3 Ways to Simplify E-Discovery Across the Extended Enterprise

When you think about the challenges to developing a simplified e-discovery process, what comes to mind? Chances are, a handful of words stand out—words like “cost,” “time,” and “risk,” to name a few.

However, those are also words you can use to describe an e-discovery process that hasn’t fully matured yet. Without a simplified e-discovery process that’s efficient across all your business functions, there’s a good chance you’re spending more money and time than you’d like, and potentially putting your organization at greater risk than necessary.

Let’s take a look at three ways you can simplify your organization’s e-discovery process across all of your business units.

1. Standardize where content lives.
   There are many different ways to store data today. With each new technology tool your business adopts, there’s an increasing possibility that data ends up in the “dark corners” of your organization—locations only a few people know about. This can include personal storage locations known only to individual employees, making it exponentially more difficult to track where data is stored. This lack of visibility also increases organizational risk.
2. Centralize your e-discovery activities in one system.
   You may never have a single repository for every piece of data used in e-discovery. However, consolidating as much data as possible into one centralized system helps streamline preservation and collection. It becomes easier—and less risky—to locate data when it exists in fewer places. Moving your data into a single e-discovery platform also allows you to apply retention policies more effectively and defensibly delete data once it is no longer needed.
3. Extend discovery across your entire enterprise.
   The first two steps help standardize your data collection process, but it’s equally important to extend discovery across your entire organization—including external users. You need full visibility into who has access to data, where it resides, and who is reviewing it. Leveraging e-discovery tools across your enterprise helps you manage data more effectively, reduce costs, and maintain control over collection and preservation processes.

As data-related activities continue to evolve through new regulations and litigation, maintaining a strong data management process will only become more important. Fortunately, your existing e-discovery software can serve as a powerful solution to many of these challenges.

For more tips on applying e-discovery tools across your organization, explore additional resources on repurposing legal processes to meet modern data privacy requirements.

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