McLennan Ross LLP was no longer able to upload and process large volume cases on a timely basis with their on-prem eDiscovery tool. The Edmonton, Canada-based firm wanted to be able to handle their data in house rather than possibly increase risk and fees by outsourcing to a third party.
McLennan Ross was satisfied however with how the legacy system handled smaller volume cases. So, the 120-attorney firm decided to move only its large volume cases to the cloud with IPRO and keep the legacy system for smaller cases. Because McLennan Ross previously used IPRO tools, the firm was able to quickly transition to the cloud solution on cases above 50,000 documents using IPRO services to lead them through data migration and amend templates from the previous version to better fit the cloud environment.
The transition has enabled McLennan Ross to not only process data for large cases faster, but also decrease reliance on IT staff to manage technology for eDiscovery, while leveraging advanced analytics and other features within the cloud solution.
Customized workflow with self service
McLennan Ross worked with IPRO to determine the best way to migrate data for big cases into the new cloud solution. The first migrated case took about a full week, as the firm had to manage their internal firewall and security parameters to accommodate the FTP site.
By using IPRO guidance and the solution’s self service feature, McLennan Ross was able to quickly amend the migration process and develop new templates on how to group and tag the data for processing, said Charlene Stewart, Commercial Litigation Paralegal.
“IPRO gave us a step-by-step process for migration, and I was impressed with how smoothly it went,” she said. “Working on that first case gave me ideas on how to set up additional cases, and with each case I find ways to do things better. The more experience I have with it, the more I love it.”
Improved client engagement, additional features
As some of McLennan Ross’ clients wanted a more powerful system for eDiscovery on large document cases, moving to the cloud enabled the firm to give these clients secure access to their data in the solution, keeping them engaged.
“The cloud solution solves the problem of being able to allow clients and experts to access the database without putting the firms network at risk” Stewart said. “It’s the same for outside counsel too.”
Migrating large cases to the cloud also has enabled McLennan Ross to use more sophisticated features within the solution, including threading, duping, and analytics. Attorneys also like the concept wheel feature in the cloud solution, which gives them a quick visual overview of their data so they can better understand their information and identify additional filters.
Cloud technology lessens IT burden
While IT staff at McLennan Ross were able to easily handle small cases of less than 10,000 documents on the firm’s internal network, the cloud migration eliminated the burden of having to throttle it for larger cases.
I may get to the point that I want to put everything in the IPRO cloud. It’s night and day to what we had before.
Charlene Stewart, Commercial Litigation Paralegal
The cloud environment puts the storage and maintenance of 1 terabyte of eDiscovery data onto IPRO, enabling the firm to take a load off their infrastructure, data backup and other IT resources.
“Data size on the firm’s network has increasingly become an issue, as files I work on have been getting larger and larger” Stewart said. “Now the more I work in IPRO, the more I want to.”