This document discusses strategies for law firms to control technology costs while maximizing the benefits of technology. It recommends that firms shift their focus from infrastructure to applying technology to legal practice. With strong IT leadership, streamlining infrastructure through consolidation, virtualization and other measures, firms can reduce costs by at least 15% over three years while improving reliability, recovery capabilities and lawyer satisfaction. The document also discusses how electronic redaction software can help firms more efficiently redact sensitive information from large document productions compared to manual redaction methods.
Outsourcing from a strategic management perspective by friedrich blase and da...David Cunningham
1) IT outsourcing from a strategic perspective requires assessing opportunities, designing solutions, selecting vendors, and managing the transition to allow lawyers to work more effectively and efficiently.
2) Historically, law firms outsourced some IT functions like data processing to service bureaus before insourcing most IT. Rising costs are now causing firms to reconsider outsourcing some services again to improve performance over just reducing costs.
3) Common IT functions considered for outsourcing include help desk, network and data center management, email hosting, and disaster recovery. Outsourcing is a strategic issue that can impact overall firm performance, not just costs.
Is Outsourcing the Answer in an Economic Downturn? Outsourcing Support for Op...ActiveState
It’s no surprise that outsourcing is on the rise, especially in the finance sector that was
hit so hard by last year’s economic meltdown. Financial organizations are tightening their belts by sending more work outside company walls. In the last quarter of 2008,
the combined value of outsourcing contracts in the finance sector reached a whopping
$3.6 billion.1 The lion’s share of those contracts went to IT projects, according to
Information Age. Analyst firm IDC predicts that banks will continue to trim IT costs in
2009 by outsourcing more IT.2
IT\'s Importance in Proper ESI ManagementKellyKubacki
The document discusses the importance of IT professionals and legal teams working together on electronically stored information (ESI) management strategies. Specifically:
1) Due to economic and technological changes, corporations are increasingly responsible for managing their own ESI, requiring close cooperation between IT and legal teams.
2) Developing an ESI management strategy is important for litigation preparedness, though less than 50% of corporations report having one.
3) Creating an ESI strategy requires resources but allows for a more efficient response compared to reacting to ESI requests without a plan. Close cooperation between IT and legal is needed.
This independent survey was commissioned by
Savvis and conducted with 550 CIOs, IT Directors,
Heads of IT and Senior IT Managers of global large
enterprises based in the USA (200), UK (100),
Germany (100), Japan (50), Hong Kong (50) and
Singapore (50), and was completed in August
2012. The research was conducted by Vanson
Bourne, a research based technology marketing
consultancy offering clients analysis and advice
based on incisive, rigorous research into their
market environment. The research used a
combination of online fieldwork methodology and
telephone interviewing. All research carried out by
Vanson Bourne adheres to the latest MRS Code
of Conduct. Demographic detailing respondent
communities includes industry sector, country
in which the respondents were based, and size
of business.
This document discusses business intelligence and how companies can turn large amounts of raw data into useful information to guide decision making. It provides several examples of companies using business intelligence tools and services to analyze purchasing data, spending trends, and customer information. Experts note that while collecting and storing large volumes of data is now possible, making sense of it remains a major challenge. Effective business intelligence requires cleaning, organizing, and integrating data from various sources into a centralized repository to facilitate reporting and analysis.
Welcome to the eighteenth edition of GS-insight, the quarterly magazine from international executive search firm Gillamor Stephens. In this 18th issue of GS-insight, Matt Mead, Managing Director of Investments for NESTA, discusses the challenging world of early stage investment while Tom Wrenn of ECI provides the PE perspective on the current investment landscape. We also speak with Colin Tenwick, recent CEO of StepStone regarding his transformation of this infamous dot.com bust into a booming success.
Jon Temple, CEO of data centre infrastructure management company, nlyte Software explains how there must be an emphasis on the business fundamentals of top line growth and expense reduction in order to grown in the “green” IT market, and Tony O’Donnell of Cambium helps us understand carbon reduction legislation and the opportunities that this creates for technology vendors. Dave Darsch of CEO-Collaborative Forum explores the importance of peer group interaction for CEOs and Keith Cornell sheds insight into the role of the Board. Finally James McDougall, whom we placed as CEO of VC backed ReVolt Technology, talks about the realities of being CEO of a technology innovator in a global market.
