"Do-It-Yourself" eDiscovery

We’ve come a long way since the advent of eDiscovery.  Many years ago, all the technologies and services that cater to it were the domain of highly technical companies and their products.  For the most part, litigation support professionals relied heavily on the services of companies that either created eDiscovery technologies or sold the services around them.  But over the last few years, the gap between expert and end-user is closing.  Internal litigation support professionals and attorneys have increasingly become experts in this domain, enabling them to now perform eDiscovery workflows in-house.

Today when the time comes to send your data through the Discovery cycle, you have many options.  The size of your project will help determine if you should outsource these services or perform them in-house.

If you aren’t currently doing some of your discovery in-house, it’d be beneficial to investigate your options.  Particularly for smaller matters, there are now affordable, user-friendly tools designed to easily shepherd data through the eDiscovery process.  Included are tools that ably perform early case assessment, process all common file formats, effectively cull data, and help your team review and produce it to the other side.  With these advanced technologies, ‘do-it-yourself’ eDiscovery is quickly becoming a viable option.

By outsourcing, legal departments can leverage the depth, expertise, technical knowledge, and computer capacity of a team that does nothing but focus on eDiscovery project management.  And on many matters, particularly large or complex ones, outsourcing is an extremely viable value proposition.

However, with the right insourcing tools, legal teams can process, cull, review and produce discovery data in a fraction of the time it takes to create a Request for Proposal (RFP) in order to even begin the outsourcing process.  This approach also gives inside counsel the tools to complete their discovery objectives while saving valuable time and money.

For law firms, the right do-it-yourself technologies also help provide tremendous value to their clients.  And furthermore, since corporations are usually the entity that has the most to gain or lose in litigation, inside counsel and executives also want to be involved in the process.  In-house discovery technologies, if done correctly, allows this to happen.  They have also proven to help corporations reduce overall discovery costs.

Many firms still see value in outsourcing this work to litigation support companies in order to leverage the infrastructure, expertise, project management and data analysts provided as part of that service.  However, as collected data becomes more structured and better technologies are offered, more and more firms are finding insourcing a viable option.

Another advantage is that the ‘do-it-yourself’ eDiscovery route allows you to have complete control over your highly sensitive data – and gives peace of mind related to knowing how many people will be viewing the data and how many copies exist.  The unfortunate reality is that upwards of 95% of collected data is not relevant or responsive, and corporations find themselves unnecessarily sharing sensitive information that should have never been removed from the enterprise.  In addition, most vendor models charge to deal with that irrelevant data creating inflated costs associated with culling data to that which is most relevant.

By having the right technologies and resources in-house, both law firms and corporations can take collected data and immediately load it into their internal discovery processing, culling and review technologies.  In short, ‘do-it-yourself’ eDiscovery can greatly streamline the eDiscovery process while saving time, money, and keep you in the driver’s seat the whole way through.

InterLegis’ in-house solution, Discovery360, provides the widest range of sophisticated eDiscovery technologies in one application.  As an end-to-end discovery solution, it includes powerful analytic tools that provide a complete view of all collected data in order to intelligently cull it down to the smallest, most responsive set.  It also allows legal teams to choose – on a case-by-case basis – which matters they outsource or process in-house.  This means that legal teams can have a mix of cases hosted both internally and on InterLegis’ secure servers while accessing all within the same software.  And with its attractive, all-inclusive pricing, Discovery360 can help legal teams dramatically reduce discovery costs by paying for only what they need.

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.

Discovery360 Desktop Overview Presentation

Which eDiscovery Solution is Right for You?

Although they are separate solutions, both yield the same cost-effective pricing benefits. With Discovery360 Hosted, our skilled eDiscovery team will shepherd your project to completion, whatever the size. Discovery360 Desktop puts you in the driver seat and lets you cull and process data on your own machine or over a network. Which solution is right for you? Visit www.InterLegis.com to learn more.

eDiscovery Costs: “I Wish I Would Have Known”

Have you ever finished an eDiscovery project and realized you spent way too much money on the little amount of data you actually needed?  We all know eDiscovery is expensive and most pricing models create a situation where the total required investment is not known until the end of the project.

In short, once an agreement is signed and data is sent to the service provider, you are typically “stuck” in a situation where you are largely at the mercy of paying for irrelevant data, hourly charges, seat licenses, open-ended TIFFing charges and more.  And, if fees begin escalating above your budget, it’s not a situation where you can easily change midway through the project.  With court and review deadlines looming, you have to ride it out until the project is finished.  You – or your client – will typically have a big surprise waiting at the end of the project:  a total investment often double (or more) than originally budgeted.

Why are most eDiscovery pricing models so expensive?

There are a number of reasons.  The primary one relates to the need to process and cull data that will ultimately be deemed as irrelevant or unresponsive.  In other words, a significant portion of most eDiscovery pricing models require you to pay for data you don’t ultimately need.   You are forced to pay to process all data – relevant or not.  We call this “top of the funnel” pricing.  Oftentimes, upwards of 90% of collected data will never make it to review, but you are being charged for it every step of the way. 

