The purpose of an eDiscovery platform is to drive efficiency in the legal discovery process. Most cases include massive amounts of data. As a result, you need a solution that can find the relevant information fast, reduce review time, and automate manual processes. Not every eDiscovery platform can do all these things, so how’s your system working for you?
If you’re unhappy with your system’s quality, performance, and/or productivity, then it’s time to implement something that meets your needs and powers your success.
What Are the Key Areas of Optimization?
In every software category, optimization is critical. Unfortunately, many eDiscovery solutions available on the market come with in-built limitations. Some are obvious, while most are invisible, so you may only experience them after months of use. To make sure you get the maximum benefit from your legal technology software, you’ll need to evaluate the areas of optimization available in eDiscovery. These areas are listed below.
Unified Solution.
A number of eDiscovery vendors claim to provide an end-to-end solution. Closer inspection reveals that almost all of them are delivering processing tools with minimal analytics, review, and production capabilities. Some have a strong review platform but an anemic processing capability. Furthermore, none of these solutions are truly integrated. When it comes to moving data from one end of the solution to the other end (from processing to review and production), you have to do all the heavy lifting. What you need is a truly unified solution, one that was built on a single data platform and has consistent UX and seamless workflows throughout the EDRM (Electronic Discovery Reference Model) process.
Processing Power.
The throughput of a system is an area to consider no matter your caseload. Even small cases have massive amounts of data. Thus, you need to find a platform that can keep up and doesn’t become a bottleneck.
Scalability of the Solution.
Many eDiscovery practitioners and administrators struggle with differentiating between a system that claims high performance and one that can scale almost infinitely. Which capability is better for you? The right answer is both. Don’t invest in solutions that give you high throughput only when it runs on expensive hardware on-premises and cannot scale horizontally.
Automation Capabilities.
The more things you can automate, the more efficient your system will be. Look for a solution that has customizable automated workflows to fit your specific needs. However, make sure that these workflow modifications are user-friendly and not overly complex. If they are the latter, they may be too cumbersome to deploy, which erases any gains you expect from automation.
Analytics.
Most platforms have analytics capabilities, but are they interactive? Having this type of dashboard enables better visualization of gaps and patterns. Immediate insights help you move through the process faster.
Predictive Coding and AI-Assisted Review Features.
A recent survey found that only 32% of eDiscovery practitioners use predictive coding and AI often. That indicates that it’s a critically underutilized feature, which could drive significant time savings.
By leveraging the power of AI, you can reduce the immense amounts of data requiring review. It also helps with auto-collection, tagging, native redaction, email thread view, and mobile data visualization.
The Right Tools Mitigate Risk.
Risk management is an essential part of using eDiscovery software. The data you collect, store, and analyze must be secure. Security is a multi-vector issue in technology, starting from the underlying infrastructure and firewalls to domain-specific features built into your apps.
The key to easing this challenge is using a platform with robust security layers and multiple features, such as self-service, that proactively handle risk from every angle.
Robust Processes Improve Review Quality.
To truly optimize and get the most out of an eDiscovery solution, processes matter. The technology can have all the bells and whistles, but you could still stumble without processes.
You don’t have to adopt the software 100% when you begin. Instead, you can ease into it, learning as you go and developing processes that align with your workflows while leveraging the capabilities of your software.
As your workflows and processes sync with the technology, you’ll continue to reduce what needs human review without any compromise to quality.
Control the Data.
A true end-to-end eDiscovery platform puts you back in control of the data. It stays within your ecosystem, so you have ownership over costs, timelines, and resources. That’s when you’re getting the most from the eDiscovery technology.
Get the Most out of Your eDiscovery Platform.
Technology is only as good as it is usable. The point of leveraging an eDiscovery solution is to improve the efficiency of the process. By optimizing these areas, you can achieve success.
You can learn more about how to implement eDiscovery software and what functionality you should evaluate by downloading our “Ultimate Guide to eDiscovery Platforms.”
About the Author