BMG was contacted by a client in Northern Ontario for assistance after a server failure made critical data unusable, costing over $50,000 to recover and $5,000 per day in lost services; BMG conducted a comprehensive IT audit and capacity review, identifying a lack of strategic management and IT capacity as the root cause and providing recommendations to improve operations, procedures, infrastructure, and prevent future disasters; the client intends to present BMG's report to the Ministry for approval and funding to implement the recommendations.
The document discusses how organizations can maximize business value from existing IT investments over time. It argues that businesses are slow to assimilate new technologies and do not fully exploit existing IT assets. The document recommends that executives prioritize extracting value from current IT systems through an ongoing process of learning and innovation, rather than taking a project-based approach to new technologies. This approach requires new organizational capabilities focused on knowledge management, social learning networks, and directed incrementalism.
Outsourcing from a strategic management perspective by friedrich blase and da...David Cunningham
1) IT outsourcing from a strategic perspective requires assessing opportunities, designing solutions, selecting vendors, and managing the transition to allow lawyers to work more effectively and efficiently.
2) Historically, law firms outsourced some IT functions like data processing to service bureaus before insourcing most IT. Rising costs are now causing firms to reconsider outsourcing some services again to improve performance over just reducing costs.
3) Common IT functions considered for outsourcing include help desk, network and data center management, email hosting, and disaster recovery. Outsourcing is a strategic issue that can impact overall firm performance, not just costs.
Is Outsourcing the Answer in an Economic Downturn? Outsourcing Support for Op...ActiveState
It’s no surprise that outsourcing is on the rise, especially in the finance sector that was
hit so hard by last year’s economic meltdown. Financial organizations are tightening their belts by sending more work outside company walls. In the last quarter of 2008,
the combined value of outsourcing contracts in the finance sector reached a whopping
$3.6 billion.1 The lion’s share of those contracts went to IT projects, according to
Information Age. Analyst firm IDC predicts that banks will continue to trim IT costs in
2009 by outsourcing more IT.2
IT\'s Importance in Proper ESI ManagementKellyKubacki
The document discusses the importance of IT professionals and legal teams working together on electronically stored information (ESI) management strategies. Specifically:
1) Due to economic and technological changes, corporations are increasingly responsible for managing their own ESI, requiring close cooperation between IT and legal teams.
2) Developing an ESI management strategy is important for litigation preparedness, though less than 50% of corporations report having one.
3) Creating an ESI strategy requires resources but allows for a more efficient response compared to reacting to ESI requests without a plan. Close cooperation between IT and legal is needed.
This independent survey was commissioned by
Savvis and conducted with 550 CIOs, IT Directors,
Heads of IT and Senior IT Managers of global large
enterprises based in the USA (200), UK (100),
Germany (100), Japan (50), Hong Kong (50) and
Singapore (50), and was completed in August
2012. The research was conducted by Vanson
Bourne, a research based technology marketing
consultancy offering clients analysis and advice
based on incisive, rigorous research into their
market environment. The research used a
combination of online fieldwork methodology and
telephone interviewing. All research carried out by
Vanson Bourne adheres to the latest MRS Code
of Conduct. Demographic detailing respondent
communities includes industry sector, country
in which the respondents were based, and size
of business.
This document discusses business intelligence and how companies can turn large amounts of raw data into useful information to guide decision making. It provides several examples of companies using business intelligence tools and services to analyze purchasing data, spending trends, and customer information. Experts note that while collecting and storing large volumes of data is now possible, making sense of it remains a major challenge. Effective business intelligence requires cleaning, organizing, and integrating data from various sources into a centralized repository to facilitate reporting and analysis.
Welcome to the eighteenth edition of GS-insight, the quarterly magazine from international executive search firm Gillamor Stephens. In this 18th issue of GS-insight, Matt Mead, Managing Director of Investments for NESTA, discusses the challenging world of early stage investment while Tom Wrenn of ECI provides the PE perspective on the current investment landscape. We also speak with Colin Tenwick, recent CEO of StepStone regarding his transformation of this infamous dot.com bust into a booming success.
