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Washington, D.C. : Venio Systems, the fastest growing eDiscovery technology provider, has launched a new initiative aimed at solving problems in the eDiscovery review process to address the issues attorneys say are most important, while adding new capabilities to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

As the most costly aspect of eDiscovery, review remains an area ripe for innovation and improvement. Venio systems, as part of its continuing mission to improve the eDiscovery process, has listened to experienced attorneys in the field for input: Abbye Needham, eDiscovery Services Manager at Bit-x-Bit, and Kat Crone, Director of Project Management at LSP Data Solutions, LLC, discussed the problems they encounter in the review process and what changes need to be made. 

“Many companies claim to be addressing the issues in the review process, but it remains expensive, time-consuming, and needlessly complex,” Needham said, “I’m looking forward to seeing what steps vendors are  taking to solve the problems actual attorneys face each day.”

Four general areas for improvement  — timeliness, risk, quality, and cost — were identified,  but Needham and Crone had specific suggestions as well. One was improving the review process for multimedia, video, and audio files. Previously, there’s been no way to review and flag these types of files to be used at trial or in depositions. But the newest update to the Venio platform, VenioOne version 8.1, makes this possible, adding a Multimedia Viewer that allows attorneys to view the files, mark timestamps, and add notes, which can then be used to navigate easily to find a specific point in the file.

“Having the ability to review and mark important points in multimedia files will save a great deal of time for attorneys,” Crone said. “Knowing what you’re looking for and how to easily find it — that’s going to be a game-changer.”

Another area of difficulty involved Microsoft Excel files, which have long posed problems in eDiscovery because redactions were only possible within image files, which were almost always lengthy, large, and not a strong  representation of the Excel data. “This was a pressing problem to solve, because Excel files are often the source of confidential information that requires redaction,” Needham explained. 

Venio 8.1 addressed this issue by adding an Excel viewer that included native redaction tools, meaning that the massive image files didn’t have to be created first, streamlining the process, saving time and expense.

“Venio Systems remains dedicated to continually improving the eDiscovery process, and with review being the most expensive phase of the process, it’s one we see as vital for innovation,” ” said Ankur Agarwal, VP of Products. “With the release of VenioOne 8.1 on both VenioOne and VenioCloud, we’ve begun to address some of the issues brought up by Abbye Needham and Kat Crone. And with a major product announcement coming in March, VenioSystems will change the way review is done altogether.”