Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m O c t O b e r 2 0 1 4 39 PricewaterhouseCoopers in Toronto, Vakof says he has come across plenty of lawyers who get told by vendors that their products will give them anything necessary for a case at the push of a button. Then there are companies that allow law firms to outsource aspects of e-discovery work instead of purchasing soft- ware. PwC is among those that will deal with forensics such as data review and production, and then there are former police staff who are selling software that deals with another piece of the puzzle, such as capturing an image of a document. The array of options become very confus- ing, and is no replacement for developing a strategy with key stakeholders from both the legal and IT side of a company. "You can have the best word processing software, but it's not going to write the article for you," he says by way of analogy. In a large organization, Vakof suggests appointing at least one lawyer as an e-discovery point person who will understand the organization's common needs, read up on the latest e-discovery articles, and create rela- tionships within the larger e-discovery com- munity. "It's not just someone who goes to a conference once a year." Susan Wortzman, founder of Toronto-based e-discovery law boutique Wortzmans, describes staying on top of the latest on the subject as "a frighteningly full-time job." She says vendors are in her office multiple times each week con- ducting demos, while other staff are watching webinars or meeting with an internal technol- ogy strategies group, which is lead by an engi- neer. Even then, it's hard to know for sure what's going to work well and what won't. "They plan their demos and know exactly what searches they're going to do," she says. "It's not real life." Gartner Inc., a market research firm based in Cambridge, Mass., published a report in June that ranked the major players in the e-dis- covery space. Those categorized as "leaders" include Kroll Ontrack, HP Autonomy, Recom- mind, Symantec, and FTI Technology. Hal Marcus, a former litigator who now works as an "e-discovery evangelist" for San Ask these c hoosing an e-discovery solution means addressing several interconnected issues. Product demos can be impressive, but don't be fooled: a tool's features can be the least impor- tant factor for you to consider. KPMG Canada's Dominic Jaar, partner and national practice leader, information management services, and David sharpe, manager of e-discovery, offer some key questions you should endeavour to answer while exploring solutions: What types of cases do you currently handle? Will the cases be similar in the future? the volume and nature of the data you are or will be dealing with is central to your decision. think scalability. Not all solutions handle large data sets (and "large" means different things to different vendors) the same way. Processing and reviewing scanned documents or excel spreadsheets do not require the same capabilities. Who do you have on staff? user-friendliness is important, however, if you're investing in litigation support and e-discovery solutions, don't be forced to establish your expectations at the lowest common-end- user denominator. each firm has power users in its lawyers and litiga- tion support professionals. While there would be change manage- ment required to bring as many users on board as possible, the power users should play an important role in choosing the solution. from a management standpoint, keep in mind power users have a vested interest in protecting their turf. What is your initial budget? Can you secure stable funding every year? technological budgeting generally limits itself to the upfront capital investment for the software and hardware requirements. You should calculate the original investment, but perhaps most impor- tantly, the recurring costs of power and uPs, bandwidth, cooling, backup, redundancy, patches and upgrades, and security, etc. Have you considered the annual hardware and software maintenance and licensing costs? What about staff training? finally, are you confident you will get the evolution budget to change your equipment every three to five years? Which is the best licensing model for you? should you have an all- you-can-eat solution or should you settle for a volume and/or user- based licensing model? Answers to the first questions will help you decide. Where is the best location for your solution? Have you thought about exploring hosted and/or managed solutions? In most industries, organizations are now offering themselves the best, the most scal- able and secure, but often also the cheapest (from a total cost of ownership standpoint) solutions by relying on IAAs and sAAs provid- ers. the legal market hasn't been forgotten, Canadian providers now host solutions you could otherwise put behind your firewall, at a frac- tion of the cost and with the support of a local team. questions LEgaL rEport/e-DiScoveRY

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