Jon Temple, CEO of data centre infrastructure management company, nlyte Software explains how there must be an emphasis on the business fundamentals of top line growth and expense reduction in order to grown in the “green” IT market, and Tony O’Donnell of Cambium helps us understand carbon reduction legislation and the opportunities that this creates for technology vendors. Dave Darsch of CEO-Collaborative Forum explores the importance of peer group interaction for CEOs and Keith Cornell sheds insight into the role of the Board. Finally James McDougall, whom we placed as CEO of VC backed ReVolt Technology, talks about the realities of being CEO of a technology innovator in a global market.
BMG was contacted by a client in Northern Ontario for assistance after a server failure made critical data unusable, costing over $50,000 to recover and $5,000 per day in lost services; BMG conducted a comprehensive IT audit and capacity review, identifying a lack of strategic management and IT capacity as the root cause and providing recommendations to improve operations, procedures, infrastructure, and prevent future disasters; the client intends to present BMG's report to the Ministry for approval and funding to implement the recommendations.
The document discusses how organizations can maximize business value from existing IT investments over time. It argues that businesses are slow to assimilate new technologies and do not fully exploit existing IT assets. The document recommends that executives prioritize extracting value from current IT systems through an ongoing process of learning and innovation, rather than taking a project-based approach to new technologies. This approach requires new organizational capabilities focused on knowledge management, social learning networks, and directed incrementalism.
The document discusses how organizations can maximize the value of existing IT investments over long periods of time. It argues that businesses do not fully exploit existing technology and jump from project to project without maximizing the value of each implementation. The document presents a model called "The Long Conversation" which views IT implementation as a long-term learning process rather than individual projects. This requires new organizational capabilities to support social learning over IT journeys that last far beyond initial deployment.
The ‘success trap’ of new, emerging and disruptive technologiesLivingstone Advisory
The adoption of these technologies may provide much value in the short term, however may become a liability at some point down the track. How can you and your organizations insulate yourself against the future adverse consequences of these emerging and disruptive technologies – the so called success trap?
Why the systemic risks in Enterprise Cloud Computing could cripple your busin...Livingstone Advisory
Organisations that have successfully implemented standalone cloud systems may feel that they have won the war against complex and expensive enterprise IT. That feeling may not last too long once these systems need to be integrated with other systems, cloud or otherwise. The minute you start integrating your cloud with these other systems, you have what is termed a Hybrid Cloud.
Your IT risks are now becoming systemic risks – a point not lost in the most recent KPMG 2012 Audit Institute Report which identified “IT Risk & Emerging Technologies” as the second highest concern for 2012
In this presentation, Rob Livingstone, suggests some practical approaches that CEOs, COOs and CFOs should be considering in the identification and mitigation of the pitfalls of Cloud computing in the enterprise.
"Electronics Industry CEOs Executive SummaryIBMElectronics
How are leaders responding to a competitive and economic environment? IBM interviewed 1,541 CEOs, general managers and senior public sector leaders, including 105 Electronics Industry respondents.
This document summarizes key findings from a white paper analyzing a survey of cloud computing executives. It finds:
1) There is consensus around defining cloud computing as involving on-demand provisioning of infrastructure, platforms and software as a service. Benefits include reduced costs and faster innovation.
2) Data security, governance and compliance are top concerns but surmountable with private cloud architectures and clear contracts.
3) Both large and small companies will shape the industry through investments, innovation and potential acquisitions.
4) Rapid adoption of cloud services, especially software as a service, is expected as companies seek costs savings during economic difficulties.
The white paper discusses five principles for designing global IT infrastructure to support distributed enterprises:
1) Distance doesn't matter - employees expect to collaborate in real-time regardless of location.
2) Applications and data must be available everywhere through consolidation but also decentralized access.
3) Knowledge and data must be easily shared and managed across the enterprise.
4) Business operations must be continuous and resilient to failures or disruptions.
5) All employees, regardless of location, require equal access to applications and resources.