Other cost factors relate to most models requiring payment of so many aspects of discovery, including fees for: project management, support, training, seat licenses, data loads, initial processing, culling, software licenses, and production charges.  This type of model is prevalent in the eDiscovery industry, and requires a great deal of investment into what normally ends up being a relatively small percentage of the original collected data. 

Our goal at InterLegis is to put an end to the practice of ‘nickel-and-diming’ and help our clients avoid paying for data they don’t need.

“I wish I would have known about you guys before.”

One of the most heard phrases from our clients after learning of our all-inclusive pricing model is, “I wish I would have known about you guys before.”  We’ve been able to consistently demonstrate the significant savings clients would have realized on previous projects had they used InterLegis instead.  This analysis normally results in a difference of tens of thousands of dollars – and often, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of savings.

What makes our model different?  In short, we only charge on relevant or responsive data and everything else is complementary or included. 

More specifically, our end-to-end Discovery solution, Discovery360™, allows clients to install the software, process and cull data for free and then pay a one-time, all-inclusive fee for other services, including productions.   Furthermore, if our hosted solution is utilized, all project management, support and needed training are included as well.  You only pay for the data YOU deem relevant and won’t pay for data that will never see the light of day.  We call this “bottom of the funnel” pricing.  Our pricing model is simple, which makes it easy to calculate budgets on your projects.

By not charging on irrelevant data, our clients are able to slash a substantial amount off their discovery costs.  With InterLegis, you can cull and process data with no investment whatsoever, therefore, there are no surprises when it comes to your overall investment. 

There simply isn’t a more cost-effective or productive solution available today.  To understand how InterLegis can impact your bottom line, request a Cost Analysis report at www.InterLegis.com. 

Press Release - InterLegis Offers Free eDiscovery Technologies

DALLAS – DEC. 13, 2011 – InterLegis, an innovator of electronic discovery technologies, offers free eDiscovery processing and culling software via a downloadable link. Discovery360™ Desktop is InterLegis' end-to-end solution that allows corporations and law firms to perform eDiscovery processing, culling, and/or review without the need to work with outside vendors. The software, customized installation, data processing, and culling are all free.

“One of the biggest challenges at the onset of eDiscovery is the need to first understand what data you have before making investment decisions,” said Kevin Carr, President of InterLegis. “By offering a cost-free way to process and cull collected data, legal teams can gain the intelligence needed to make productive resource decisions on discovery and review strategy -- without spending a dime.”

With its easy-to-use interface, Discovery360 Desktop offers the following benefits:

• A customizable in-house discovery solution
• FREE installation with data processing, early case assessment, reporting, and culling capabilities
• Streamlined processing of electronic data with deduplication capabilities
• Quickly understand the contents of collected data before making investment decisions
• Reduce the need for the time-consuming process of outsourcing
• Easy export into Discovery360 Reviewer or any common load file format
• Scalability across entire corporate or law firm network

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 provides end-to-end eDiscovery technologies and services through its flagship product, Discovery360, which can be utilized as hosted service or installed on a local network. The technology ingests collected data and guides legal teams through the discovery life cycle, which includes data processing, early case assessment, culling, review and production. InterLegis offers an extremely cost-effective pricing model, which includes complimentary data processing, early case assessment, 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 Enhances Discovery360 Desktop

DALLAS, TX – November 1, 2011 - InterLegis, an innovator of electronic discovery technologies, is pleased to announce the latest release of Discovery360™ Desktop.  Version 5.5 offers major enhancements, including faster and more powerful data processing.

“We are excited about the latest release of Discovery360 Desktop,” stated Kevin Carr, president of InterLegis.  “It further simplifies eDiscovery through a wide range of data extraction, indexing, culling, review and production enhancements.  And clients can use the same software to manage matters on their network or the cloud.”

With Discovery360, companies benefit from the widest range of sophisticated eDiscovery technologies in one application.  As an end-to-end discovery solution, it includes powerful analytic tools that provide a complete view of all collected data in order to intelligently cull it down to the smallest, most responsive set.  And with its attractive, all-inclusive pricing, legal teams can dramatically reduce discovery costs by paying for only what they need.

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 data processing, 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 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.

The End of eDiscovery Processing Fees

The discovery technologies industry, like any, is in a constant state of change. Each year, the subject matter at industry conferences bring a host of new “hot topics,” while providing a better understanding of old ones. What we like best about these conferences is being able to tighten up our view of where the industry is ... and where it may be going.

In the nearly 14 years InterLegis has attended these events, we’re always interested in learning how our competitors are pricing their technologies and services. Specifically, we’re most curious about what data/ESI processing providers charge for their platforms and services. Because, let’s face it, nothing downstream in the discovery life cycle can happen without the data first being processed. You can’t effectively understand the content of collections without being able to search, organize and analyze its processed data.

