X1 Delivers Cutting-Edge MS Teams Support

By John Patzakis

The prominence of Microsoft 365 data sources continue to grow in eDiscovery matters exponentially. However, most non-MS eDiscovery tools collect from MS 365 by simply making bulk copies of data associated with individual accounts, and then attempt to transfer that data en masse to their own proprietary processing and/or review platform. Such an effort is very costly, time-consuming, and inefficient for many reasons. For one, this bulk transfer triggers data transfer throttling by Microsoft, causing significant time delays. But the main problem is that clients who are investing in MS 365 do not want to see all their data routinely exported out of its native environment every time there is an eDiscovery or compliance investigation.

So, enterprises with relevant data stored in MS 365 need to have a good process to perform unified and efficient search and collection of MS 365 and non-MS 365 sources. To achieve requisite efficiency and the minimization of data transfer, this process should be based upon a targeted search and collection in-place capability, and not simply involve mass export of data out of MS 365 for downstream processing and searching.

To answer this unmet critical need, X1 launched MS 365 data connectors to our X1 Enterprise Collect platform. X1 Enterprise Collect provides users the unique ability to search and collect MS 365 data in-place. X1’s optimized approach of iterative search and targeted collection enables organizations to apply proportionality principles across both cloud and on-premise data sources with clear and consistent results for effective eDiscovery.

And now, X1 has added cutting-edge Teams support to complete our existing support of OneDrive, MS Mail and SharePoint. The X1 Enterprise Collect Teams collection capabilities include the following unique benefits unmatched by other independent software providers:
• The ability to target individual custodians and specific messaging threads, displacing any need to mass download channels
• Unified search and collection of on-premise and cloud data sources, including Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, Mail, laptops and file-shares for an optimized approach
• Patented index, search and process the data in-place, removes any reliance on premium processing or supplemental services
• One-click upload into Relativity for review, for a streamlined end-to-end process
• A truly automated product solution, as opposed to a service-based offering

Winston & Strawn eDiscovery partner Bobby Malhotra notes: “With the vast number of users and unyielding amount of data in collaboration applications such as Teams, having the ability to target and triage data by specific custodians and threads allows organizations to handle discovery in an efficient and pragmatic manner. X1 provides the unique ability to seamlessly collect and search across numerous web, collaboration, and social, data sources.”

X1 will be hosting a webinar on Tuesday, May 23 on the topic of Best Practices to Collect from MS Teams in an Effective, Defensible and Proportional Manner.

The X1 Enterprise Collect Platform is available now from X1 and its global channel network in the cloud, on-premise, and with our services available on-demand. For a demonstration of the X1 Enterprise Collect Platform, contact us at sales@x1.com. For more details on this innovative solution, please visit www.x1.com/x1-enterprise-collect-platform.

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Filed under Authentication, Best Practices, Cloud Data, collection, compliance, Corporations, Data Audit, ECA, eDiscovery, eDiscovery & Compliance, Enterprise eDiscovery, ESI, law firm, MS Teams, OneDrive, proportionality, SharePoint

Three Major Observations and Developments from the Legalweek Conference

By Larry Gill and John Patzakis

Last week X1 attended and exhibited at Legalweek in New York, engaging with many customers, partners, and industry colleagues. It was great to connect with so many of our customers, and friends and hear their valuable feedback and insight regarding industry trends, pain-points, and their process and technology wish-lists to better address today’s eDiscovery and information governance challenges. Here is a report on three key takeaways from these interactions and the sessions we attended:

1. Corporate Counsel and Their Outside Law Firms are Both Seeking Cost Benefits Through Streamlined Processes

ALM hosted a State of the Industry session, that emphasized recent trends showing a disruption in the industry that once rewarded for inefficiency but is now being forced to change…and a digital transformation is happening. In fact, corporate legal is increasingly bringing their eDiscovery workflows in-house and seeking operational efficiencies to drive better collaboration, more predictable outcomes, and minimize costs in response to economic pressure. The presentation highlighted the top General Counsel pain-points and expectations toward streamlining their efforts including good advice, excellent technology, and efficient services.

We also heard this refrain in our various discussions with law firms and some service providers. The law firms are growing frustrated with the overcollection and other costly inefficiencies employed by service providers they hire for reactive eDiscovery engagements. These firms are working with their corporate clients to internalize a more systematic process to better manage costs and risk, with an emphasis on preservation and collection solutions to gain control earlier in the process. One service provider we met with has also recognized this trend and is sponsoring enterprise eDiscovery software deployments on a managed services basis.

2. Many Discussions About the Need for a Unified Collection Process

Every discussion we had confirmed cloud data sources such as MS 365 Mail, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams and now Slack, comprise a significant portion of responsive ESI in nearly every matter. However, file shares, laptops and on-premise email servers remain a significant source of ESI as well, and that in-house counsel, their firms, and service providers must employ an approach that addresses all relevant data sources. Adding to this challenge, all this proliferated data can add up to tens of terabytes in a single mater. We met with one service provider with a project requirement to search several large file shares behind a company’s firewall for PII, while also needing to address company data stored in OneDrive and MS 365 mail. They expressed frustration over point solutions that did not address all the data sources they needed, did not scale, and required mass data transfer to begin assessing the data.

