What Does “Cost-Effective” eDiscovery REALLY Mean?

If you’ve been in the discovery business long enough, you’ve surely seen a wide array of pricing models for eDiscovery services.  Some may remember the day when ESI processing was as high as $4,000 per gigabyte!

Today, pricing has changed, but one thing hasn’t – the wide spectrum of pricing models offered.

MULTIPLE CHARGES: On one end of the spectrum, you might be “nickeled and dimed” for every little charge related to EDD, including: data loading, processing, project management time, culling, de-duping, reporting, export fees, reviewer load, user fees, training, support, production fees, load file creation fees, hosting … and the list goes on and on.

“FREE”: On the other end of the spectrum, there are -- in theory of course -- completely FREE services.  Zip.  Nada.  “We’re just here to make the world a better place.”  Obviously, that model doesn’t exist.  It can’t.  If professional services or technologies are involved, there needs to be a cost to cover overhead and expertise.  

The old adage of, “you get what you pay for” holds true in most things in life, particularly eDiscovery.  It’s too critical a service for your partners to not be compensated.  And even if the entire process was performed in-house, there are still costs associated, including: software licenses, machine resources, and staffing required to manage the process.  But this doesn't mean the more you pay, the more value you receive. There should be a balance.

So, what part of the ‘Pay for Everything’ vs. ‘Completely Free’ spectrum is realistic?

Ideally, you’d have a solutions partner who's pricing falls somewhere in the middle.  If that could be accomplished, then it’s plausible to call the service “cost-effective” discovery. 

But here’s the money question … literally.   If you had a choice between a solution that was marginally cost-effective and one that was extremely cost-effective, which would you choose?  The obvious answer is the latter – with one big caveat – as long as you don’t sacrifice quality and/or service with the cheaper solution. 

So, if you could utilize an eDiscovery solution that gave you the best of all worlds -- technology, service, quality, provides the smallest, most relevant data, and was extremely cost-effective -- that would be ideal, wouldn’t it?  Of course it would.

With InterLegis’ unique ‘bottom-of-the-funnel’ pricing model, we offer just that.

On the same spectrum as above, InterLegis falls closer to ‘Completely Free’ than any other eDiscovery partner.  It doesn’t mean our solution is completely free (however, some components are) -- just pretty darn close.

WHAT MAKES INTERLEGIS SO COST-EFFECTIVE?

In short, InterLegis does provide many early-stage components of the discovery life cycle for free.  Yes, free.  And then once you’ve identified the smaller, responsive dataset that needs to be reviewed, we charge a low, one-time, all-inclusive fee for all remaining services. Specifically, a fee is charged only AFTER you’ve processed and culled your original collections. 

So what’s included?  Everything you need.

First, here’s what’s free:

• Software installation - FREE
• Data processing – FREE (This easily saves many thousands of dollars)
• Early case assessment and culling – FREE

And then once you’ve culled your data to the smallest, most relevant set, you are charged a one-time fee on that data.  This all-inclusive fee covers everything else that remains throughout the discovery life cycle, including:

• Relevant Data Export
• Creation of a common load file format – OR- import into InterLegis’ Reviewer tool
• Full use of InterLegis’ Reviewer tool and technologies (no other software platforms needed)
• Unlimited data loads
• Software Upgrades
• Unlimited Users
• User Training
• Reporting
• 24/7 Support
• And ALL productions, native and/or TIFF – (also saves many thousands of dollars)

All the above is included in a single fee, resulting in potential savings of many thousands – even hundreds of thousands -- of dollars, depending on volume.  The only other fee you’ll encounter with InterLegis is a low monthly hosting charge – but only if you utilize our outsourced Hosted solution.  However, if you store data on your computer or network servers, there are no hosting fees.

Therefore, when determining a true definition of “cost-effectiveness,” it’s clear there isn’t a pricing model in the discovery industry today that provides the value that InterLegis does.

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?

When InterLegis released the Desktop version of Discovery360, we wanted to provide a truly unique solution to the discovery industry … from both a pricing and functionality perspective. Since launching this pricing model over three years ago, we’ve heard some questions from our clients:

Q: “What’s the catch?”

A: There is none whatsoever.

