Maintain Control During E-Discovery
Comprehensive Information Access is the Engine of Discovery

Unfortunately, few organizations are prepared to conduct these activities, and the cost of organizing and managing older files can be cost-prohibitive. Regardless, many organizations realize that they must start implementing some form of records management, knowing that over the long run they cannot afford to ignore their need to handle all of their unstructured email and hard disk collections. This issue is especially pronounced when one takes into account that the unstructured legacy collections of electronic information will inevitably be integrated into fast-growing collections of new types of media (blogs, IMs, external Web pages, news groups, voice mail, and so on).

Implementing Adequate Internal E-Discovery Controls
Given the reality of e-discovery, the best way for any organization to prepare and optimize its capabilities, whether it plans on eventually using a third-party or not, is to integrate a comprehensive and compliant system with which to organize, control and store all of its data. A recent independent survey of corporate legal departments showed that two-thirds of the respondents wanted a (e-discovery) system that was "soup to nuts," i.e. that took them from data preservation and collection all the way through production. However, although the marketplace is certainly receptive to the cost-saving benefits of implementing such a system, several inhibitors still exist that keep organizations from fully embracing the implementation of a suitable, internal e-discovery system framework: a lack of knowledge about a system’s full price/value relationship; unfamiliarity with the full scope of relevant regulations; concerns about extended liability; and fear of procedural missteps.

Fortunately, a variety of affordable, straightforward, start-to-end solutions are now available that take the mystery out of e-discovery processes. The right system, combined with proper professional services, can enable the brunt of e-discovery work to now be performed in-house. To make an informed decision, here’s what to look for in a solution:

• Support for integration with the tools (such as ENCASE) used to preserve the content of hard disks, mailboxes and other electronically stored information.
• Robust search functionality. In addition to basic keyword search, advanced capabilities should be available for, among other things, concept and fuzzy search, text-mining, pattern recognition, auto-translation, relevance ranking and any other tools that supplement keyword search to mimic human language.
• Flexible support to identify and process exact (or near-exact) duplicates. Exact de-duplication can be performed in the initial processing of data, but for the review phase, near duplicate groups need to be identified and reviewed collectively.
• An appropriate in-house system that can make pre-selections and perform auto-code, auto-folder and pre-sort activities. These capabilities alleviate the need for external parties, significantly reducing your external legal review cost. Moreover, many options exist to automate the recognition of privileged or relevant documents, so there’s no longer a need to perform these actions manually.
• Integration of additional automated tools to take the burden out of a discovery process: intelligent redaction; electronic collaboration tools; report generators; automatic production tools; and many others.
• A robust computer system that can support and manage a full chain of custody, extended audit reports, exclusion reports, disclosure reports and productions of, for instance, 100,000 pages of documentation. Documents should be identifiable and retrievable anywhere within the e-discovery process.

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The combination of cutting-edge search and text mining technology for paper, email and electronic files, in combination with content management technology such as e-discovery and e-disclosure management, redaction, workflow, federation and compliant records management has continually positioned ZyLAB as a leader for these types of applications. Effectively focusing on niches has enabled ZyLAB to offer its 7,500 installations worldwide a cost-effective, long-term solution for their search requirements that is fully embedded in their daily business processes and easy to deploy and to maintain.

The ZyIMAGE eDiscovery Platform
ZyLAB is unusually strong in the compliance and legal-discovery categories, with specific process functionality and relevancy modeling.

ZyLAB offers a history of native and robust desktop search and rich and flexible content analytics. Careful analysis of user requirements has led to the creation of our complete, start-to-end ZyIMAGE eDiscovery Platform. This robust solution offers the following benefits:

• A complete solution to capture, find, analyze, structure and distribute data;
• The ability to perform large investigations with less manpower in less time;
• Support for the implementation of an efficient and consistent reviews process;
• A realistic, nuanced approach to finding specific information: ZyIMAGE can find what other systems cannot without getting bogged down in finding irrelevant information;
• A framework through which all information can be shared internally and with partners, with redaction capabilities if necessary;
• A system that is fine-tuned to support full compliance with data protection and other privacy regulations;
• Open file formats for secure, long-term archiving of cases and records;
• Extensive auditing and reporting options (exclusion, disclosure and QC).;
• Full integration capabilities with existing systems, such as MS Outlook and MS SharePoint;
• Efficient and knowledgeable professional services; and
• Low upfront costs for starting the discovery process.

Additional information can be found at www.zylab.com.