3 Brilliant Cost-Cutting eDiscovery Tech Advances Your Small Law Firm Needs

15 October 2018 by Anith Mathai eDiscovery ESI small-law-firm affordable

eDiscovery is cost–effective if your software (1) Has the latest search engine, (2) Is in the Cloud, (3) Does more than just one thing.

eDiscovery is much more affordable than you think. If you have the right technology.

A recent Thomson Reuters survey showed that cutting costs is one of the top 5 priorities for small and solo firms in the U.S. However, these same firms are worried about new technology being too complicated and expensive. That may have been so a decade ago (when eDiscovery software was custom-made and pricey). But not anymore.

Here are three examples of how new technology helps cut eDiscovery costs.

These advancements make eDiscovery faster, cheaper, and simpler.

Tech advance #1: Powerful search engines work quickly to find the evidence you need to build a compelling case.

Need to review hundreds (and even thousands) of documents? In the past, eDiscovery search engines were quite limited in what and where they could search. Thankfully, the new generation of search engines work like Google. And they cut costs by saving you precious billable hours. They can:

Search across file types. You used to have to open Microsoft Word to search Word documents, Adobe for PDFs, Outlook for emails, etc. Now you can search them all at the same time, from within a single eDiscovery application!
Search metadata. I.e., information about a file – like when it was created, who created it, etc. Need to find emails that were sent to your client John Anderson – and know when John read them? An eDiscovery search engine will use email metadata to find them. Learn more about metadata.
Search attached ZIP files. Existing search engines in applications like Outlook can search email attachments. But they can’t search the contents of attached ZIP files. eDiscovery search engines can, though.
Search in a highly specific way. With a basic search, you enter a keyword and your software pulls up all files with that keyword. So, if you searched for ‘John Anderson,’ you’d get a broad set of results. For example, all of John’s emails and the deposition transcripts in which his name appeared. With an advanced search, you combine multiple keywords to give your eDiscovery software a much more specific command. You can, in effect, tell it to, “Find all emails John Anderson sent Sally Nedry, which mention the Pfizer meeting. And which were sent before 2015.” The best eDiscovery applications make these advanced searches easy and intuitive. Learn more about advanced searches.

Tech advance #2: Cloud eDiscovery lets you store unlimited data, for cheap.

In the past, you’d store your eDiscovery data on private servers. So you’d single-handedly cover the costs for 24x7 electricity, hacking-protection, and tech support. All this changed with the birth of the Cloud. Here, software giants like Amazon and Google lease storage and computing power to businesses all over the world. And their thousands of interconnected servers form a public ‘Cloud.’ Because there are so many people in the Cloud, everyone pays less than if they were using private servers. It’s cloud-computing that makes services like Dropbox and Google Drive possible.
With Cloud eDiscovery:

Your data is in one place. Which makes it easier to access.
Your data is safe. High-performance Cloud servers come with bank-grade security. Which means your data is as secure with them as your online banking information is with your bank. The data is encrypted both when it’s being transmitted and when it’s stored on their servers.
You don’t have to handle technical issues. Your Cloud provider has IT teams to keep their servers running. And with companies like Amazon and Google, you know you’re getting the best tech support possible.
You can access your data from anywhere. You just need a computer and an internet connection.
Get as much storage space as you need. The Cloud can expand indefinitely, but private servers can’t.

Learn more about the Cloud.

Tech advance #3: eDiscovery applications that do more than just one thing. Which means less coordinating.

eDiscovery involves a series of interrelated steps. And if you need different software for each step, you waste time piecing them all together and moving data from one application to another. Plus you’d have to handle multiple licensing fees. And contact multiple tech teams for each application that needs servicing. What if, instead, you could use one application for everything? Well, that’s where eDiscovery is headed. For examples, newer applications not only make uploading and processing your information easy. But they can set up a ‘managed review’ for you. Here, a team of outside attorneys help you review your eDiscovery documents. The team is highly qualified, experienced, and affordable. And they free up your workforce to spend time on the non-technical parts of your case. (You could even take on more cases if you wanted.) Plus, you’re guaranteed a high standard work, since managed reviews are handled by specialists in the art of review. Learn more about managed reviews.

Need affordable eDiscovery software with the latest tech advances? Try GoldFynch.

It’s a next-generation eDiscovery application that prioritizes things that matter to small law firms.

Pay just $27 per month for a basic 3 GB case. That’s much less—every month—than the GoldFynch’s pricing is transparent and readily available on the website.
It’s a flat, prorated rate. So it’s simple to budget for it. With legacy software, the billing is complicated and opaque, and your bill changes depending on how much data you use.
Got a small case that might become a large one later? GoldFynch uses the Cloud to scale from small to large. So, choose from a range of case sizes (3 GB to 150 GB, and more) and don’t waste money on space you don’t need. Plus, you don’t need to pay to ‘unlock’ premium features. You’ll have the full power of GoldFynch even with a starter case.
It takes just minutes to get going. It runs in the Cloud, so you use it through your web browser (Google Chrome recommended.) No installation. No sales calls or emails. Plus, you get a free, fully-functional trial case (0.5 GB of data and processing cap of 1 GB), without adding a credit card.
It works well with other applications. For example, it can pull files from Cloud-based applications like Dropbox, One Drive, Google Drive, Amazon Web Servies, and any IMAP-supported email.
You get the best technical support. It’s designed, developed and run by the same team. So, the technical support isn’t outsourced. Which means prompt and reliable service.

Want to find out more?

For more about eDiscovery for small law firms, check out these articles.

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