Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- Market Categories and Deployment Types
- Decision Criteria Comparison
- GigaOm Radar
- Solution Insights
- Analyst’s Outlook
- Methodology
- About Sue Clarke
- About GigaOm
- Copyright
1. Executive Summary
Organizations can face new litigation or discovery requests under regulations like GDPR at any time. Discovery must be undertaken in a timely fashion, and the ability to undertake an early case assessment (ECA) will allow counsel and courts to determine whether a matter is worth pursuing or if a settlement should be sought.
Without an e-discovery solution, it’s time consuming and expensive to find the right digital data assets among the millions of items that enterprises have stored. Often, the volume of the final dataset is not known at the start of the project, and so-called “smoking guns,” or relevant items of information that no one knew existed, may be discovered during litigation, landing the organization in trouble and resulting in larger fines or settlements.
For that reason, it’s in the best interest of organizations to have an e-discovery solution already in place when a request is received. This proactive measure allows organizations the time to properly compare solutions well before the need for one becomes critical, ensuring they invest in a solution that best meets their requirements.
E-discovery solutions accelerate the search for and retrieval of assets. The increasing use of automation for tasks such as review, redaction, and tagging reduces the manual effort required and helps deliver depositions to opposing counsel, a court, or regulator in a shorter time frame. By helping organizations to address access requests and prepare for litigation more quickly, e-discovery solutions can also reduce the cost of the e-discovery process.
E-discovery solutions follow the electronic discovery reference model (EDRM), a framework that defines all of the stages of e-discovery, from identifying needed data to presenting it to a court. Some solutions provide end-to-end capabilities, while others stick to either the initial stages (identification, preservation, collection, and processing) or the later stages of the model (review, analysis, production, and presentation).
There are two distinct audiences that e-discovery software must support: organizations that undertake the initial searches for data that may be relevant to a case or matter, and legal teams—either legal departments within large enterprises or law firms—responsible for reviewing and putting together the final dataset of content.
This is our third year evaluating the e-discovery space in the context of our Key Criteria and Radar reports. This report builds on our previous analysis and considers how the market has evolved over the last year.
This GigaOm Radar report examines 19 of the top e-discovery solutions and compares offerings against the capabilities (table stakes, key features, and emerging features) and nonfunctional requirements (business criteria) outlined in the companion Key Criteria report. Together, these reports provide an overview of the market, identify leading e-discovery offerings, and help decision-makers evaluate these solutions so they can make a more informed investment decision.
GIGAOM KEY CRITERIA AND RADAR REPORTS
The GigaOm Key Criteria report provides a detailed decision framework for IT and executive leadership assessing enterprise technologies. Each report defines relevant functional and nonfunctional aspects of solutions in a sector. The Key Criteria report informs the GigaOm Radar report, which provides a forward-looking assessment of vendor solutions in the sector.