EDD 24/7/365

Wrapping up the trip to California, I had the opportunity to meet with Chris Kruse, head of CaseCentral, in San Francisco, and the Zantaz team in Pleasanton. It's always particularly beneficial to meet vendors on their home turf, and see their facilities.

Both conversations were extremely helpful and enlightening. In both cases, we talked about the "EDD 3.0" evolution (as I previously discussed here).  Without question, the biggest trend in EDD right now is the conversion from "reactive" to "proactive," with most of the vendors changing their focus to "litigation readiness." The idea being to establish document protocols and information systems so that the organization is always ready for e-discovery -- and doesn't have to re-event the wheel -- or reprocess data -- everytime a lawsuit is filed.

CaseCentral recently released new software that provides information rights management tools, designed to help firms can maintain control over their documents even after they are produced and distributed outside the firewall. "The new tools are integrated into CaseCentral's Discovery Lifecycle Management program, which aims to make EDD a repeatable process by implementing regular steps. With IRM, users can restrict inadvertent production; secure trade secrets or sensitive documents; block copies, printing, or screen captures; and disable all documents as soon as cases settle," we reported in the June issue of LTN.

Chris and I talked a lot about a related trend, which is "who owns" the EDD process, and how it is shifting to general counsel from law firms. One of the drivers of this shift is costs -- as GC increasingly get impatient with high costs processing EDD, and demand more commodity pricing.

Then to Zantaz, where I met with Tara Herberth, director of corporate communication, and Steve Kennedy, senior vice president of worldwide sales, where we also dove into these topics, in an equally fascinating lunch discussion, followed by a tour of the Zantaz facility.

Last February, Zantaz upgraded its Introspect product, which helps users with discovery review and production.

"Enhancements include a cross-reference panel, to help users compare documents; comparison viewer, a side-by-side comparison of documents; and bulk tagging, which lets users know when a similar group of documents can be tagged without examination," reported LTN. 

We spent part of the discussion talking about the upcoming 2007 Socha survey, and predictions about the future. Acquisitions, we noted, continue to be the name of the game, and that's a strategy that Zantaz expects as it grows. Zantaz' most recent acquisition was Singlecast, a New York-based company that offers e-mail monitoring. (Scroll down on link.)

I then got a tour of Zantaz' new Pleasanton facility, with Mike Mowen (director, digital safe data operations), Charles Neal (VP of secuity) and Steve Horvath (director of eDiscovery services). Data security, of course, is a huge issue -- including chain of custody -- and it was fascinating to see all the security layers that Zantaz has to protect the data. Interestingly, says Neal, law firms still lag behind on their awareness of security issues, and sometimes even complain about all the required steps. Neal, whose background is in financial services and government work, says that experience has helped him establish rigorous systems and educate the legal community.

Thanks again to Chris and the Zantaz gang for spending so much time with me. It was a great education.

Also a warm thank you to Jo Haraf, CIO of Morrison & Foerster, for a great visit, and as always, lots of food for thought on a wide range of topics.