These demands require a robust platform to search, identify and act on all this disparate data from a unified interface and workflow. Additionally, given the volume and complexity of this data, it is important to be able to index and search this data in place to allow for iterative and targeting collection, instead of the bulk download/transfer approach by legacy tools that drive up costs and increase risks.

3. eDiscovery Vendors are Moving Upstream to Focus on Preservation and Collection

In recognizing these trends, solution providers “moving to the left” with greater urgency was evident at Legalweek. Acquisitions like LIGL by Reveal and Relativity investing in successful partnerships with collection platforms Cellebrite and X1, show that offering a solution that addresses the most critical “front end of the legal eDiscovery process” is absolutely necessary moving forward. In fact, the buzz at Legalweek was that eDiscovery review platforms are or are looking to make bold moves to the left in order to better differentiate and better control eDiscovery workflows and start with collection.

Another factor in the renewed focus on collection relates to the proliferation of AI, a clear theme in many conference sessions and floor discussions. With AI becoming more ubiquitous yet more commoditized, organizations are looking to solidify their collection approach. As OpenAI and many other open-sourced platforms dominate the landscape, the advantages of proprietary AI technologies are diminished. But now more than ever, there is a need for a streamlined data collection “pipeline” into these AI engines. The more streamlined and efficient the collection process, the more powerful and iterative the AI capabilities.

To discuss some of these Legalweek takeaways in greater detail, X1 will be hosting a webinar on Thursday, April 20 featuring Navigating Data Discovery in a Microsoft 365 Centric World, register here.

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Filed under Best Practices, eDiscovery, Enterprise eDiscovery, ESI, Information Governance, law firm, OneDrive, Preservation & Collection, SharePoint

A Tectonic Shift is Occurring in eDiscovery

Guest Blog Post by Insight Optix
Original post date by IO: February 23, 2023

Editor’s note: Today we are featuring a guest blog post from legal technology company Insight Optix on the changes occurring in eDiscovery with reference to key survey reports by Doug Austin and Rob Robinson.

Are you tired of hearing about high eDiscovery costs? Legal professionals spend countless hours talking about it, yet year after year the only thing that changes is that costs continue to rise. Will 2023 be any different? We’re seeing a number of indicators pointing to yes.

The eDiscovery software and services market is expected to grow from $14.05 billion in 2022 to $22.31 billion in 2027, according to Rob Robinson’s An eDiscovery Market Size Mashup: 2022-2027 Worldwide Software and Services Overview (complexdiscovery.com). With current economic pressures, it is difficult to see how corporations can continue this trajectory without making significant changes in how they manage eDiscovery.

Corporate legal departments are starting to say enough is enough. While we have recently seen legal departments bringing more work inhouse and moving discovery responsibilities to mid-sized firms or boutique practices, we’re now seeing an even bigger shift — corporate legal departments are actively seeking innovation in the delivery of legal services that drastically reduces discovery spend.

Evidence of this change can be found in eDiscovery Today’s third annual State of the Industry Report Survey published in January. When asked what the top eDiscovery challenge is that not enough people are talking about, the second-highest answer from the 410 respondents was the move to the left of the EDRM and indexing in place, with nearly double the percentage than was received in 2021. As Doug Austin stated in his 5 Legal Tech Predictions for 2023 blog post, “I’m hearing more legal and eDiscovery professionals than ever talk about the importance of information governance, early data assessment (EDA) and targeted collection in discovery.”

Recent technology innovations that focus on identification and collection are shining a spotlight on these critical early stages of the EDRM, finally making it achievable to counteract the high costs of eDiscovery. Insight Optix’s early case strategy and discovery scoping solution, Evidence Optix® and the X1 Enterprise Collect iterative search and targeted collection platform are two examples of innovative solutions that can achieve significant cost reduction.

Corporations that embrace innovation, such as Evidence Optix and X1 Enterprise Collect, are positioning themselves to counteract the rising volume of data and the proliferation of data sources to accomplish what the 2015 amendments to the FRCP intended — right-sized discovery.

While many law firms continue to maintain the status quo, innovative firms who recognize the value of blending early-stage solutions into their case strategies to impact their clients’ bottom line are emerging. These firms are focused on assisting their clients with building better workflows to reduce costs, while also differentiating their services in a highly competitive market.

This past year, many eDiscovery service providers began talking about the early stages of the EDRM and strategically planning a move to the left. This is one of the most telling indicators of the tectonic shift that is changing the landscape of eDiscovery.

How is your company or firm addressing this shift? If you would like to leverage recent technology innovations and get out in front of this important trend, contact us at info@insightoptix.com.

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Filed under Best Practices, ECA, eDiscovery, eDiscovery & Compliance, Enterprise eDiscovery, ESI, Information Management