Q: “What am I missing here?”

A: Not a thing.

Q: “Will you put that in writing?”

A: Absolutely!

Q: “Productions are REALLY included?  Even if I TIFF everything?”

A. Yes.

Q: “This is unbelievable.  I wish I’d found this solution years ago!”

A: Us too!

Q: “Finally, a pricing model that is easy to understand.”

A: Hurray!

Q: “We are going to use InterLegis for all our projects from now on.”

A: Awesome!

Yes, it's true.  You won’t find a more effective discovery solution today. To see a real example of extreme cost-effectiveness, read our Case Study.

WHERE TO GET DISCOVERY360 DESKTOP

Discovery360 Desktop is available immediately and free to install. To apply for a copy of the downloadable software, contact info@interlegis.com or visit www.InterLegis.com. 

New Discovery Technologies - Cool Buzz or Irritating Noise?

Let’s face it. There’s a lot of noise out there in our profession as it relates to technology. This is typical of any emerging industry such as ours, and with this growth new advancements seem to hit the market every other day. However, many people are finding it all a bit overwhelming.

A walk through the exhibit hall at any large industry conference illustrates this the most. Big booths, flashing lights, worthless chotchky, a throng of people pressed against each other, and more ... all translates to visual and mental overload. Are we in Vegas? Might as well be. I’ll put $25 on black, please.

As you weave through the trade show chaos, have you ever found yourself trying your best to figure out what each vendor does, all while avoiding eye-contact with them like the plague? Admit it — of course you have. And I don’t blame you. You want to learn, not be sold to, right? These opposing interests between vendor and prospect only complicate the noise.

But the reality is that we cannot escape technology’s place in our industry.

We’ve gotten to the point where discovery collections have grown so large in both size and complexity that we NEED advanced technologies just to do our jobs. Without it, cases are oftentimes physically impossible to manage. We realize this so we dive in. But how does one get a handle on all the new whiz-bang tools available to help us work as efficiently and cost effectively as possible?

The cool thing is, despite the noise, there really are some great discovery technologies (and best practices on how to use them) emerging out there.

Some of the discovery technologies legal teams can utilize include: concept searching and clustering, duplicate and near-duplicate detection, metadata filtering, advanced data culling tools, e-mail thread analysis, visual mapping of data, native review and redaction, rules-based relevance and coding, early case assessment tools, high volume online document repositories, forensic collection solutions, email/data archiving, e-Discovery analysis and processing and many more. (Whew!)

So whatever your needs are, there’s likely an innovative technology that could streamline your tasks. However, a major risk we run is that with all these choices, information overload ensues. And because most learn about this stuff in bits and pieces, there are many walking around with just enough knowledge to be dangerous. This leads to the dissemination of erroneous information, mistaken understanding of the capabilities of various technologies, bad decisions, unnecessary expenditures, and further perpetuation of the “noise factor” mentioned above.

For example, I recently had a conversation with a big, really important title at a large firm who made the following statement, “I gave you guys ONE Outlook file to process and you give me back thousands of e-mails to review!”

My expert and eloquent response was something along the lines of ... “Huh?”

I tried to explain that an Outlook file is essentially a collection of e-mails (and other things) and in order to evaluate the contents it was best to “explode” the individual e-mails and attachments out of the file while maintaining all e-mail thread information. But unfortunately, he was set in his “expertise” and nothing I could say would change his understanding.

I’m not making fun; just making a point. It’s hard to get a grasp on things when there is so much information out there and it changes so quickly — especially if you are still climbing the proverbial technology learning curve. And with so many “moving parts” to all this technology sometimes there isn’t a black and white answer. Sometimes the answer lies in the grey areas. For example, take the Outlook scenario above. Is it possible to review the contents of a PST (Outlook) file without extracting the individual e-mails? Technically, yes. Is the most efficient way? Not usually, but it depends on the situation and technology choices available to the individual or organization.

So, how do we figure out what’s what?

First, we take a deep breath (a good thing to do often anyway!)

Second, take a 20,000 foot view of all the available technologies. The best way to do this is to plot where each falls on what I call the “Discovery Life Cycle.” That’s a phrase I use a lot. So, I’ll repeat it ... Discovery Life Cycle, or “DLC” for short.