WAN optimization solutions are described as the means to tie together distributed infrastructure by providing LAN-like application performance anywhere through acceleration and scaling capabilities for mobile users, branch offices,
This presentation by the authors of "Extract Value From Consultants: How to Hire, Control, and Fire Them" provides some practical advice on how to maximize value when hiring management consultants.
M12S01 - The Information Tsunami: Where We Are and How to Move ForwardMER Conference
The document summarizes a presentation on the current state of electronic records and information management (eRIM) programs. It notes that many eRIM implementations are failing because records managers missed an opportunity to lead, and that senior management buy-in and business operations involvement are key to success. The presentation outlines the various stakeholders involved in eRIM and their sometimes conflicting interests. It recommends clarifying accountability for information management and addressing the effects of social media. Motivating senior leaders requires emphasizing value and risk, while business users must take responsibility for records and embrace necessary changes.
Your Leadership Brand - The CIO as Business Strategist driving innovation. CI...Livingstone Advisory
Your Leadership Brand - The CIO as Business Strategist driving innovation
When CIOs think like business strategists, they shift from primarily managing technology projects to become highly business relevant. The ability of CIOs to successfully make this shift is key to underpinning the transformation of IT within the organisation. This transformation is critical to organisations that are looking for ways of driving innovation and entrepreneurship within the IT group, which in turn drives sustainable business value. The role of the CIO is at the core of this transformation.
In this engaging and practical session, Rob Livingstone provides valuable insights on how organisations and CIOs alike can ensure this transition is made successfully, and rapidly.
Agenda included
Surveying the broader landscape
Is enterprise innovation the Job of IT?
The Future-State CIO Model
Getting past ‘Business – IT Alignment’
Creating Influence
Your leadership brand.
Your personal Brand – as you!.
The document outlines 10 ways for IT departments to modernize and better meet business needs. It discusses shifting IT's role from simply technology delivery to also improving business results and providing leadership. It recommends IT focus on business priorities, demonstrate value through outcomes rather than costs, and use business language and disciplines to build trust with executive leadership. Managing the full technology lifecycle, sourcing appropriately, and focusing on continual implementation of high-value initiatives can help IT transform into a strategic partner.
How Green is India and Green IT Mars Vapours SolutionLeo Zalki
The document discusses the level of awareness and adoption of green IT practices among Indian companies. A survey found that 69% of respondents were aware of green IT, with awareness highest among large companies and public sector undertakings. Most companies see green IT as important, primarily to reduce costs. While awareness exists, implementation varies, with some companies focusing more on areas like power management and data center efficiency over others like e-waste management. Overall adoption of green IT in India is growing but still lagging international standards in some areas.
The document discusses how IT governance can help solve the problems caused by organizational "silos" by promoting collaboration between business units and IT. IT governance establishes a process that brings together business and IT experts to communicate, align goals, share risks, prioritize projects, and make joint decisions. This helps ensure IT expenditures deliver business value by overcoming the isolation of separate business units working independently without coordination.
3i, an international investment firm, needed to upgrade its aging data center or outsource management. It chose SunGard Availability Services to relocate over 100 servers to one of their resilient technology centers in a military-style weekend operation. The transition was a success with no disruptions, and 3i avoided capital costs while gaining increased efficiency and service.
Navigating the risks in implementing Hybrid Cloud, Agile and Project Manageme...Livingstone Advisory
Ensuring the alignment between the various ‘best practice’ technology implementation methodologies supported by appropriate ongoing IT management and business engagement frameworks is key to the delivery of a robust, truly agile and cost effective IT environment. Achieving this without compromising security or exposing the organisation to greater risks is a given in the eyes of the business.
In this presentation, Rob Livingstone explores the key systemic and technical risks associated with the concurrent adoption and management of agile application development methodologies, project management, hybrid cloud, on-premise IT and mobile devices within the enterprise. He also suggests some practical approaches that CIOs, CTOs, CSOs and CFOs should be taking to successfully orchestrate this transition.
Stretching your tech dollars lawyers circa 1994Chaim Yudkowsky
Chaim Yudkowsky, CPA, CITP, CGMA - Byte of Success
Delivered to legal professional association group in 1994. Reflective of nearly 20 years ago technology trends.
