Rockwell Automation Finds the "Right Fit" to Manage eDiscovery

Rockwell Automation leverages both eDiscovery and digital forensics software to manage its robust eDiscovery program

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Rockwell Automation

Industry: Industrial Automation and Information Technology

Founded: 1903

Headquarters: Milwaukee, WI

Employees: Over 25,000

Exterro Products: Legal Hold, In-Place Preservation, EDDM, FTK Enterprise

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The Challenge

» Excessively manual eDiscovery and Forensics processes

» Potential security risk from exposing IP to external data transfers

The Solution

» Integrated Exterro platform for eDiscovery and digital forensics

» Exterro White Glove Services for complete defensible migration and training

» Exterro FTK Enterprise-powered investigative collections

Results

» Improved data security posture by eliminating external transfers

» Significant cost savings through reduced third-party hosting fees and external review

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Disjointed eDiscovery and Investigation Workflows Slow Down Industrial Automation Giant

Based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Rockwell Automation is a global leader in industrial automation and digital transformation, helping manufacturers operate more efficiently, sustainably, and securely. But for a company that prides itself on enabling others to modernize operations, their eDiscovery and forensic investigation teams were facing challenges because of disjointed processes. With over 25,000 employees, Rockwell needs to run investigations and eDiscovery at a global scale, spanning internal investigations, misconduct cases, computer security incident response team (CSIRT) investigations, large data collections, and litigation matters. Their forensic and legal teams required a technically robust environment to manage large-scale data collections and investigations across their global enterprise.

Matthew Petersen, Supervisor of Insider Risk and Forensics Teams, had a suite of best-in-class tools, featuring FTK Enterprise, FTK Central, AccessData eDiscovery, Magnet, Cellebrite, and Azure-based workflows–but they were disjointed and all too often manual. The eDiscovery process was reliant on a legacy system (AccessData’s solution, prior to their acquisition by Exterro) that presented several practical hurdles:

• Manual Collections and Reliance on Forensics: AccessData’s legacy eDiscovery tool created practical challenges for the forensic team, who often needed to perform collections manually with FTK, then transfer them to the eDiscovery solution. Paralegals depended on him to ingest and prepare data for review. But with many responsibilities, this dependency on their team could slow down legal matters and investigations.
• Security Risk in Data Movement: A major challenge with past systems was data movement. The manual process of collecting, exporting, and sending data to outside parties via USB drives or subdomain exports created opportunities for data sprawl and risk.‍
• High Review Costs: Data exported for outside review often sat dormant on third-party systems accruing fees, increasing the cost of lengthy litigation matters. Rockwell needed a way to consolidate control over their data and reduce these external hosting and review costs.

Rockwell’s legal team—comprising four paralegals and one primary attorney—wanted to move to a solution that gave their team more autonomy and easier management of the review process, all without sacrificing quality or security. If they could run collections themselves–and manage document review on their own platform–they would have better control over project timelines and budgets, at a time when legal teams like theirs were facing pressure to do more with less.

Migrating to an Integrated Platform Solution

When Exterro acquired AccessData in 2020, it gave Rockwell an opportunity to address the challenges they were having by migrating to the Exterro eDiscovery platform. They could give their paralegal team the ability to self-serve on collections and directly ingest them into the Exterro eDiscovery Data Management solution, freeing up their team from performing manual collections and data transfers. They would no longer have to transfer data outside the organization for review, instead keeping it secure in their Exterro instance, and inviting external counsel into the platform for document review. In turn, this eliminated third-party storage and processing costs, bringing down expenses associated with preparing for litigation.

Rockwell was able to do this, while keeping Exterro FTK Enterprise as the core of their investigatory workflow. It offered capabilities for a variety of global use cases that other solutions couldn’t match on their own.

