Next-generation Deployment for Enterprise Search Tools:
Comprehensive E-discovery and E-disclosure Technologies
To make sure that all information is accounted for, capabilities must be in place to handle low-quality, odd-sized, double-sided and/or corrupt documents as well as recover lost clusters and deleted files. Ideally, any e-discovery solution should have appropriate capturing tools for all types of media: paper, email, multimedia or other types of electronic files.
In terms of the OCR component of the capturing process, other capabilities need to be taken into consideration, such as automatic language recognition, bitmap identification and the OCR-ing of bitmaps in attachments. In addition, a full range of auditing and analysis tools, plus tools for workflow, digital signatures, and the recovery of deleted files and lost clusters, are all very important aspects of any e-discovery software solution. These tools help support the duties of various responsible parties and can help expedite the discovery process (given that an actual discovery strategy is in place to support).
In addition, a very clear link must exist between physical data (paper, hard disks, servers) and electronic copies. Inventories that were archived before conversion to electronic archives need to be accounted for. Quality control mechanisms must be part of the equation because the existence of these types of procedural components will be a prominent aspect of any audit.
Advanced searching capabilities, particularly fuzzy and multilingual: The key motivation for users engaged in e-discovery is, simply, to not miss any archived e-mail, document or electronic file that may have relevance to their particular investigative activity. Therefore, e-discovery searching should concentrate on 100% recall rather than on precision (like with Google). However, attaining full recall can be compromised not only by the existence of multiple languages in a document repository and/or different document sizes, structures, types and domains, but also because many times users simply do not know exactly what it is they are looking for. Fuzzy search and multilingual search tools are essential in this context. Good investigators will recognize a smoking gun, but they need the tools that enable them to find the words to retrieve it.
Hit-highlighting, hit-navigation, customizable relevance ranking, optimized use interaction, text-mining and visualization tools: Sophisticated searching capabilities in an e-discovery context must carry with them accompanying tools to help users review large result sets: hit-highlighting, hit-navigation, customizable relevance ranking, optimized user interaction, text-mining and visualization tools are among the essential tools. Being able to search large amounts of information is one thing, but to be able to actually find specific bits of information relevant to the current audit or investigation is quite another. Effective e-discovery solutions must empower users to work with the data they have, particularly in terms of enabling the extraction of entities, facts and events through the use of advanced linguistic technology.
Flexible, yet stable, reviewing, annotating and organizing capabilities: Even if all necessary information is found within huge data sets, this information needs to be usable to the groups tasked with building a case or delivering or defending an audit. Users must be able to effectively review content within the context of their specified purpose. These tasks require additional technologies that provide what is, in essence, a collaborative platform on which to, for example, format and bundle information in a logical way, create and manage annotations or review timelines for specified users, alert users when new information has been added to a folder, develop newsgroups for discussing information and so on.
3. Ability to handle all disclosure factors involved in large-scale investigations. Finding and implementing tools that support established disclosure procedures is tricky, as the quality of any type of software solution is directly related to the appropriateness and thoroughness of the internal procedures it supports. Obviously, disclosure procedures must be set up in a way that they meet the needs of the company and the mandated disclosure rules to which they must adhere. Moreover, procedures must be "do-able" by the staff tasked with fulfilling them, particularly in terms of staff being properly trained and understanding the rationale behind their document and records management activities.
On a structural level, when information is ready for disclosure, the solution that supports this activity must be able to publish the information in a variety of formats, depending on procedural or recipient requirements. An innovation solution should be able to easily disclose information in PDF, TIFF, DII, XML and so on, as well as publish to third-party solutions (such as legal software like CaseMap).
ZyLAB Solutions
ZyLAB builds solutions that meet companies' e-discovery and e-disclosure needs. ZyLAB¹s signature tool suite, ZyIMAGE, was originally designed alongside legal, security and law enforcement professionals to meet the exact e-discovery and e-disclosure capabilities profiled in this paper. Investigators worldwide rely on ZyIMAGE's open XML-based information access platform as a framework with which to manage huge data sets. The advanced enterprise-search capabilities and robust text-mining tools available in ZyIMAGE including paper, e-mail and multimedia solution provider for the most complex and far-reaching investigations. In fact, ZyLAB is the preferred software provider for the forensic units of KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers, as well the FBI (Enron), the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and the Italian Justice Department (Parmalat fraud investigation, the largest ever in Europe), just to name a few.
ZyLAB (
www.zylab.com) is an innovative developer of affordable content management and compliance solutions for paper-intensive organizations. ZyIMAGE, ZyLAB's flagship solution, helps small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and government organizations digitally file and manage millions of pages of paper, electronic documents and email. High-quality search and retrieval features (which support over 200 languages) give users the ability to easily organize, investigate and distribute information.
With more than 7,000 installations worldwide and more than 300,000 users, ZyLAB has a wide breadth of experience and knowledge across a variety of different industries and business applications. For more information visit: www.zylab.com