FAQs for ediscovery CFC briefing Funding / Incentives Q1: What incentive schemes are available for law firms to participate in this ediscovery initiative? Ans: There are 2 types of incentives available for consideration by eligible law firms, the (a) isprint (only for law firms which qualify as SMEs) and (b) Productivity & Innovation Credit (PIC) schemes. The isprint scheme, which runs from April 2010 till Mar 2016, provides grant support for a wide range of infocomm adoption by the SMEs, from simple solutions to improve business operations to innovative use of technology to transform the business. The isprint scheme is collaboration between IDA and SPRING. The PIC scheme, introduced in Budget 2010, provides tax benefits for investments by businesses in a broad range of activities along the innovation value chain. The tax benefits under PIC will be effective from Years of Assessment (YA) 2011 to YA 2015. Q2: What incentives will be offered under isprint for ediscovery adoption? Ans: As individual grant applicants, eligible 1 law firms subscribing to the ediscovery SaaS would be able to enjoy grant support of up to 70% of the qualifying costs that include up to 1 year s subscription, training and consultancy costs, subject to grant conditions being met. As a sectoral project under the ediscovery CFC, which aims to encourage early adoption, eligible law firms would be able to enjoy higher funding support (for up to 2 years subscription costs) during the pilot phase (3 months) and the first year (Year One) of the mass adoption phase, with support of up to 70% of qualifying costs. Funding support may be available in the subsequent years, subject to availability of funding and the fulfillment of grant conditions. Q3: Should a law firm apply for isprint or PIC or both? Ans: Eligible law firms are encouraged to first apply for the isprint scheme through SAL, and follow up with seeking tax benefits during their corporate tax filing. Q4: How can a law firm benefit from both isprint and PIC? 1 SMEs with at least 30% local shareholding AND (the organization's group annual sales turnover is less than S$100 million OR the organization s group employment size is not more than 200 workers).
Ans: isprint will reimburse the eligible law firms up to 70% of the qualifying costs, which include the subscription, training and consultancy cost incurred for ediscovery. Dependent on the nature of the remaining cost, eligible law firms may be able to seek tax credits up to 400% of the remaining amount from IRAS. Q5: Where can we find out more about the incentives that are applicable for this CFC? Ans: You can find out more about the isprint and PIC schemes via the website address below. Scheme isprint PIC Website Address http://www.ida.gov.sg/sme/isprint http://www.iras.gov.sg/irashome/picredit.aspx Q6: Will there be funding for the development of system? Ans: The CFC does not include a funding component that directly addresses development, for example, to SaaS-enable existing software modules. We can, however, refer interested vendors to IDA for funding assistance on a case-by-case basis. Do note that it may be under a separate funding scheme from isprint. Please email your request to the contacts listed under paragraph 10.1 of the ediscovery CFC Specifications. Participants are to note that obligations arising from the use of the development funds will have to be managed separately from the obligations of the ediscovery programme. Q7: What happen if there is an overwhelming response in Year One and the number of law firms exceeds the target? Ans: SAL will put up a request to IDA for additional funding to cover the additional law firms who come onboard the programme. The request is subject to approval by IDA. Q8: How is the funding from isprint different from PIC? Ans: The isprint funding is based on reimbursement of expenses incurred by the law firms when embarking on ediscovery. Eligible law firms will seek reimbursements directly from IDA. On the other hand, PIC is in the form of tax credit to offset the liable tax incurred by the law firms. The law firm will have to handle this with its accountant when it is preparing its annual tax returns. Q9: Is the grant available during the pilot period?
