There was a nice article in Mass High Tech today about how eDiscovery requires law firms to put technology in place to support their clients.  The best quote in the article was that "It’s a full time job to handle all data relative to e-discovery now."  I like attorneys are realizing just how important it is to manage information well.  In fact, Ropes and Gray has a dedicated eDiscovery attorney - Shannon Capone Kirk.  

Five years ago, many of the law firm types that I spoke with were threatened by eDiscovery technology that could allow clients to take much of the eDiscovery process in house.  Fact is, this shift meant less data for firms to review - and less revenue.  Thankfully, I hear that argument less and less now.  The good law firms recognize the need to be customer-centric.  

Many organizations ask me what the role of their law firm should be within the eDiscovery realm.  I say that a law firm should be a strategic advisor. Most have experience with eDiscovery and many litigation support managers that can advise on the right tools and solution sets.  Law firms have relationships with service providers.  Law firms have review and case management technologies that organizations need to get their data into. So, work closely with your law firm when selecting a solution, but don't ask your law firm to source it for you.

I'm doing some further research around the roles that law firms play with corporate clients when it comes to eDiscovery.  Email me with your thoughts - I'm always interested to learn more and hear different views.

Thanks!

The landscape of solutions providers in eDiscovery is broad and confusing.  I'm working to put together an RFP library or database of sorts - essentially providing a list of questions that any user should ask a solutions provider for all points throughout the eDiscovery process. 

If Microsoft, as rumored, were to buy Autonomy, there would be a seismic ripple felt through eDiscovery-related markets.  First, Microsoft would own two of the leading search products in the market (Autonomy and FAST).  Second, Microsoft would have applications to provide value on top of a SharePoint infrastructure:

 - iManage document management – which has a huge law firm and corporate legal installed base
- Meridio records management – which just so happened to be developed to provide RM functionality for SharePoint environment
- Cardiff BPM – which would give Microsoft advanced process management capabilities (all the better to build out more eDiscovery workflow, for say, legal holds?? )
- ZANTAZ archiving – which will enhance the archiving that will be native to Exchange 2010; the on-premise EAS will give Microsoft its own offering for the first time and the hosted Digital Safe will add to the Frontbridge offering Microsoft already has

And – scarily enough – that is just a smattering of the value that Autonomy would bring to Microsoft.  Not hard to see why the rumor mill has Microsoft paying a 75% premium for the Cambridge, UK-based company.

To any eDiscovery vendors out there I say, “be afraid...be very afraid.”  If Microsoft moves into the market, the following players have a lot to lose:


- Email archiving vendors – if Microsoft offers archiving natively, it almost certainly spells the beginning of the end for pure-play arching vendors; what value will they offer beyond what Microsoft will certainly offer for much less $$$? 
- eDiscovery collection vendors – Microsoft will be able to offer an infrastructure for proactive eDiscovery management; customers won’t need specialized tools to collect information in the wild (or at least won’t need them as much)…and Autonomy can offer some of the functionality necessary for managing the wild already.
- Early Case Assessment and legal hold vendors – Microsoft can turn Autonomy’s Introspect and Aungate offerings into enterprise-grade ECA and legal hold application.
- eDiscovery service providers – if customers can deploy the combined Microsoft / Autonomy product set successfully (a big if, I know), there will be less data to be processed by these service bureaus…and Microsoft will look to offer its own hosted review in the cloud. 

Interestingly, this rumor is getting almost zero play in the US, but has been discussed overseas.  I do think there would be potential anti-competitive implications, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome.

If this happens, watch out world!