The DLC is essentially comprised of 6 phases: Records Management, Collection, Processing, Review, Production and Resolution. A major problem is that there are different technologies that do different things throughout the DLC. There are a slew of solutions every step of the way, and they don’t always line up nice and neat into each “bucket”. In other words, there is some cross-over, and most do not take you all the way through the DLC. So a combination of solutions is likely necessary.

As you evaluate different technological solutions in the marketplace, your first task in understanding their usefulness to you is to simply plot where each lives on the DLC. This way, if you need a specific solution, such as e-Discovery processing platforms for example, then you can hone in on a short-list of vendors who can help. Doing so could arguably eliminate more than 80 percent of the noise.

Of course, you’ll still need to do further evaluation. This includes setting up demos, obtaining pricing information, ensuring proper compatibility with legal strategy, IT considerations, possible integration with existing in-house solutions and so forth, just to name a few. Still some work to do, but why evaluate the entire universe when only a single planet is relevant?

With proper perspective on your technology research, you can quickly ascertain the best fit for you, your organization and your cases. But to do so, it is important to become a student of the space and be a sponge for new information. Set a goal to become the go-to person in your organization who provides effective solutions to the problems your legal teams face. For example, when they ask, “Should we use a conceptual review tool?”, they should immediately respond with, “Call ____________ (insert your name here).”

Just be smart with your research. The key is knowing precisely what each available solution offers along the DLC timeline. Yes, it does take some work, but it’s worth it in order to filter through the noise and make sound decisions — and becoming a major asset to your organization.

Or, on the other hand, we could all just pack up our bags and head to Vegas where the noise is much more fun. Meet you there. I’ll be over at the slot machines with a cup full of quarters. C’mon sevens!

Press Release - Installs of Discovery360™ Desktop Increase 400% in Q2 2011

DALLAS – MAY 17, 2011 – InterLegis, an innovator of litigation and electronic discovery technologies, announces that installs of Discovery360 Desktop have increased over 400% in the 2nd Quarter of 2011. Discovery360 Desktop is InterLegis' in-house, end-to-end discovery solution that allows corporations and law firms to protect data internally while performing eDiscovery processing, culling and/or review without the need to work with outside vendors.  The installation of the software is free.

“When we released the desktop version of Discovery360, we wanted to provide a unique solution to the discovery industry from both a pricing and functionality perspective,” said Kevin Carr, President of InterLegis.  “We are pleased to see the industry embracing the software in this manner.”

Discovery360 Desktop provides a flexible solution to corporate and law firm clients by offering multiple local or networked installation options.  As an optional feature on extremely large matters, it allows users to host certain cases on the cloud using InterLegis’ managed hosting service.  This means that users can access all their discovery projects from either the network or the cloud within a single interface.

Immediate Availability
Discovery360 Desktop is available immediately and free to install. To apply for a copy of the downloadable software, contact info@interlegis.com or visit www.InterLegis.com.

About InterLegis
InterLegis, founded in 1998 and based in Dallas, offers the widest range of e-discovery technologies in one end-to-end application: Discovery360. Discovery360 guides the user through the discovery life cycle from collection, through early case assessment, culling, data processing, review and production.  Its powerful analytic technologies provide a complete view of all documents based on document attributes such as text, concepts and metadata. InterLegis offers the most cost-effective pricing model available today, which includes complimentary early case assessment, data culling, productions, project management and support. For more information, visit www.InterLegis.com.

Corporate Contact:
Richard Yager
Marketing Manager
InterLegis, Inc.
ryager@interlegis.com
214-468-8800 x208

Press Release - InterLegis Fortifies Discovery360™ Desktop with Reviewer

DALLAS – May 10, 2011 – InterLegis, an innovator of litigation and electronic discovery technologies, today announced the addition of Reviewer to Discovery360™ Desktop.

Discovery360 Desktop, an end-to-end discovery solution - provides multiple document analytic capabilities in a single, desktop-based solution. With the addition of Reviewer, corporate legal departments now have the ability to process, cull, review and produce e-discovery - all in-house. This helps control legal costs while eliminating the need to rely on expensive outsourced measures to accomplish the same tasks.