Ans: Yes, the grant will be available during the pilot period. The number of supported law firms will be 10, as listed under paragraph 4.4.4. CFC Award Q10: For the CFC, will 1 or more vendors be awarded? Ans: The consideration for single or multiple awards is dependent on the proposals received. Q11: Must it be a consortium to submit proposals to the CFC? Will proposals from single entity organisations be entertained? Ans: As long as the proposals are able to fulfil the objectives in the CFC document, the proposal will be considered regardless whether the proposal is from a single entity organisation or consortium. Q12: What are the qualifications required for a company to participate to CFC? Ans: The company is qualified to participate in this CFC as long as it is registered in Singapore with the Accounting & Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA). Technical Solution Q13: If not all of the required features/functionalities are ready, will the proposal be accepted? Ans: Participants can propose phased implementation schedule, however they are reminded that their proposal will be assessed against any other proposals received by the committee. Q14: How can the provision of network connectivity be addressed? Ans: Participants can consider including any internet service provider as part of their consortium packaged offerings and thus provide network connectivity capability to subscribers. The entire proposal will be assessed against the published evaluation criteria such as the ability to position proposed SaaS as the preferred platform for litigation-related practice. Whilst there is no direct isprint funding for network connectivity, there are provisions to claim tax credit under PIC scheme. Q15: Is there a need to integrate the ediscovery solution with existing systems?
Ans: Participants can include such proposals for consideration by the evaluation committee. However there should be sufficient implementation and integration details for in-depth assessment. There should also be an overview of how the integration be used to encourage subscription take up. General Requirements Q16: Service Availability and Performance: System administration functionalities such as generation of online reports, management of user accounts and review of access logs shall be provided to SAL. Ans: The intent is for the Contracted Service Provider to substantiate it is able to meet the Service Level Availability and Security Requirements. Q17: Ownership and Integrity of data: Data in the system belongs to the respective law firms and/or their clients. Prior approvals from law firms and SAL shall be sought before any disclosure or extraction of data. To clarify the scenarios in which SAL approval is required. Ans: Any request for extraction of data made by any party be it from subscriber (other than the owner of the data), service provider, any local or foreign government agency (other than SAL) should be made known to the law firm and cc to SAL. Others Q18: Can foreign law firms subscribe to the ediscovery solution? Ans: Foreign law firms can subscribe to the ediscovery solution but there would not be any isprint funding incentives for the foreign law firms, unless the local branches or subsidiaries of the foreign law firm meet SME eligibility criteria (see footnote 1). Participants are reminded to ensure data that belong to local law firms should be managed separately from those of other entities, such as corporate counsels and foreign based law firms. Q19: After the vendor is awarded, can the vendor claim that the solution is endorsed by SAL, Supreme Court or IDA? Ans: No, being awarded does not equate endorsement of solution. The plan is to provide a solution that every law firm has access to but it is not intended to be mandatory or the only permissible solution. Law firms are likely to choose a full-service electronic discovery service provider for the larger cases. The cloud-based solution is useful for law firms who want to use it for mid- to smaller cases and run it in-house. Having said that, for any communication messages where there is mention of SAL, Supreme Court or IDA, or any Government agencies, the vendor is required to seek clearance via the respective parties.
Q20: With this CFC, the vendor will potentially provide e-discovery services for both plaintiff and defendant of a suit. Potentially, this will open to allegations of conflict by either party. In the event this happens, how would the issue be address? Ans: The CFC is for the provision of the platform, BPR services and bureau services, and not for e-discovery services. That is something that the legal entity that is the successful provider should not provide. However, other service providers can provide such services and make use of the platform. Q21: How many ediscovery cases have there been since the publication of the PD on an annual basis? If possible it would also be helpful to know the number of documents that have been filed in relation to these matters. Ans: The use of electronic-based Discovery is on a voluntarily basis, and statistical information is currently not available. Participants should note that there are 2 major modules requested for under this CFC Evidence Management and ediscovery, and law firms are expected to access both modules. Q22: Please clarify when the deployment period to Pilot start-up time is. Ans: The schedule of activities is as follows: 3 months for SaaS setup 3 months for UAT/Ops start up Pilot to start after the 6 th month Q23: In the 6.3.2 table, which aspect of the documents would require versioning? Ans: Versions refer to the reviewer s notes and possible multiple versions of same document, which may not have been discarded from the mass upload. Q24: To make available on-line evidence management and discovery tools with an on-line repository of client and case related documents. Who are the cloud services providers currently available? Ans: The cloud services providers are as follows: Amazon Web Services Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd Microsoft Singapore NewMedia Express Pte Ltd PTC system (s) Pte Ltd ReadySpace (SG) Pte Ltd Salesforce.com Savvis Singapore Company Pte Ltd Singapore Telecommunications Limited StarHub Ltd Tata Communications International Pte Ltd