Electronic Records Management in Small Businesses – A Case StudyEquilibria, Inc.
Geoffrey, the CEO of a non-profit, wanted to implement a paperless office but first needed to better organize the organization's 5,000 electronic documents. An IT company recommended hiring a records management firm to analyze the document structure. The firm reviewed the organizational chart, interviewed staff, and took an inventory of document types. They purged duplicates, identified document access for staff, and grouped documents by department. This new electronic records management system reduced file folders by 92% and document retrieval time, saving $10,000 and preparing the non-profit for a future document imaging system.
This document summarizes a presentation on cloud computing given by Rob Livingstone. The presentation covers: perspectives on cloud and how its meaning depends on context; the transition from current confusion around cloud to greater understanding; challenges of public cloud like security and disaster recovery; a 14-point checklist for deciding if public cloud is appropriate; how asymmetry of cloud understanding between IT and business can increase risks; the rise of shadow IT departments; the shift from viewing IT as a cost center to a utility; influences of cloud on IT careers; and that the future of cloud is now but its benefits require understanding costs, values, risks, and when to adopt or exit technologies. The presentation concludes with time for discussions and questions.
This document discusses best practices for disaster recovery and business continuity planning. It begins with an agenda for presentations on the business aspects of IT disaster recovery, technical best practices, and a networking opportunity over lunch. It then provides information about the presenting company, The Signature Group, and their client base and services. Finally, it discusses defining objectives for disaster recovery planning by determining recovery time objectives and recovery point objectives based on a risk analysis of different systems. The key aspects are balancing recovery needs with costs while building an automated, documented plan.
Finding the right legal process management toolssarahbrown1
This document discusses options for legal teams to manage case and matter management applications, including traditional on-site deployment, server virtualization, internal clouds, external private clouds, and public clouds. It outlines key differences between enterprise/on-site solutions and cloud/software as a service models, including customization options, business models, IT requirements, and costs. Legal teams must evaluate their needs, processes, resources, and long-term plans to determine the best deployment method.
Exterro Fusion Enterprise Suite Product OverviewExterro
Exterro software is powered by Fusion, an enterprise-scale platform modeled on the EDRM that simplifies technology in a comprehensive platform. Fusion provides a single collaborative framework from which legal, IT and records management teams can work through legal governance, risk and compliance management processes.
The document discusses how organizations can maximize the value of existing IT investments over long periods of time. It argues that businesses do not fully exploit existing technology and jump from project to project without maximizing the value of each implementation. The document presents a model called "The Long Conversation" which views IT implementation as a long-term learning process rather than individual projects. This requires new organizational capabilities to support social learning over IT journeys that last far beyond initial deployment.
The ‘success trap’ of new, emerging and disruptive technologiesLivingstone Advisory
The adoption of these technologies may provide much value in the short term, however may become a liability at some point down the track. How can you and your organizations insulate yourself against the future adverse consequences of these emerging and disruptive technologies – the so called success trap?
Why the systemic risks in Enterprise Cloud Computing could cripple your busin...Livingstone Advisory
Organisations that have successfully implemented standalone cloud systems may feel that they have won the war against complex and expensive enterprise IT. That feeling may not last too long once these systems need to be integrated with other systems, cloud or otherwise. The minute you start integrating your cloud with these other systems, you have what is termed a Hybrid Cloud.
Your IT risks are now becoming systemic risks – a point not lost in the most recent KPMG 2012 Audit Institute Report which identified “IT Risk & Emerging Technologies” as the second highest concern for 2012
In this presentation, Rob Livingstone, suggests some practical approaches that CEOs, COOs and CFOs should be considering in the identification and mitigation of the pitfalls of Cloud computing in the enterprise.
"Electronics Industry CEOs Executive SummaryIBMElectronics
How are leaders responding to a competitive and economic environment? IBM interviewed 1,541 CEOs, general managers and senior public sector leaders, including 105 Electronics Industry respondents.
