Category Archives: Best Practices

May 16, 2023 · 10:54 AM

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

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March 30, 2023 · 7:59 AM

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

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February 28, 2023 · 2:26 PM

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

January 31, 2023 · 12:11 PM

A.I. Bot ChatGPT Explains How Corporate Legal Can Streamline eDiscovery Processes

By John Patzakis

Over the weekend I was about to write a blog post on how corporate legal departments can streamline and improve their internal eDiscovery processes. I instead asked ChatGPT to write it. ChatGPT did a better job of it. So If anyone needs me this week, I will be at the beach.


Here is the full transcript:


My Prompt: Please write a memo explaining how corporate legal departments can streamline their eDiscovery processes to reduce costs and improve compliance.


Response from ChatGPT:

Subject: Streamlining eDiscovery Processes for Corporate Legal Departments

Dear All,

As technology continues to advance and the amount of electronic data generated by companies grows, the eDiscovery process can become increasingly complex and costly. However, there are steps that corporate legal departments can take to streamline their eDiscovery processes and reduce costs while also improving compliance.
1. Invest in eDiscovery Technology Solutions: Utilizing technology solutions, such as automated data collection and review tools, can help reduce the time and cost associated with manual review processes. These solutions can also improve accuracy and consistency in data collection and review, reducing the risk of non-compliance.
2. Establish Clear Protocols and Guidelines: Having clear protocols and guidelines in place for data collection and preservation will help ensure that relevant data is preserved and collected in a timely manner, reducing the risk of spoliation and ensuring compliance with legal obligations.
3. Employee Training: Regular training for employees on best practices for managing electronic data will help ensure that data is properly preserved and collected, reducing the risk of non-compliance.
4. Regular Process Reviews: It is important to regularly review and update processes to ensure they align with changes in regulations and technology. This will help ensure that eDiscovery processes remain efficient and effective, reducing costs and improving compliance.
5. Consider Alternative Service Providers: Utilizing alternative service providers, such as managed eDiscovery service providers, can help reduce costs while also improving compliance. Negotiating service level agreements that meet both cost and compliance goals will ensure that eDiscovery initiatives are managed in a cost-effective and compliant manner.
6. Utilize Project Management Techniques: Using project management techniques, such as setting clear goals, tracking progress, and monitoring budgets, will help keep eDiscovery initiatives on track and within budget, reducing costs and improving compliance.
In conclusion, streamlining eDiscovery processes can help reduce costs and improve compliance. By utilizing technology solutions, establishing clear protocols and guidelines, training employees, regularly reviewing processes, considering alternative service providers, and utilizing project management techniques, corporate legal departments can ensure that their eDiscovery processes are efficient and effective.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss these recommendations further, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Best regards,
[Your Name]

Couldn’t have said it better myself. And if you agree with ChatGPT’s recommendation to invest in automated collection technologies to reduce costs and reduce the risk of non-compliance, please see this information about our X1 Enterprise Collect platform.

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Filed under Best Practices, Cloud Data, Corporations, eDiscovery, Enterprise eDiscovery, ESI

January 10, 2023 · 11:43 AM

Move to the Left and Targeted Collection Featured Widely as a Key 2023 eDiscovery Trend

By John Patzakis

It is prediction season for trends in the eDiscovery space for 2023. While many good eDiscovery scribes have published their prognostications in recent days, the annual predictions and overall analysis from Doug Austin in eDiscovery Today are invariably insightful. As a top industry analyst, Austin is in constant contact with eDiscovery executives and professionals and thus has a good finger on the industry pulse.

One of his key predictions this year, which notably appears in several trending 2023 forecasts, centers around the upstream focus on information governance and targeted collection. “I’m hearing more legal and eDiscovery professionals than ever talk about the importance of information governance, early data assessment (EDA) and targeted collections in discovery,” reports Austin, who then poses a very good question about the ramifications of this trend: “What happens when eDiscovery professionals are no longer routinely collecting the entire data corpus of custodians to sort out downstream? The growth of data for eDiscovery hosting providers to host slows dramatically – which jeopardizes growth in hosting revenue that is based on gigabytes (GBs) online.”

There is a lot going on in terms of takeaways from this paragraph. The “collect everything and sort it out later” is still the dominant model for service providers and, as Austin points out, it can be difficult for them to pivot from this economic model. However, this highlights a key reason why many in house legal departments are now routinely deploying in-house collection and EDA solutions. There are significant cost savings and efficiencies to be gained by narrowing the data funnel upstream before the data is sent out for data hosting. And this approach is favored by the courts in applying the principles of proportionality now ensconced in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, with a wealth of case law establishing that ESI preservation efforts should be reasonable, proportionate, and targeted to only relevant information, as opposed to being overly broad and unduly burdensome.

While there is keen awareness of proportionality in the legal community, attaining the benefits requires the ability to operationalize workflows as far upstream in the eDiscovery process as possible. The case law and the Federal Rules provide that the duty to preserve only applies to potentially relevant information, but unless you have the right operational processes in place, you’re losing out on the ability to attain the benefits of proportionality. And with the proliferation of enterprise cloud data sources, it’s important that holistic and targeted collections encompass Microsoft 365 data as well as laptops and file shares.

To answer this unmet critical need, X1 has added 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. The search results are returned in minutes, not weeks, and thus can be highly granular and iterative, based upon multiple keywords, date ranges, file types, or other parameters. This approach typically reduces the eDiscovery collection and processing costs by at least one order of magnitude (90%).

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 Best Practices, Cloud Data, Corporations, eDiscovery, Enterprise eDiscovery, Information Governance, Preservation & Collection, proportionality