eDiscovery Daily Blog

• June 7, 2011

 

Last week, we began talking about keeping a preferred vendor program up to date, and we covered establishing criteria to evaluate vendors after every project.  Here are the remaining steps in establishing a mechanism for keeping your preferred vendor program fresh and up to date:

2. Establish a mechanism for collecting evaluations from end-users on each project.  Once you’ve got a list of evaluation criteria for each service, you need to establish a mechanism for collecting evaluations from end-users after each project.  You might, for example, develop an electronic survey.  If you don’t think the attorneys and paralegals in your firm would fill that out, maybe in-person interviews after each project will be better.  Figure out what will work best in your firm and establish the process.

3. Establish a mechanism for compiling and analyzing the information collected in the surveys, and for ranking a vendor’s performance.  Build a database of the evaluation information you collect, and develop a ranking system so it’s easy to compare vendors, at a glance. 

4. Identify a Manager for the preferred vendor program.  Someone – probably in the firm’s litigation support department – needs to be responsible for monitoring the program.  The manager’s responsibilities may include:

• Ensuring that end-of-project evaluations are done and that information is entered into the evaluation database.
• Maintaining the evaluation database.
• Providing feedback to vendors on performance evaluations.
• Identifying vendors that – based on performance – should be removed from the preferred vendor list.
• Communicating with vendors on administration issues (for example, on contracts and invoicing policies)

5. Periodically re-assess the program:  the last component of a preferred vendor program is a plan for “redoing” it every year or 18 months.  To really keep the program up to-date, it should be reviewed in it’s entirely on a set schedule.  Are their new services that should be added to the list?  Are there new vendors that should be looked at and evaluated?  Are there vendors on your list that may be meeting the bare requirements, but not the best of the lot?  Should they be removed?  Look at the program — in its entirety – with a fresh eye to ensure it’s doing what you need it to do and that it’s as good as it can be.

Have you developed a preferred vendor program?  How did you do it?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.