All-Inclusive ediscovery Pricing White Paper Discovery was once a relatively straightforward process. Interrogatories, document exchanges and depositions took place based on information found in accordion files or banker boxes. There were exceptions, of course, and some cases required sifting through a warehouse of documents, but the process was still fairly simple. Once the age of ubiquitous corporate computing and electronically stored information was accepted, the age of electronic discovery (ediscovery) emerged and legal discovery became anything but straightforward. Electronically stored information became so easy to create that the sheer number of electronic documents began to far outweigh the number of physical documents ever created. As a result, ediscovery has typically been complicated, voluminous and, at times, downright difficult. ediscovery requires a fair amount of technology to combat the complications that electronic data has introduced. Time-saving techniques, such as optical character recognition, culling, similarity analysis, email threading and technology assisted review (TAR), have greatly reduced the burdens inherent with ediscovery. These modern tools have helped us to navigate millions of virtual documents, accessed by inside counsel and outside counsel alike. Such techniques have started to make the process manageable again. There are so many choices of ediscovery tools and techniques, however, that it is often difficult to navigate the waters of modern ediscovery software. www.legaldiscoveryllc.com Email us at info@legaldiscoveryllc.com
Unified ediscovery Technology Early case assessment tools, document review platforms and TAR have certainly improved the process of managing ediscovery data. One weakness, though, has been that each of these technologies was traditionally deployed with an individual software package. Data needed to be shifted from one software package to the next. It is best to work with ediscovery software, which offers all of these various technologies in a single, contiguous platform. By using just one platform you benefit from economies of scale, consistency of user interface and the ability to track security and data access throughout the process. CasePoint is a unified ediscovery platform that provides a single, contiguous technology that enables a cohesive workflow. Identification Collection Analysis Processing Review Production Unified ediscovery platforms give us a single environment in which to work throughout the ediscovery lifecycle. They also provide new ways to approach pricing an ediscovery matter. Historically, ediscovery technology was billed on an à la carte basis. Every individual piece of the process was invoiced separately. There was one charge for data processing, one charge for OCR, another charge for creating TIFF images, etc. This almost made sense in a technology landscape in which multiple tools were used for each step along the way. In a unified ediscovery world, however, new approaches toward billing for ediscovery technology become possible; namely, All-Inclusive Pricing. Page 1
All-Inclusive Pricing All-inclusive pricing bundles what once were separate line items into a single billing statement. While different service providers may handle the concept of all-inclusive pricing in somewhat different ways, this is what you can expect to be included by a reputable provider: processing, optical character recognition (OCR), hosting, analytics, user fees, production technology costs, and near duplicate detection and email threading. Progressive providers will also include TAR and other cutting edge technologies. You should also expect a certain level of technical services or support to be included in the bundled pricing. Services such as case set up and help desk support are also commonly included. Benefits Clients benefit from simplicity, lower prices and predictability of price over the lifetime of a matter by bundling various features into a single price point. With the benefit of simplicity in all-inclusive pricing, invoices evolve from being multi-page tomes with hundreds of unit prices to invoices that may very well be only a single page with no more than a few line items. This allows for easier invoice auditing and comprehension. Lower prices are also a natural effect of price bundling, as the customer is leveraging economies of scale and is able to use all of the included services as leverage for price reduction. Finally, price predictability becomes possible, as there are no hidden surprises and unit prices do not fluctuate depending on how many different types of files are present or how many pages are being produced. The calculation needed to predict pricing is simple and straightforward you simply need to multiply data size by the all-inclusive price. By gaining simplicity, lower prices and predictability, clients greatly benefit from this pricing model. $ Expert Team Litigation Support ediscovery Workflow Quick Data Analysis Predictable Pricing CasePoint - Delivering on a Promise @Legal CasePoint delivers on the promise of the benefits of a unified ediscovery platform. CasePoint brings the speed, accuracy, scalability, data security and integrity, and ease-of-use of a robust unified ediscovery platform. Page 2
How @Legal Discovery Delivers on its Promise of All-Inclusive Pricing @Legal Discovery understands the frustrations that corporations and law firms have with line-item pricing, and has offered predictable, all-inclusive pricing from the beginning. @Legal provides all of the services that our clients need and sends invoices that can be understood, while offering outstanding support, technology and value. @Legal defines all-inclusive pricing to encompass all of the following: Early Case Assessment Data Filtering Processing Optical Character Recognition Document Review Platform Technology Assisted Review Near Duplication Detection Email Threading Data Hosting User Licenses TIFF Conversion Productions Exhibit Creation @Legal has worked to make its all-inclusive pricing easy to understand. We offer several models of all-inclusive, predictable pricing and work with our clients to determine the most cost-effective solution for their matters. Our simplified pricing covers most major components of the electronic discovery reference model (EDRM) and condenses fees to only two billing items: 1. Pre-processing (de-nisting, de-duplication, date filtering) and Search Term Filtering/ECA 2. Processing/Hosted Review/Production Our two-step process, which uses our unified ediscovery platform, CasePoint, is designed to create efficiencies for every matter. First, CasePoint helps clients identify a smaller, core data set the one they will most need to work with. CasePoint then processes the data, hosts it for review and produces it in the format required. @Legal charges on a per-gb, per-month basis, based on the natural size of the data set, which provides cost certainty. @Legal's service and CasePoint's many features are included in our all-inclusive pricing. Page 3
CONCLUSION Corporations and law firms need to better manage their ediscovery budgets, but à la carte and lineitem pricing makes that difficult. The all-inclusive pricing model is optimal for budget planning, case strategy and data reduction. @Legal provides a true, all-inclusive price. Our pricing model includes ECA, processing, review, email threading, near de-duplication, TAR, OCR, productions and more. In addition, CasePoint's unified platform provides speed, ease of implementation, ease of use, accuracy, scalability and dependability. If you would like to see for yourself how @Legal CasePoint can make a significant impact on your ediscovery matter, please contact us today for a demonstration. www.legaldiscoveryllc.com Email us at info@legaldiscoveryllc.com