needless to say, you should never do that.  If a client or prospect asks you to compare your solution to another, it’s always best to point out what your solution does well, or what it offers that is unique, not what (you think) the competition does poorly.
5. Share. In essence, Losey reiterates that here: “Show me why you are the best, not why everyone else is the worst.”  This enables eDiscovery practitioners to draw their own conclusions and share their knowledge with colleagues, which carries more weight than if it came from the vendor, who has a vested interest.
6. Stop pushing unnecessary services.  Doing so may net a little more business in the short run, but can cost long-term business when the client becomes more educated and realizes that those costs are unnecessary and dumps you.  It’s better to be flexible enough to provide just the services the client needs – they will appreciate it and want to do business with you again.
7. Leave the legal work to the lawyers.  The vendor’s responsibility is to provide the attorney information regarding the handling of ESI necessary to make an informed decision, not to make that decision for the attorney.
8. Reach out to new lawyers.  Great point!  As Losey notes, new lawyers are the ones handling eDiscovery at most firms, so reaching out to them as law students is a great way to establish a foothold.
9. Let me export a privilege log with a click.  I would extend this to production logs, exception logs, etc.  It should be a no-brainer to select the documents you want, the fields you want on the report, click a button and export to Excel.
10. Let me kick the tires on a case for free.  Clients always understand an application better when working with their own data, as opposed to a demo database.  That’s why (shameless plug warning!) CloudNine offers a 100% No-Risk Trial Offer on OnDemand®, so that our clients can try it with their own data (even as much as 100 GB or more), at no risk.  What better way to get them to try your product?

So, what do you think?  How do your vendors stack up?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

P.S. — Happy 84th Birthday, Dad!

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