Now, picture an organization that has implemented an optimized eDiscovery process with cloud-based eDiscovery tools. Rather than working long hours to search for data when litigation appears, they run various complex searches and compare results in seconds. Thus, they respond to eDiscovery requests quickly while reducing data collection and review costs.

eDiscovery Challenges

eDiscovery requests appear straightforward at first: Deliver all the information relevant to the pending case. But the subtleties of modern communication and information storage complicate the process in a variety of ways.

For example, organizations with a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy face a formidable data gathering challenge. Employees often combine personal and business use on laptops, tablets, and smartphones. In addition, they may use a variety of third-party applications to do their work and probably have not retained some critical information.

As devices and data storage locations multiply, increasing volumes of data must be searched and reviewed, ballooning eDiscovery costs.

Once a pending or lawsuit or preservation letter is received, one of the key steps is the deposition of the target company. At this point, the legal team is interested in determining what information is available from the organization.

Overcome eDiscovery Challenges with Consistent, Secure, and Quick eDiscovery Tools

Instead of reacting in a frenzy to requests for eDiscovery, modern organizations practice solid information governance, and employ effective eDiscovery tools that are consistent, secure, and quick:

• Consistent – Organizations need to produce consistent results when performing eDiscovery searches and have confidence in both the results they obtain as well as stating that confidence to the people requesting that data.
• Secure – Guaranteeing the integrity of the data is vital. Some eDiscovery systems are built into the data management systems or applications. These could be compromised “accidentally” or “willfully” by individuals tasked with maintaining system.
• Quick – The time to discover, search and produce information often requires multiple individuals with the associated costs in time and effort. Solutions should be quick, and efficient and reduce overall effort spent performing discoveries.

The Modern, Cloud-Based eDiscovery Approach

Consistent, secure, and quick eDiscovery tools empower legal teams to sift through all their data in minutes. These modern cloud-based solutions enable personnel to review and analyze data in place, then collect only relevant electronically stored information (ESI). Thus, they are enabled to:

• Perform all eDiscovery efforts in-house and decide sooner to litigate vs. settle to save money and resources.
• Identify and review relevant data before collection and confidently reduce the amount of data to collect, hold, and review.
• Process discovery requests quickly and reduces the risks of sanctions while maintaining a continuous chain of custody.

Modern eDiscovery tools expand eDiscovery from just email by adding data sources to index and search. They provide quick access to electronic information from various sources such as Microsoft OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams, Citrix ShareFile, Box, Slack, Egnyte, and others.

The modern, cloud-based approach allows centralization of eDiscovery and the ability to keep critical data where it currently resides. Your data stays safe and protected there or you may want to extract copies to meet more strict retention requirements.

Quick eDiscovery Tools Reduce Costs

Modern, high-speed eDiscovery tools position organizations to:

• Reduce Costs – The bulk of eDiscovery costs arise from the collection and initial review of data to discover information pertinent to the discovery request. Streamlining this process saves time and dollars by limiting items produced for final review.
• Simplify the Process – Organizations today are spending more time with discovery. They need to simplify the process instead of complicating it with multiple tools, data formats and complex search tools and syntaxes.
• Shorten the Learning Curve – Discovery teams get up to speed quickly and easily using a familiar and easy-to-navigate web-based interface. Searching is simple with easy-to-understand search terms and intelligent syntax.
• Respond Quickly to eDiscovery Requests – No more scrambling. Teams locate and produce the needed information quickly, without interrupting regular business operations.
• Practice Early Case Assessment (ECA) – With a clear picture of the relevant data, business leaders and their counsel make informed strategic decisions early on.

For large or small organizations, these solutions should be able to scale to any number of users and any amount of data. Expect them to provide support for multiple auditors and allow for graduated access levels of security.

The Right Tools from eDiscovery Experts

Modern eDiscovery tools connect to all the organization’s unstructured data locations. They identify relevant data and maintain an up-to-date index of the information before any data is collected.

With consistent, secure, and quick eDiscovery tools and processes, business leaders gain visibility into data in seconds, reduce the data sets to present to attorneys, and accelerate early case assessment. It all adds up to much lower eDiscovery costs.

The best time to prepare for litigation is now, long before a court order appears. The consultants and project managers at eGovernance.com help organizations practice efficient eDiscovery. And with deep knowledge of Office 365 and other pertinent technologies, they can assist modern data and identity governance.

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