Reviewer is included in Discovery360 Desktop, which includes complimentary electronic discovery processing, deduplication, reporting, early case assessment and culling.

“Previously, corporate legal departments had to use three or more stand-alone applications or rely on outsourced capabilities in order to accomplish what Discovery360 Desktop now does,” said Kevin Carr, president of InterLegis. “Discovery360 Desktop empowers in-house counsel to take control of their e-discovery and accomplish previously time-consuming tasks within minutes.”

Reviewer for Discovery360 Desktop is available immediately. For more information, contact info@interlegis.com or visit www.InterLegis.com.

About InterLegis
InterLegis, Inc. has developed cutting-edge document technologies and processes relating to conceptual analysis, similarity matching, automatic categorizations, electronic discovery processing/culling, visual analysis, document digitization, optical character recognition, compression, database indexing, advanced searching and document security that enables corporations, law firms and legal service providers to reduce the risk, complexity and cost of litigation, regulatory requests and internal investigations. InterLegis is headquartered in Dallas. For more information, visit www.InterLegis.com.

Contact:
Richard Yager
Marketing Manager
InterLegis, Inc.
ryager@interlegis.com
214-468-8800 x208

Case Study

                                             Introduction

InterLegis offers the widest range of eDiscovery technologies in one end-to-end application: Discovery360™. The solution guides the user through the discovery life cycle from collection, through early case assessment, culling, data processing, review and production. InterLegis offers the most cost-effective pricing model available today, which includes:

▪ FREE Culling & Early Case Assessment
▪ Pay for Relevant Data ONLY
▪ Advanced Technologies
▪ All-Inclusive Pricing, Including Productions
▪ Complimentary 24/7 Project Management and Support

Challenges
An Am Law 100 firm hired InterLegis with the following critical requirements:

• Analyze over 4 terabytes of collected data
• Determine how much data was relevant and required review
• Given the initial size of the data, they could not invest blindly into eDiscovery processing on potentially irrelevant information

The eDiscovery industry is filled with vendors constantly nickel-and-diming clients on all facets of the Discovery process. Most matters involve receiving a large amount of irrelevant or non-responsive data. However, traditional models charge for every service provided throughout the eDiscovery process. This means that oftentimes, sizable expenditures are required just to understand the data.

Problem
This Am Law 100 client sent InterLegis 4TB of data to be processed and culled to the smallest, most relevant set possible. Given the pricing models associated with most outside vendors, processing this much data would have been a very costly undertaking.

Based on traditional vendor models, guiding 4TB of data through processing, early case assessment, culling, review and productions would have cost up to $2 Million. In the end, most of that investment would have been on irrelevant data. It was clear that this company needed a more cost-effective solution to analyze their data.

Recommended Solution
InterLegis solved the client’s needs by recommending comprehensive culling and processing methodology, utilizing the Discovery360 DataMapper technology. This solution was the most cost-effective and productive, because the client was able to do so at no cost.

Implementation
Interlegis provided this company full access to their end-to-end discovery solution, Discovery360. With this software, they could easily cull irrelevant and duplicate documents prior to full EDD processing. There were nearly 20 million documents loaded into DataMapper and InterLegis provided constant project management and reporting.

Results
With the help of the free data processing culling tools and service provided by InterLegis, an Am Law 100 company was able to accurately determine how much money would be spent on eDiscovery in addition to court costs and litigation. With the ability to avoid extreme expenditures, they came to a decision to settle out of court.

InterLegis’ advanced culling and processing tools are the most advanced solutions in the industry. With our ‘bottom of the funnel’ pricing model, InterLegis’ clients have the ability to realize and understand their data before any investment is required.

For more information, visit www.InterLegis.com

What is Discovery360™ Desktop?

We are VERY excited about the latest release of Discovery360 Desktop for a number of reasons.

After over 13 years in the litigation discovery industry, we at InterLegis have always worked to align ourselves with our clients' best interests through our outsourced Hosted model.  And, now the addition of Desktop to our portfolio of solutions further supports this philosophy.

It's all part of what we call "The New Discovery."

So, What is Discovery360 Desktop?  

