NUIX INFORMATION PAPER ediscovery WORKFLOW AUTOMATION IN SIX EASY STEPS SUMMARY Many organizations rely on a small number of expert staff who have the process knowledge and technical expertise to deliver ediscovery outcomes consistently. However, this approach lays open considerable business risks and is not easily scalable or transferrable. Constructing, documenting and automating workflows distills the expertise of an organization s ediscovery professionals into efficient processes that many people can follow, with consistent and defensible results. This paper provides a starting point for organizations seeking to take the first steps toward ediscovery process automation.
THE CHALLENGE Most organizations have a number of information requests to which they must respond regularly and in the same way. These may be claims in a particular court jurisdiction, compliance requests from government bodies or clients that request a consistent style of output for example, to import into one of their business applications. Achieving these outcomes consistently requires you to follow a series of steps the same way each time. In most organizations, only one or two people are responsible for these outcomes. If you are one of these people, typically you can t delegate these tasks because you re the only one who fully understands the required outputs and the steps needed to get there. Ideally, delegating should be a simple process of describing the steps and explaining the required outcomes, then checking that the produced output meets your expectations. However, without a clearly documented process, this becomes like a whispered rumor or the children s game broken telephone. The process devolves rapidly, with some steps changed, some missing entirely, until the output is completely different to how it should be. In organizations that conduct ediscovery either internally or on clients behalf this situation causes large business risks and hidden costs. For example: Undocumented processes are open to interpretation and produce inconsistent outputs. If you cannot explain to a client or judge how you reached an outcome, you may face costly rework or court sanctions. If staff members are not following a process consistently, they are most likely not completing work in the most efficient way. If the one person who understands the process leaves suddenly, the business may be disrupted or even be unable to continue in the short term. There is much at stake including loss of reputation and credibility with customers, the market and the judiciary. If you cannot explain to a client or judge how you reached an outcome, you may face costly rework or court sanctions PAGE 2
THE SOLUTION ediscovery isn t a single process, but the combination of many steps and procedures, many of which are repeated for similar projects or outcomes. This is why documenting and refining your ediscovery workflow can dramatically improve the consistency and defensibility of the end product. Pre-defined workflows may not cover all the scenarios your organization needs to handle. However, typically more than three-quarters of processes will fit into those workflows and the benefits of creating workflows for the majority of cases outweigh the inefficiency caused by the remaining 25% that don t fit. If your organization relies on an individual or small number of experts, a formalized workflow is a reliable way to delegate these responsibilities. You can give colleagues a series of steps they can follow to produce the required output consistently and efficiently. Despite the potential benefits, you may find the idea of defining workflows daunting or unnecessarily time consuming. Documenting, testing and refining a workflow requires considerable effort. However, the return on investment in consistency of outcomes and risk mitigation is enormous. Documenting and refining your ediscovery workflow can dramatically improve the consistency and defensibility of the end product PAGE 3
DOCUMENT THE PROCESS 1 DOCUMENTING THE PROCESS CREATE AN AUDIT TRAIL 2 CREATING AN AUDIT TRAIL HANDLE EXCEPTIONS B 3 WORKING OUT HOW TO HANDLE EXCEPTIONS A B D C 1. 2. 3. DOCUMENT THE PROCESS The first step is to write down the stages involved in the process and the key stakeholders who are involved. This is usually easier with at least two people: one to walk through and articulate the steps they would usually take, and one to document those steps. This allows the first person to maintain a continuous flow without having to pause to write things down. Capturing all the nuances of the process may require several passes. It is almost always helpful to use a whiteboard, flowchart application or other medium to visualize the process in a diagram. Once you are satisfied with the process, convert it into a document you can share with others and that you can change organically as you refine the workflow. Flowcharts are a valuable tool to communicate the steps and decisions involved. When creating this document, think about how you will communicate the process to the people who are going to do the work for you. Also consider how you would explain it to a client or judge if you later had to defend the process. CREATE AN AUDIT TRAIL When you re performing a familiar process, it may be enough just to keep limited notes or a small checklist you know that you ve done the