Growing Trend to Assemble Cross-Functional eDiscovery Teams

CommVault has released the results of its eDiscovery Readiness Survey, which polled employees, including general counsels, associate general counsels and other legal titles, at 42 enterprises nationwide. The survey reinforces the growing trend among companies to assemble cross-functional eDiscovery teams to speed the deployment of standardized litigation response plans.

As more companies assemble these teams, CommVault has also launched a new eDiscovery and Compliance Resource Center in order to help meet customers’ evolving eDiscovery needs and to provide answers to questions about eDiscovery and Compliance. The center provides legal teams with guidelines and tips for gaining greater control over eDiscovery business processes and, in combination with CommVault Simpana software, provides a one-stop solution for eDiscovery. Simpana software delivers comprehensive features that automate the classification of data, determine data relevancy, improve the time to complete early case assessments, optimize the document review process and enable the automation of legal holds which help customers to address risk and reduce costs associated with eDiscovery and litigation response.

Cross Functional eDiscovery Teams Ensure Companies
Are Prepared For eDiscovery and Litigation

• The CommVault survey also underscores a continuing move to prepare for the likelihood of a legal dispute, as 60 percent of the survey respondents have assembled cross-functional eDiscovery teams comprising stakeholders from legal, IT and other critical corporate departments. The creation of dedicated teams today suggests a significant shift in corporate thinking as to how to address eDiscovery readiness. In a 2007 CommVault IT survey, only 14 percent of IT departments polled had engaged their corporate legal departments on preparing to deal with disputes involving eDiscovery as a result of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) amendments. When taken together, these two surveys can suggest that individuals from both IT and legal departments are coming together to facilitate eDiscovery readiness planning.
• CommVault’s latest survey reveals a high utilization rate of systematic litigation plans, frequently associated with legal electronic health records (EHR), enterprise content and records management, as well as eDiscovery. Of those polled, 60 percent have formalized plans in place, which should help in preparing these respondents to address the management of electronically stored information (ESI) sources and document procedures for executing the full range of litigation response, including eDiscovery. CommVault’s 2007 study showed that from an IT perspective, only six percent of respondents had implemented solutions to address the management of ESI.
• Among other survey highlights: more than half of the respondents cited that at least one quarter of their legal disputes require eDiscovery and 25 percent of the respondents reported spending more than $500,000 a year on eDiscovery, including related information review and outsourcing costs. One-third of those polled reported instances of settling disputes earlier than they might have otherwise, simply to make the problem ‘go away.’

Simpana Software
Can Reduce eDiscovery Costs, Duration and Risk

• Simpana software, with its integrated search module and intelligent data classification and content indexing capabilities, enables companies to slash eDiscovery costs and boost the efficiency, speed and accuracy of the entire eDiscovery workflow process by leveraging a single console to easily search, retrieve and preserve (hold) multiple data types and copies.
• In the event of legal action, CommVault provides end-to-end eDiscovery as outlined in the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) for workflow best practices.
• Legal teams and compliance groups can expedite eDiscovery workflow by leveraging CommVault software’s single archive of discoverable information to search and retrieve all relevant ESI, including online and offline data, archive and backup copies, email and attachments, SharePoint documents and objects, file system data and data stored on disk and tapes.
• CommVault previously was rated ‘promising’ in Gartner’s MarketScope for E-Discovery Software Product Vendors, published December 17, 20081. According to the report, "[s]pending on electronic discovery (e-discovery) software and services offerings is forecast to grow by between 25 and 35 percent annually through 2012.”
• CommVault continues to closely follow amendments to the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), as well as the growing European focus on electronic disclosure and evolving case law, such as the new and enhanced guidelines applicable to all search warrants for ESI recently released by an en banc panel of Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Vivian Tero, Program Manager, GRC Infrastructure, IDC, said: “The universe of discoverable data is so vast and complicated that many organizations traditionally chose to outsource the entire eDiscovery process or reach an early settlement to avoid it altogether. Fortunately, in-house legal and IT teams are now coming together to build litigation plans that give them unprecedented control and flexibility to find key evidence faster and at a significantly lower cost than possible previously.”

Simon Taylor, Senior Director of Information Access Management, CommVault, said: “The results of CommVault’s latest readiness survey reinforce what we’ve learned from our own customer experiences. Companies increasingly want to extract maximum business value from all types of ESI while driving efficiencies through their eDiscovery processes that ultimately lower costs and risks. We also firmly believe that there has been a switch in emphasis in processing eDiscovery requests from IT managers reactively responding to an eDiscovery request to legal counsel proactively addressing the risk and establishing appropriate strategies across the entire organization. To support this focus, our new eDiscovery and Compliance Resource Center and Simpana software can help customers of all sizes proactively address these top concerns while allowing customers to maximize eDiscovery proficiency and productivity.”

About the CommVault eDiscovery Readiness Survey
Conducted in August 2009, the CommVault eDiscovery Readiness Survey polled 42 employees, including general counsel, associate general counsel and related legal titles, from enterprise companies nationwide in a six-question online survey to gauge their levels of eDiscovery readiness and use of eDiscovery solutions. A complete copy of the survey results is available upon request.