Implementing E-Discovery Technology the Easy Way

As organizations scale—surpassing the $100 million or $1 billion revenue marks—litigation becomes an inevitability rather than an exception. Most start by purchasing a "point solution," like legal hold software, while continuing to outsource the rest of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM).

However, as workloads increase and teams try to bring more operations in-house, they hit a major wall: technology proliferation.

The Hidden Costs of Disparate Tools

In the 2021 E-Discovery Technology Report for In-House Professionals, conducted with the Association of Corporate Counsel, 250 legal experts identified a consistent theme: multiple, disconnected solutions make work confusing and tedious.

Top Challenges Identified:

• Learning Multiple Interfaces: Users must master different workflows for every stage of discovery.
• Manual Data Transfer: Moving work products between software increases the risk of human error and data corruption.
• IT-Centric Design: Much of the software is built for programmers, not legal users, requiring advanced technical skills for basic tasks.
• Disconnected Workflows: High-volume tasks, like document review, often happen in "silos" separate from the initial collection and processing.

The Case for an Orchestrated Platform

The symptoms of a broken e-discovery process—poor user experience and manual ingestion—are usually caused by the lack of a unified platform. An orchestrated solution manages e-discovery from start to finish in a single, secure environment.

By using a unified platform, in-house teams can:

1. Eliminate Data Shuffling: Keep data within one ecosystem from legal hold through production.
2. Standardize the User Experience: Reduce training time with a consistent interface for all team members.
3. Perform Outsourced Tasks In-House: Securely handle document review and early case assessment without relying on expensive Legal Service Providers (LSPs).

Streamlining the Path to Adoption

To avoid the technical debt of a messy tech stack, the report suggests two critical adjustments to the procurement process:

• Limit the "Too Many Cooks" Syndrome: Keep procurement teams to five or fewer individuals. Larger teams often get bogged down by conflicting priorities between Legal, IT, and Procurement, making consensus nearly impossible.
• Cap the Decision Timeline: 40% of organizations take over six months to choose software. Setting a strict time limit prevents the "buying cycle fatigue" that can delay the ROI of the technology for years.

Resource: Download the 2021 E-Discovery Technology Report for In-House Professionals

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