eDiscovery Daily Blog

• December 5, 2023

By Jacob Hesse

With eDiscovery continuing to make up a large percentage of litigation spend, law firms and corporate legal teams should evaluate ways to save on eDiscovery costs. Exploring the use of proven, yet less expensive eDiscovery software is one obvious strategy to adopt in cost cutting times. Another approach is to consider supplementing a team with seasoned eDiscovery professionals to get work done.

Professional services teams include project managers, data analysts, technologists, and others who provide expert knowledge in particular domain areas. The capabilities they bring to the table can make a huge difference to the success and budget of your eDiscovery project. Example benefits may include:

• Focused data collection: An expert collection specialist can target relevant data, reducing the burden and cost of large volumes of irrelevant, unwanted information.
• Faster processing: A dedicated person or team can process terabytes of data, leveraging expert knowledge of processing software to achieve speed to data.
• Better search results: Unless you majored in math, Boolean operators may not be your best friend, but they are very familiar to eDiscovery specialists that can craft defensible culling strategies and get your attorneys’ eyes on relevant documents quickly and accurately.
• Greater efficiency in managing data volume and types: eDiscovery matters have grown in complexity in recent years, thanks to remote work and the explosion in use of communication apps and texts for business. Bringing in experts who can approach complex data management with ease will save you time and money in the long run.
• Reduced chaos: Project managers are the eye of the storm. They watch over project budgets, monitor for risks, and create and execute the tasks necessary to complete a project successfully. If you don’t have the time to manage multiple resources and external vendors, project managers can be a lifeline.
• Defend the margin: Professional services can reduce your costs by minimizing the reliance on full time eDiscovery professionals, who may not be needed once a discovery project ends. Ramp your professional services staff up and down as the work demands, matching cost with need. This style of “just in time” staffing will please your CFO and maximize your profits.

To summarize, there are many reasons why legal teams should consider relying on outside professional services support for eDiscovery matters, especially at a time when eDiscovery is becoming more complex, and the demand for cost savings and faster discovery work turnarounds are high. Read on to find out more about CloudNine’s professional services.

In our next blog in this series, we share telltale signs that forecast the need for professional services help for eDiscovery.

About the Author: Jacob Hesse leads Professional Services at CloudNine and has 20+ years of experience in eDiscovery in both law firm and service provider environments. He most enjoys building collaboration and synergies within and between teams to achieve goals together.