Outsourcing

 

Over the years, I’ve been asked many times to serve as a reference for vendors with which I’ve worked.  And, I’ve taken many reference-check phone calls.  More often than not, those calls were less efficient and productive than they could have been — because they weren’t planned and good questions were not asked.   In the next blogs in this series I’ll make some suggestions for doing an effective reference check.

First, recognize that checking references is very important.  Yes, it is almost certain that a vendor will direct you to clients that are satisfied, so you know — to an extent — what to expect.  You need to speak with them anyway.  There are a few reasons for this:

• The clients provided to you as references might have had different priorities than you do.  They may be satisfied because the vendor performed well in an area that was most important to them.  That same client, however, may be able to shed light on “minor problems” that in your case could be “major problems”.  Of course, this assumes that you ask the right questions.
• The clients provided as references may be inexperienced in eDiscovery and litigation support, and therefore not a good judge of the vendor’s work.  Clients like this may be satisfied because they had a good relationship with the vendor staff and nothing blew up in their faces.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that the work was done well or cost-efficiently.  When you speak with references, you can get a feel for their level of experience and knowledge, and be able to determine, therefore, whether their good experience with the vendor is truly indicative of high-quality and cost-effective work.
• The clients provided as references may not have worked with the vendor on a case that was similar in scope to yours, or they not have had requirements similar to yours.  This too, can be discerned with the right questions.

In the next posts in this blog series, I’ll suggest an approach to checking references and give you examples of questions that can uncover the information you need when doing a reference check.

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

 

Yesterday, we talked about information to include in a Request for Proposal (RFP) to request eDiscovery and litigation support services.  Before moving forward with a service provider for a project, there are a few due diligence steps you should take to protect yourself and your case-sensitive information.

First, it may be appropriate to ask the service provider to verify that it does not have a conflict of interest.  For many eDiscovery services, this step may not be necessary.  If, however, you are asking a service provider to assist with substantive consultative help, you want to ensure that – at a minimum – it is not providing similar services to the other side in the litigation.

Once you’ve established that there is no conflict, you want to protect case information that you provide to the vendor – information in the form of communication and information in the documents and data.  Require that the vendor sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before communicating or transmitting sensitive and confidential information.

And finally, you and the vendor should both sign off on a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that clearly defines the work to which you’ve agreed.  A Service Level Agreement should include — at a minimum:

• A complete description of each service to be performed
• A complete description of each deliverable
• A description of agreed upon performance levels (guarantees and warranties provided by the service provider; this may be in the form of quality assurance guarantees, system availability and downtime, and so on).

In addition, a service level agreement might include the following information

• Pricing for services
• Billing information
• Contact information

One other important “due diligence” step is checking references.  We’ll cover that in the next posts in this series.  I’ll give you some suggestions for doing an effective reference check that will get at the information you need to know.

What due diligence steps do you take with a service provider?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.

 

Open, two-way communication with a service provider is absolutely critical to a successful project.  It needs to start early, even before a project starts.  For many projects, it starts with the Request for Proposal (RFP).  Your goal with an RFP is to get good information from a vendor: information on pricing, information on schedule, information on approach, and information on deliverables.  To give you complete, accurate information, they need information from you.

Include this information in your RFPs:

• Information about your Firm/Organization (location, key contacts)
• Information about the Case (the party you represent, the case schedule)
• Information about the Proposal Submission Process (contact information for the person who can answer questions about the RFP; contact information for those to whom the proposal should be submitted; the date the proposal is due; in what form the proposal should be delivered; any requirements you have regarding the format of the proposal)
• Description of the Services you will Require
• Information about the Scope of the Project  (the size of a document/data collection, types and characteristics of the documents/data)
• Information on the Deliverable to the Vendor (when documents/data will be available to the vendor; in what form they will be delivered)
• Description of the Deliverables you Require (formats, media, data elements, etc.)
• Date by which the Project must be Completed (and include interim milestone dates if that’s appropriate)
• Description of your Planned Participation in the Project (will you participate in training?  will you be onsite for any portion of the project?)
• Description of your Preferred Method of Communication with the Service Provider
• Description of your Requirements regarding Status Reports (how often do you require them? what information should be included?  to whom should they be submitted?)