Simply put, Desktop is a complete, end-to-end discovery solution that our clients can install locally -- either on a single machine or a full rack of networked servers.  And just like our Hosted solution, it offers tremendous value unlike anything found in the market today.   Consider the following:

• FREE software installation - NO installation, user or machine fees
• FREE training
• FREE unlimited data processing
• FREE analytics, data culling and reporting
• FREE customer support
• A low, ONE-TIME gigabyte fee is incurred on ONLY the data needed for review

• After that charge, here's what's included:
• The use of our Reviewer platform (optional)
• Unlimited use of our Analytics, Email Threading, Conceptual, and Similarity technologies.
• Unlimited users
• Unlimited TIFFing and Productions
• Unlimited customer support
• Output to any common load file format
• Outputs or Productions include both natives and TIFFs at no additional charge

We are finding that our clients are using our full suite of solutions to speed the discovery process based on their unique needs. Each client has the following options:

• Outsource Everything: Utilize Discovery360 Hosted, but has Desktop installed locally to understand client data before sending it out.

• Insource Everything:  Since Discovery360 Desktop is infinitely scalable, all matters can be managed internally on a single platform.

• Do Both, Depending on Situation: Outsource larger matters and keep smaller matters in-house by utilizing a combination of Discovery360 Hosted and Desktop.  And if matters become larger than expected, they can push the data to our hosted servers as needed.

It's a good feeling to offer a service model where our clients' needs truly come first.  As most discovery experts know, most matters involve receiving a large amount of irrelevant or non-responsive data.  However, traditional models charge for every little service provided.  In the end, this means money is usually invested in data that should never see the light of day.

However, at InterLegis, we've built our business solely on the practice of charging for only needed data and providing exceptional responsive service, all while including our full suite of services in an extremely easy-to-understand model.

I urge you to apply for a copy of Discovery360 Desktop today.  We will even walk you through every step of the installation process.

It's InterLegis' goal to make discovery as easy as possible so that you can focus on litigation itself ... and not worry about overly-inflated vendor fees every step of the way.

We look forward to working with you!

Kevin Carr

President, InterLegis

Press Release - InterLegis Enhances Discovery360™ Desktop

DALLAS, TX – April 12, 2011 – InterLegis, an innovator of electronic discovery technologies, is pleased to announce the latest release of Discovery360™ Desktop.  The platform provides multiple document analytic capabilities in a single in-house solution – including free data indexing, reporting, early case assessment, and culling.

“The introduction of Discovery360 Desktop underscores our commitment to our clients by addressing the need to quickly perform early case assessment, data processing, reporting, and culling as soon as collected data lands on their desk,” said Kevin Carr, president of InterLegis. “With Discovery360 Desktop, the complete discovery life cycle can oftentimes be completed in less time than it normally takes to outsource the work.”

Features
InterLegis offers several advanced technologies in its end-to-end solution. With its easy-to-use interface, Discovery360 Desktop offers:

• An in-house, discovery solution with the optional ability to host on the cloud
• Free local or network installation
• Free early case assessment, reporting, analytics, and culling capabilities
• The ability to quickly understand the contents of collected data without outsourcing
• Streamlined processing of electronic data with de-duplication capabilities
• Easy export into Discovery360 Reviewer or any common load file format
• Scalability across entire corporate or law firm network
• Unlimited users
• Complimentary product training and support

Immediate Availability
Discovery360 Desktop is available immediately. To apply for a copy of the downloadable software, contact info@interlegis.com or visit www.interlegis.com.

About InterLegis
InterLegis, founded in 1998 and based in Dallas, offers the widest range of e-discovery technologies in one end-to-end application: Discovery360™. Discovery360 guides the user through the discovery life cycle from collection, through early case assessment, culling, data processing, review and production.  Its powerful analytic technologies provide a complete view of all documents based on document attributes such as text, concepts and metadata. InterLegis offers the most cost-effective pricing model available today, which includes complimentary early case assessment, data culling, productions, project management and support. For more information, visit www.interlegis.com.

Corporate Contact:
Richard Yager
Marketing Manager
InterLegis, Inc.
ryager@interlegis.com
214-468-8800 x208