Without data processing, there would be nothing for legal teams to review. And therefore, there would be nothing useful to produce, unless you want to turn over all unfiltered collected data to opposing counsel. Nobody wants to do that. The processing of electronic data is essentially what kick-starts the core of discovery review.

Given its importance, this functionality has always needed to be paid for. And it can be quite expensive. Rates for this critical service range from up-front massive financial commitments, to per-seat licenses and per-gigabyte pricing ... often in addition to annual support fees.

THE COST OF OUTSOURCING

Through the years, we’ve seen outsourced eDiscovery processing priced as high as $4,000 per gigabyte for all collected data. And we’ve seen software installation fees range from six figure up-front commitments to thousands per machine. On one hand, per-gigabyte fees are a great way to pay on a case/client basis. Except for one thing. Nearly all pricing models out there ask you to pay at the “top-of-the-funnel” -- or for 100% of the collected data coming into the processing stage. Given that upwards of 95% of this data can be eliminated before the review stage (via keyword/attribute culling or early case assessment tools), you’re always paying for data that reviewers will never see.

So, the big question is: “Why would you do that?” It’s like paying to fill up your car’s gas tank, when you know beforehand that you’re only going to need to drive a couple of miles before you get rid of the vehicle! Except in the case of eDiscovery, the wasted expense is much more significant. When you look at it that way, it seems like a waste, doesn’t it?

To combat this, software and service providers might get creative and charge you a smaller fee on the incoming data (top-of-the-funnel) and a larger fee on the way out (bottom-of-the-funnel). This two-tiered pricing model is positioned as a way to reduce your costs. But with this model, you are not only paying twice for the same data, you’re still paying for data you don’t need. And truth be known, when the invoice arrives for a two-tier pricing model, you’ll often find yourself only saving a small percentage of the costs compared to the top-of-the-funnel model. That’s not nearly a significant enough reduction in costs.

THE COST OF INSOURCING

The only other option you have is to buy the software outright and bring it in-house. Going back to the changing nature of the industry mentioned above, this used to be pretty much out of the question unless you were a litigation support company. Corporate and law firm legal teams would normally outsource their eDiscovery work. However, thanks to the increased sophistication and knowledge over the years of those who work in discovery, bringing these technologies in-house has become extremely prevalent. But from a cost perspective, this model typically requires you to make significant investments up-front to install this technology across your enterprise before a single document is processed.

THE PRICING PITFALL

This identifies two big problems associated with nearly all software pricing platforms and service models:

• Installation Fees: You will spend a significant amount of money to buy capacity, without processing a single electronic file. And this issue is compounded if you need to bill processing charges on a case or client basis. How do you effectively amortize your up-front investments across future matters?

and/or (most likely “and”) ...

• Paying for Data You Don’t Need: You almost always end up paying for irrelevant/unresponsive data. For example, why must you pay to process collected Fantasy Football emails when all you care about is the correspondence related to the issues of the matter at hand?

When analyzed this way, it makes no sense. And through the years, the pricing models always seem to change, but the two problems above are always at play.

THE ANSWER

So what’s the answer? No matter what software service is used or what pricing models are offered, there’s only one solution to these two problems. The answer is: DON’T PAY FOR ESI PROCESSING OR SOFTWARE INSTALLATION FEES. Period. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.

But is it possible to avoid massive up-front installation fees and pay for only what you need? The answer is YES!

InterLegis’ Discovery360 does not charge for software or data processing. Also, it provides the flexibility of hosting your data on either your servers or ours on a case-by-case basis.

Here are those two issues again. Except this time, let’s point out the benefits Discovery360 delivers for each:

• Installation Fees: Discovery360 can be installed for free -- on as many laptops, desktops and servers as needed. It can be installed on every computer being used by litigation support teams, attorneys, and reviewers. And it can be custom-installed across your network. This allows you to create whatever capacity you need, whether that be 200 gigabyte or 10 terabytes. No machine fees. No user fees. And if you want the best of both worlds, you can use the same software to host your data locally or on our servers -- on a case-by-case basis. With Discovery360, you can build a powerful enterprise-wide discovery processing solution without paying a dime.

• Paying for Data You Don’t Need: Once installed, you can load as much data as needed, process 100% of it, cull it down to what’s responsive, and generate reports on every step of the process ... all for free. Once you’ve determined the data you need, you are charged a small fee for only your selected data. But the benefits continue after this one-time fee. Once you’ve paid that all-inclusive fee, you get full use of our Reviewer platform, including all user access, custom index fields, reporting ... and all productions in either TIFF or native file format. Or, if you like, you can export your culled data to an industry-standard load file format for use in another review tool.

Problems solved.

There’s a great deal of talk, articles and blog content out there discussing various strategies designed to reduce discovery costs. But no matter how creative the solutions are, there’s only one surefire way to significantly accomplish this goal. And that is to eliminate many of the costs associated with the discovery life cycle ... especially data processing. Again, it just doesn’t get any more simple than that.

Visit www.InterLegis.com today to request your free download of Discovery360. And start performing discovery, the way it should be.