Later in this blog series, we’ll discuss what questions you should ask in a proposal for several types of eDiscovery services.

What information do you provide to a service provider in an RFP?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.

 

Sometimes selecting a service provider for a project will be a quick, easy process.  You may have a small project — similar to others you’ve handled — that you need to get up and running quickly.   If you have a list of good vendors with which you’ve worked, it may be as easy as a phone call or two to check availability and you’ll be all set.  In other cases, your selection process may be more involved.  Perhaps you are looking to build a preferred vendor program or you’ve got a large case involving many stakeholders who are looking for a thorough evaluation.  When a thorough evaluation is needed, here’s a suggested approach:

1. Make a list of candidates:  Include vendors that have done a good job for you in the past.   Ask peers in the industry for suggestions.  In some cases, stakeholders may ask you to consider vendors with which they have a relationship.
2. Make initial calls:  Call each vendor to get general information, to ensure they don’t have a conflict of interest, and to gauge their availability and interest in the project.  Revise the list if necessary.
3. Send out Request for Proposal (RFP) / Request for Information (RFI):  In the next posts in this series, we’ll talk about these documents, so stay tuned.
4. Review the responses.  Check the responses for completeness.  If there are holes, you can request missing information, or you might consider scratching a vendor from the list if there was blatant disregard for the requirements. 
5. Follow-up:  You’ll probably have questions about every proposal, and you’ll want to clarify some points with each vendor.  And, there may be some points you’ll want to negotiate.  Even if a proposal is clear and doesn’t require an explanation, it’s useful to verify your understanding of approach and pricing.
6. Rank each vendor:  List each evaluation point by importance, and rank each vendor for each point.  While this is an important step and a valuable tool, don’t let it replace good judgment.  Sometimes your instincts may tell you something different than the rankings do, and that should not be ignored!
7. Check references for the vendors of most interest.  Later in this series, we’ll talk about effectively checking references.
8. Make your selection (or your recommendation to the stakeholders).
9. Notify the vendor you’ve selected and agree to a contract.
10. Contact the other vendors and tell them they were not selected.

What has been your experience with evaluating and selecting service providers?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.

 

In the last couple of blogs in this series, we talked about evaluating service-provider pricing and quality.  The highest-quality, fairest-priced vendor is of no use to you, however, if they can’t get your work done by when you need it.  And, unfortunately, it’s not as straightforward as telling them what you have, what you need, and by when you need it.  Early in an ediscovery project, you are in a world of “unknowns”.  You are working with assumptions and best guesses, and the only thing you know for sure is that things will change.  The bottom line is, when you start talking to service providers, you probably won’t have good information. 

One thing, however, most likely won’t change:  your schedule.  Regardless of how big the job gets, you still have production deadlines and interim milestones to meet.  You, therefore, need a vendor that has the capacity to handle your work, that can scale up with the resources needed to deal with increased volume, and that can be flexible to adapt to changing needs and priorities.  What’s important today, may take a backseat to something more important that arises tomorrow.

The best way to deal with this is open communication with the service provider in the evaluation process.  Don’t limit your questions to computing power and capacity.  That’s just part of the picture, and that’s the easy part.  You want a service provider who will go the extra mile and work with you to get you what you need, when you need it.  The technology doesn’t do that. 

In your conversations with service providers, provide information on what you do know, what you are assuming, and what you are guessing.  Ask how changes in the volume or requirements will impact their ability to meet your schedule.  Ask about their ability to scale up.  Ask about their procedures for changing priorities in processing a collection.  Give them best and worst case scenarios and ask for commitments for either situation.  Ask about after-hours resources and their ability and willingness to run multiple shifts if that’s needed.  And ask for references — specifically for people who had last minute, dramatic changes to the scope of a project. 

What has been your experience with service providers meeting your schedule requirements?  Do you have good or bad experiences you can tell us about?  Please share any comments you might have and let us know if you’d like to know more about an eDiscovery topic.