This document summarizes key findings from a white paper analyzing a survey of cloud computing executives. It finds:
1) There is consensus around defining cloud computing as involving on-demand provisioning of infrastructure, platforms and software as a service. Benefits include reduced costs and faster innovation.
2) Data security, governance and compliance are top concerns but surmountable with private cloud architectures and clear contracts.
3) Both large and small companies will shape the industry through investments, innovation and potential acquisitions.
4) Rapid adoption of cloud services, especially software as a service, is expected as companies seek costs savings during economic difficulties.
The white paper discusses five principles for designing global IT infrastructure to support distributed enterprises:
1) Distance doesn't matter - employees expect to collaborate in real-time regardless of location.
2) Applications and data must be available everywhere through consolidation but also decentralized access.
3) Knowledge and data must be easily shared and managed across the enterprise.
4) Business operations must be continuous and resilient to failures or disruptions.
5) All employees, regardless of location, require equal access to applications and resources.
WAN optimization solutions are described as the means to tie together distributed infrastructure by providing LAN-like application performance anywhere through acceleration and scaling capabilities for mobile users, branch offices,
This presentation by the authors of "Extract Value From Consultants: How to Hire, Control, and Fire Them" provides some practical advice on how to maximize value when hiring management consultants.
M12S01 - The Information Tsunami: Where We Are and How to Move ForwardMER Conference
The document summarizes a presentation on the current state of electronic records and information management (eRIM) programs. It notes that many eRIM implementations are failing because records managers missed an opportunity to lead, and that senior management buy-in and business operations involvement are key to success. The presentation outlines the various stakeholders involved in eRIM and their sometimes conflicting interests. It recommends clarifying accountability for information management and addressing the effects of social media. Motivating senior leaders requires emphasizing value and risk, while business users must take responsibility for records and embrace necessary changes.
Your Leadership Brand - The CIO as Business Strategist driving innovation. CI...Livingstone Advisory
Your Leadership Brand - The CIO as Business Strategist driving innovation
When CIOs think like business strategists, they shift from primarily managing technology projects to become highly business relevant. The ability of CIOs to successfully make this shift is key to underpinning the transformation of IT within the organisation. This transformation is critical to organisations that are looking for ways of driving innovation and entrepreneurship within the IT group, which in turn drives sustainable business value. The role of the CIO is at the core of this transformation.
In this engaging and practical session, Rob Livingstone provides valuable insights on how organisations and CIOs alike can ensure this transition is made successfully, and rapidly.
Agenda included
Surveying the broader landscape
Is enterprise innovation the Job of IT?
The Future-State CIO Model
Getting past ‘Business – IT Alignment’
Creating Influence
Your leadership brand.
Your personal Brand – as you!.
The document outlines 10 ways for IT departments to modernize and better meet business needs. It discusses shifting IT's role from simply technology delivery to also improving business results and providing leadership. It recommends IT focus on business priorities, demonstrate value through outcomes rather than costs, and use business language and disciplines to build trust with executive leadership. Managing the full technology lifecycle, sourcing appropriately, and focusing on continual implementation of high-value initiatives can help IT transform into a strategic partner.
How Green is India and Green IT Mars Vapours SolutionLeo Zalki
The document discusses the level of awareness and adoption of green IT practices among Indian companies. A survey found that 69% of respondents were aware of green IT, with awareness highest among large companies and public sector undertakings. Most companies see green IT as important, primarily to reduce costs. While awareness exists, implementation varies, with some companies focusing more on areas like power management and data center efficiency over others like e-waste management. Overall adoption of green IT in India is growing but still lagging international standards in some areas.
The document discusses how IT governance can help solve the problems caused by organizational "silos" by promoting collaboration between business units and IT. IT governance establishes a process that brings together business and IT experts to communicate, align goals, share risks, prioritize projects, and make joint decisions. This helps ensure IT expenditures deliver business value by overcoming the isolation of separate business units working independently without coordination.
3i, an international investment firm, needed to upgrade its aging data center or outsource management. It chose SunGard Availability Services to relocate over 100 servers to one of their resilient technology centers in a military-style weekend operation. The transition was a success with no disruptions, and 3i avoided capital costs while gaining increased efficiency and service.