job right. However, when other people are performing the same task, you may not be able to rely on them to follow the process exactly as you would. Further, other people may not be able to recall in detail what steps they took, particularly a long time after the task was completed. This is why it s essential to create a robust and detailed audit trail for your workflow. At each stage of the process, think about how you could tell if that step had been followed. For example, you might produce a report from each stage of the process as it is completed. Once you have an audit trail, you can trace through someone s processes long after the fact. If there is an issue with the output, you can find out exactly which stage of the process caused the problem. WORK OUT HOW YOU WILL HANDLE EXCEPTIONS A common objection to workflows is that projects almost never fit a prescribed pattern. But if you handle exceptions the right way, you can retain the benefits of standardized workflows even for cases that don t fit the mold. In designing your workflow, think about how a person performing the task should handle exceptions preferably without having to ask you each time. If the exception requires additional costs or sign-off from someone outside your team, what is the best way to get your client s approval? What reports or other information could you provide to help your client make a decision so you can continue the process? It may also be helpful to design multiple versions of a workflow that you can apply for different types of data, jurisdictions or required outcomes. If so, it is very important to name these different versions clearly to ensure people use the process that matches the requirements. And always make sure outputs such as reports clearly indicate which workflow you used; this makes it easier to identify errors after the fact. PAGE 4
ROAD-TEST THE WORKFLOW 4 ROAD TESTING THE WORKFLOW AUTOMATE WHERE IT ADDS VALUE 5 AUTOMATING WHERE IT ADDS VALUE OPTIMIZE AND IMPROVE 6 OPTIMISING AND IMPROVING THE WORKFLOW OVER TIME 4. 5. 6. ROAD-TEST THE WORKFLOW Once you have completed the workflow, get someone to step through the process without your help. While you may provide guidance on how to use the technology required, do not assist with the workflow itself. If you have designed the workflow well, the tester should be able to deliver the outcome you expect. In reality, the first road test is more likely to be a way of understanding where you have made assumptions about the process that other people may not. It will also highlight any questions people may have while running through the process, which you may need to address by providing additional information in your workflow document. Finally, if the outcome isn t what you expected it to be, it is an opportunity to test your skills at troubleshooting where the user went wrong with the workflow. Repeat this process, ideally with a different person, until you are satisfied it is working smoothly. AUTOMATE WHERE IT ADDS VALUE Now that the workflow is working, consider automating some or all of the process. Ask yourself: Does this allow me to complete the process, or part of it, with the same outcomes and more efficiently than doing it manually? Make sure the automation tool can exactly match the steps and outcomes of the manual process. Automation will not deliver productivity benefits if you need to manually correct the automated part of the process, or add extra steps to your process to get the automation tool to work the way you want it to. Adding steps extends the process and increases the risk of something going wrong. Also make sure your automation tool continues to provide a complete audit trail of the steps it has taken. A black box automation tool is just as hard to defend in court as an undocumented process. OPTIMIZE AND IMPROVE To maintain the full productivity benefits of workflows, make sure they stay relevant as circumstances and technologies change. A workflow is not a static document; it must be a continual work in progress. By regularly reviewing your workflows, you may discover new efficiencies to include or steps you no longer need. Keep up to date with the features of your ediscovery and automation tools. It is often the case that steps you had to take when you designed the workflow are now incorporated into the tool itself. Or the tool may have new features that deliver better outcomes or improve your service offering. If you have taken the time and effort to create the workflow, make sure you set aside the time to optimize and improve it at regular intervals. Can you afford not to? PAGE 5
TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR ediscovery PROCESS WITH NUIX DIRECTOR Nuix Director is a web application that harnesses the power of the Nuix Engine into a consistent, repeatable and highly automated process. It encapsulates our experience working with hundreds of law firms, litigation support vendors, regulators, government agencies and enterprises across tens of thousands of cases. Nuix Director includes: An easy-to-use web interface for ediscovery professionals and customers to interact with the data without having to install client software. Process automation to enforce workflows and settings, ensuring each data source and item is treated consistently and minimizing the risk of human error. Workflow templates to adjust processing tasks and settings to suit different cases and customer requirements. Comprehensive, customer-ready reports that summarize each aspect of your ediscovery workflow for clients, managers and courts. An easy-to-read dashboard that visualizes the progress of your ediscovery projects at a glance and drills down to reveal the intricate details. With Nuix Director and the Nuix Engine, you re not restricted by the limitations of legacy tools or confined to conventional ways of doing things. You can: Complete ediscovery tasks, no matter how large or complex the data sources, faster than you thought possible. Maintain a strategic advantage throughout litigation walk into any courtroom or pre-discovery conference with a comprehensive picture of the evidence and the strongest possible bargaining position. Mitigate risks by ensuring a consistent, repeatable and defensible ediscovery process across each item and data source. Reduce costs across the ediscovery lifecycle with fast processing, streamlined processes and less reliance on highly skilled professionals. Leverage the knowledge of your ediscovery experts to create templates and workflows that everyone can use to complete repetitive tasks. PAGE 6
CASE STUDY HOBS LEGAL DOCS POSITIONS FOR GROWTH WITH NUIX DIRECTOR Hobs Legal Docs offers dedicated services to the legal profession, providing a full range of reprographics and technology services to law firms and corporations in the United Kingdom and globally. The firm can provide a true end-to-end service for clients, which includes scanning and reprographics, forensic collection and analysis, data processing and hosted review, all under a single contract. The increasing size and frequency of electronic discovery projects led Hobs Legal Docs to reevaluate its approach. We are continuously looking for ways to optimize our processes to maximize quality and deliver costeffective, timely results, said Rob Crowley, General Manager and Director of Hobs Legal Docs. It was important to ensure that we were using the fastest and most accurate tools and that our workflows were repeatable, defensible and consistent regardless of the data volume or project deadline. Simplifying our end-users workload while still imparting the skill of the team s combined experience was the key goal. Crowley and the firm s Director of Technical Services Jonathan Chan had used Nuix technology in previous job roles on corporate and government disclosures and investigations. We knew the power and forensic precision of the Nuix Workbench application was unmatched, but the introduction of Nuix Director in 2013 at last gave us a way to lock down our technical expertise, built up over many years working on some of the most complex electronic data matters in the world, said Chan. Nuix Director s workflow templates delivered easy-to-use, portable definitions of all data extraction settings, culling strategies and production scoping parameters. They enabled us to reduce the project-by-project interaction for data processing to a single-click execution just create a project, select the relevant client template, point to the source data and hit Go! The next time you check the system, you have a review-ready legal export ready to be uploaded, complete with reports and tracking sheet. This allows us to spend more time quality checking, and consulting with our clients, whilst also reducing the overall cost of preparing data for review. Features slated for future releases of Nuix Director, such as full integration with the Relativity review platform, will further streamline Hobs Legal Docs process of preparing data sets for review. As Director continues to develop, we are immensely impressed with the direction of the product and see it as the future for simple ediscovery projects, explained Crowley. It streamlines training of our team, allowing us to expand our operation to increase productivity and free up our best technicians to devote more time to complex consultancy tasks. Hobs is in a great position now with Nuix to continue to grow and help drive gold-standard work across the industry. PAGE 7
ABOUT THE AUTHOR ANGELA BUNTING Director of User Experience, Nuix Angela Bunting is one of Australia s electronic discovery pioneers who has worked in the litigation support industry for more than 15 years, including management and technical roles at law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques and as technical lead at Law in Order, Australia s leading litigation support bureau. As Director of User Experience at Nuix, she is responsible for the company s ediscovery solution development, technical support, documentation and quality assurance. TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT NUIX S ediscovery VISIT nuix.com/ediscovery ABOUT NUIX Nuix enables people to make fact-based decisions from unstructured data. The patented Nuix Engine makes small work of large and complex human-generated data sets. Organizations around the world turn to Nuix software when they need fast, accurate answers for digital investigation, cybersecurity, ediscovery, information governance, email migration, privacy and more. APAC North America EMEA Australia: +61 2 9280 0699 USA: +1 877 470 6849 UK: +44 207 877 0300» Email: sales@nuix.com» Web: nuix.com» Twitter: @nuix Copyright 2014 Nuix. All rights reserved.