Selecting a Vendor

There are many factors that need to be considered when selecting a third-party vendor for the review portion of your electronic discovery project. Optimally, the vendor requirements are detailed during the initial planning phases of the project and the vendor of choice is involved in – or possibly even charged with the collection, forensic analysis and restoration portions of the project. The more involved your vendor of choice is in the overall development and execution of the project, the smarter and more prepared they will be regarding your needs and requirements.

Considerations when selecting a vendor include the financial condition and longevity of the firm to the breadth of their services, the methodologies behind their technical processing and the experience of their project managers. The first and foremost consideration when selecting a vendor is to assure that you have a clear understanding of the goals and objectives of the review: What exactly are you trying to accomplish for your client? Which vendor most adequately and efficiently meets those needs?

Section I of our report, Planning the Review, outlines the various planning decisions and objectives that need to be determined in order to foster an effective review process. Once those objectives are established, the selection of a vendor should focus on identifying the vendors that will help you succeed.

There are several high-level choices to be made when examining a review platform the for your document review. Should you go with a native format vs. a TIFF/PDF format or should you perform the review through an online system or on an in-house platform? Other factors to consider include the functionality available within the platform, IT issues and cost considerations as well as vendor reputation, reliability, scalability and security. We will examine each of these areas and provide you with some tools and guidelines to assist you in making an effective decision.

Selecting a Vendor Categories
Review Categories

Evolution of Document Review
Since the 1970's, technology has been used to manage the review of large paper based document collections.

Planning the Review
Early in the litigation the case team must make a determination about the scope of the review: what is to be reviewed, how it is to be reviewed, and what is the intended outcome.

Managing the Review Process
Every stage of electronic discovery carries unique elements that ultimately may impact the resolution of a matter.

Emerging Technologies
Modern-day electronic discovery is a time consuming and costly endeavor.

Metrics
It is possible to track valuable details related to electronic discovery processing.