Navigating the risks in implementing Hybrid Cloud, Agile and Project Manageme...Livingstone Advisory
Ensuring the alignment between the various ‘best practice’ technology implementation methodologies supported by appropriate ongoing IT management and business engagement frameworks is key to the delivery of a robust, truly agile and cost effective IT environment. Achieving this without compromising security or exposing the organisation to greater risks is a given in the eyes of the business.
In this presentation, Rob Livingstone explores the key systemic and technical risks associated with the concurrent adoption and management of agile application development methodologies, project management, hybrid cloud, on-premise IT and mobile devices within the enterprise. He also suggests some practical approaches that CIOs, CTOs, CSOs and CFOs should be taking to successfully orchestrate this transition.
Stretching your tech dollars lawyers circa 1994Chaim Yudkowsky
Chaim Yudkowsky, CPA, CITP, CGMA - Byte of Success
Delivered to legal professional association group in 1994. Reflective of nearly 20 years ago technology trends.
Electronic Records Management in Small Businesses – A Case StudyEquilibria, Inc.
Geoffrey, the CEO of a non-profit, wanted to implement a paperless office but first needed to better organize the organization's 5,000 electronic documents. An IT company recommended hiring a records management firm to analyze the document structure. The firm reviewed the organizational chart, interviewed staff, and took an inventory of document types. They purged duplicates, identified document access for staff, and grouped documents by department. This new electronic records management system reduced file folders by 92% and document retrieval time, saving $10,000 and preparing the non-profit for a future document imaging system.
This document summarizes a presentation on cloud computing given by Rob Livingstone. The presentation covers: perspectives on cloud and how its meaning depends on context; the transition from current confusion around cloud to greater understanding; challenges of public cloud like security and disaster recovery; a 14-point checklist for deciding if public cloud is appropriate; how asymmetry of cloud understanding between IT and business can increase risks; the rise of shadow IT departments; the shift from viewing IT as a cost center to a utility; influences of cloud on IT careers; and that the future of cloud is now but its benefits require understanding costs, values, risks, and when to adopt or exit technologies. The presentation concludes with time for discussions and questions.
This document discusses best practices for disaster recovery and business continuity planning. It begins with an agenda for presentations on the business aspects of IT disaster recovery, technical best practices, and a networking opportunity over lunch. It then provides information about the presenting company, The Signature Group, and their client base and services. Finally, it discusses defining objectives for disaster recovery planning by determining recovery time objectives and recovery point objectives based on a risk analysis of different systems. The key aspects are balancing recovery needs with costs while building an automated, documented plan.
Finding the right legal process management toolssarahbrown1
This document discusses options for legal teams to manage case and matter management applications, including traditional on-site deployment, server virtualization, internal clouds, external private clouds, and public clouds. It outlines key differences between enterprise/on-site solutions and cloud/software as a service models, including customization options, business models, IT requirements, and costs. Legal teams must evaluate their needs, processes, resources, and long-term plans to determine the best deployment method.
Exterro Fusion Enterprise Suite Product OverviewExterro
Exterro software is powered by Fusion, an enterprise-scale platform modeled on the EDRM that simplifies technology in a comprehensive platform. Fusion provides a single collaborative framework from which legal, IT and records management teams can work through legal governance, risk and compliance management processes.
This document summarizes a presentation about addressing challenges related to big data. It discusses how big data is exploding in amount and coming from more sources, creating problems for legal teams around e-discovery, information governance, and regulatory compliance. The presentation provides best practices for handling big data, including establishing information governance protocols, classifying data, defensibly deleting data, creating automated legal holds, and utilizing predictive technologies. The key takeaways are that organizations must proactively manage big data through information governance and integrate e-discovery tools to search multiple systems.
Wk 7 Case Study Summary Paper_ISSC331_IntindoloJohn Intindolo
- Premier College received notice of a lawsuit and issued a litigation hold and document retention policy to employees to preserve any potentially relevant electronic documents and ensure compliance.
- The document retention policy detailed what types of documents and electronic data must be preserved, including emails, documents, databases, and computer logs. It applied to data on workstations, servers, phones, backups, and removable devices.
