5 Questions to Consider Before Choosing an eDiscovery Vendor

9/13/2017 | Josh Markarian | Marketing Associate

With big data on the rise and the increased need for highly qualified and capable eDiscovery vendors in high demand, here are some things to consider before selecting your next vendor. Now more than ever, its important to have a vendor that not only is current with the trending technology, and updated laws and regulation but also well experienced with all of them. These questions are meant to aid you in your search for the perfect eDiscovery vendor.

1. Are they secure?

With the increase of cyber attacks on the rise, proper information governance is one of the most important attributes an eDiscovery vendor can posses. Some things to look for are:

how are they preserving your data
Are they making multiple copies of your data (pristine and working)
Are they placing your hard copies into a secured facility
Most importantly, are they SOC 2 certified.

2. What licensed technology software do they use? (Software-as-a-Service)

Technology is a driving factor behind the recent changes in the eDiscovery field, therefor if you vendor is using the most relevant powerful software’s you could be wasting spending. More importantly the vendor should have a deep understanding of the software because otherwise its essentially ineffective. Some partnerships to look for are:

EnCase
Relativity
Nuix
Xera
Clearwell
iCONECTnXT
Zapproved
Soulutionary

3. What levels of support are available?

When working with strict laws and regulations that enforce deadlines and attention to detail it is imperative that you choose a vendor with multiple layers of support. Another key thing to look for is do they have relations with other vendors in the area so that if it comes to it they can outsource some of the work to make sure all your deadlines are met.
Some considerations here include:

How available are the vendor’s employees during non-business hours
How are cases staffed
Who are the points of contact
How are issues escalated

4. What is their scope of services

The most efficient way to choose a vendor is find one that has the resources and capabilities to perform multiple services. This reduces costs and risks by reducing the number of vendors involved.As a sample here are the services that we here at TERIS offer to give a good example of a vendor with a wide range of services:

Consulting                                         eDiscovery
Managed Services                            Court Reporting
Data Analytics                                   Repository Hosting
Digital Forensics                               Document Imaging
Project Management                       Traditional Reprographics
Managed Review

The time and costs that can be associated with legal discovery can be very expensive and can also become a liability if your vendor mishandles the case or data. We hope this article served some benefit to you in your search for your next eDiscovery Vendor.