• Collections for eDiscovery Matters: The tool provides imaging capabilities, remote collections, and reporting that is defensible and fits Rockwell’s requirements.
• Internal Investigations: General internal investigations, such as HR matters, as well as cases involving misuse of company assets or “nefarious deeds” by employees.
• CSIRT-Related Incidents: Assisting the CSIRT team in collecting necessary files that exceed the file-pulling limitations of their other tools like CrowdStrike.
• Large-Volume and Server-Side Collections: Handling large-volume data collections, including VMDK files, and supporting server-side examinations, including collections off of Azure-based cloud settings.‍
• Forensic Analysis: Leveraging built-in tools like Registry Viewer and FTK Imager to allow examiners to pivot between native FTK capabilities and third-party utilities, as well as generate system summaries for quick file identification.

The move to the Exterro eDiscovery platform introduced key workflow improvements that reduced manual steps and empowered the legal team. Leveraging the connectors that are built into the Exterro system, including those for MS Purview and Workday, reduced the need for manual steps and meant that paralegals no longer rely on Petersen to ingest every collection. Its simplified dashboard and automated workflows allowed the paralegals to more easily manage their workloads and documentation, quickly regaining control over the performance of their tasks. And most importantly, the entire workflow—from security to legal review—is documented and defensible, keeping sensitive data secure and under Rockwell’s control.

Seamless and Secure Migration

The move into the Exterro ecosystem required precise, secure, and defensible data movement. Petersen and Rockwell’s program manager partnered with the Exterro Professional Services team to plan the transition. The project brought in Exterro’s White Glove Services, which included dedicated contractors who executed the entire migration:

• Database backups, verification, and migration of years of legacy data
• Training the paralegals on the new platform
• Restructuring Rockwell’s deployment into a multi-tenant setup, which cleanly separated permissions and workflows for the paralegals, forensic examiners, and legal team

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Petersen highly recommended the White Glove services for others migrating between systems, as many organizations choose to remain on legacy systems out of fear over the challenges of a large-scale migration in an enterprise environment. “They did everything: database backups, verifying the data, migrating it over, and then they trained the paralegals,” Petersen said. “I highly recommend the White Glove services if you’re moving anything.”

The transition established a cohesive, integrated, and secure environment for Rockwell’s forensics and eDiscovery operations. FTK Enterprise anchors the investigative side, and the Exterro eDiscovery platform streamlines the management of legal holds and document review.

The shift to Exterro improved how Rockwell managed and produced data for both eDiscovery and investigations. They had better security and control over their data–a concern which resonated strongly with Petersen due to his digital forensics background. With Exterro, Rockwell now controls where its data resides.

With Exterro, Rockwell Automation achieved its goals of streamlining workflows, reducing costs, and maintaining data security.

• Improved data security: Since outside reviewers can access data directly in Rockwell’s Exterro platform without exporting entire repositories, Rockwell retains control over their sensitive data. Reduced review costs: Since Rockwell is only producing the files that have been tagged as necessary, they achieve noticeable cost savings on both third-party hosting fees and on reduced document review hours billed by external vendors.
• Improved outcomes: With faster review cycles, covering reduced data volumes, investigators can resolve cases faster and the legal department and external counsel to can set case strategy sooner.
• ‍Streamlined workflows: Paralegals are empowered to complete more of the eDiscovery process on their own, freeing up Petersen to focus on investigations.

Modernized, Secure, and Cost-Efficient eDiscovery and Investigation Operations

Petersen described Rockwell’s relationship with Exterro using the word “companionship” because the products connect and work together. He benefits from frequent engagement with Exterro’s Product Team to provide feature feedback, including recommendations on Registry Viewer integration and remote mobile discovery.

The White Glove Services team and the support team earned his praise for making the migration safe and efficient, and for making sure product issues get fixed quickly. Their work set the foundation for a long-term, stable environment that Rockwell continues to refine, and they continue to purchase hours for ongoing support and assistance.

Rockwell Automation modernized its eDiscovery and forensics program to adopt a platform that is fast, reliable, and built to connect. Today, their program reflects a modernized operation where FTK Enterprise anchors investigations and the Exterro eDiscovery platform streamlines the legal review process.

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