There’s no “magic bullet” that will fractionalize eDiscovery costs, but that’s not to downplay the importance of chipping away at them. According to Norton Rose Fulbright’s 2016 Litigation Trends Annual Survey, on average litigation spend can account for at least 0.1 percent of revenue for companies worldwide. And because discovery can eat up more than 50 percent of the cost of litigation, it’s understandable that respondents were wary of to control eDiscovery costs:
“A significant proportion of respondents talked about the costs and resource implications of eDiscovery and how it was growing out of proportion to the benefits gained.”
—Norton Rose Fulbright‘s 2016 Litigation Trends Annual Survey
But rather than considering this a negative, it’s important to see the big opportunity: you can become a hero to your organization by leaning out expenditures on eDiscovery. Empowering you to seize that opportunity is what drives innovation here at IPRO. Let’s take a look at three ways you can save eDiscovery dollars by spending wisely and reducing the amount of time, people and errors involved in the process.
Understand the Scope of Your Data
In the book E-Discovery: An Introduction to Digital Evidence, you’ll find an important (if not common-sense) assertion: “E-discovery costs can inflate rapidly when investigators haven’t planned the discovery’s scope carefully…”
Be fully aware of what it’s going to take to get through your data, and then make sure you have the right resources in place to handle the job. It’s incredibly stressful — not to mention expensive — when you’re left at a standstill because your technology or personnel aren’t enough to get it done.
You can save a substantial amount of money simply by shopping around, rather than scrambling to add resources at the last minute.
Automate Key Steps of Your Workflow
With the advent of new eDiscovery technology, it’s becoming possible to get more done with fewer touches. For example, you no longer need staff dedicated to pushing batches through your workflow. Streaming technology can automatically move data, for example, between processing and review applications — creating a dynamic feed of documents without long waits for each batch.
Fewer human touches not only saves you time, it can drastically cut down those errors which are, frankly, unavoidable with people handling data. To further simplify the process, some of the newest eDiscovery technology includes an easy-to use interface that lets anyone with user permissions upload data to your workflow. You can also find features that help you establish chain of custody, and create numerous types of reports.
Leverage Cloud-based Resources
As we’ve discussed before, leveraging cloud-based resources for eDiscovery can provide a huge competitive advantage. For starters, you avoid the significant expenses involved with IT personnel and infrastructure. Many of today’s most customer-centric technology providers stay on the leading edge with offerings such as software (SaaS) and infrastructure (IaaS) as services.
Savings aren’t the only advantages of moving to the cloud. Because you can add resources as needed, without long-term commitments, you can take on larger (and more lucrative) matters without maintaining the resources needed to handle them. The cloud also removes many technological headaches, leaving you free to focus on litigation.