- Employees were instructed to suspend deleting or altering any relevant electronic materials and provided contact for questions to ensure all procedures were followed.
The document provides a tutorial on how to use Trello. It explains how to sign up for an account, create boards, lists, cards, checklists and due dates. It covers adding members to cards and customizing boards by renaming them and changing privacy settings. The tutorial contains step-by-step instructions on the basic functions for organizing projects and tasks in Trello.
- The document discusses how legal projects can improve operational and matter metrics that are important for law firm management. It provides examples of how implementing standardized checklists, deal profiling processes, and dedicating resources like due diligence specialists can improve matter budget accuracy and increase profits. Metrics like cost per terabyte stored, percentage of stale data, and client file completeness are examples of operational metrics that can be improved through data cleanup projects. The document advocates tying technology and information solutions to measurable impacts on metrics and business value.
This document summarizes an article that discusses how the global economic crisis will require improved financial management of IT budgets. It recommends that IT departments present their budgets focused on the value of the technology products and services they provide rather than just expenses. This involves allocating costs to specific products and services, detailing service level agreements, and standardizing systems to control costs. Doing so frames IT spending as an investment that delivers business value rather than just an expense.
This document discusses how to effectively plan, manage, and deliver on IT's promise to businesses. It notes that while IT plays an integral role in today's businesses, many companies do not approach major IT initiatives in a businesslike way by failing to tie large IT investments and decisions to clearly defined business results. The document outlines Crowe's IT advisory solution which provides a methodology for developing an appropriate IT strategy, making sound IT investment decisions, and executing and managing initiatives in a way that relates them to organizational performance measures. It also discusses common issues businesses face with IT and how critical business events can trigger the need for improved IT management.
Digital Fuel- Achieving IT cost visibility-Id gresearch cio_study_1009yisbat
The document discusses the challenges organizations face in achieving visibility into their IT costs. It found that while having detailed cost visibility is important, over half of respondents were less than satisfied with their current level of visibility. The biggest challenges are a lack of an explicitly defined IT cost model and difficulties obtaining detailed cost breakdowns and mapping costs to specific services. Achieving true cost visibility requires new processes and tools to capture both direct and indirect costs associated with delivering various IT services.
This document discusses how standardization can help financial institutions become leaner, smarter, and more competitive. It outlines an 8-point strategy for standardizing business processes, consolidating applications and information, and simplifying infrastructure. This allows companies to free up capital spent on costly infrastructure and redirect it towards strategic initiatives. Standardization improves information sharing, flexibility, lowers risks, and reduces costs by eliminating redundant systems and fragmented data from acquisitions and decentralized decision making over time. The benefits of standardization include better competitive positioning, improved productivity, and a foundation for future growth.
Discute as facilidades que uma ferramenta como portal corporativo pode oferecer a uma organização, apresenta os critérios de avaliação, infra-estrutura de tecnologia de informação, e o posicionamento, visão e impacto do portal na corporação.
www.terraforum.com.br
The document discusses Jim Barton, a dynamic executive at a company called IVK, who is called to meet with the CEO and expects a promotion but is left speechless by the news. It describes how Barton had done good work as the company grew but unexpected changes can happen during times of crisis for a company. The silence grows as Barton ponders what the CEO has told him and wonders about the logic behind executive decisions during difficult periods for an organization.
CIO Advisory Services Guide | White Paper from Brittenford SystemsBrittenford Systems
IT departments are under stress as the need for financial resources becomes overwhelming and technology departments are required to do more with less, using existing IT systems while having to also move or keep systems online. This white paper serves as a guide to CIO advisory services and discusses the current stress on the IT industry.
How to Better Manage Your IT InfrastructureEdarat Group
1) Businesses are implementing infrastructure management strategies to keep their IT functioning effectively as business acceleration requires better management of information and resources.
2) For IT organizations, better infrastructure management results in high performance, seamless configuration, and strong security.
3) Non-IT companies can also benefit from effective infrastructure management through meeting business needs, ensuring operational efficiency, optimizing resource allocation, and adopting new technologies.
This document summarizes the key points from Sanjeev Bhagowalia's presentation on transforming Hawaii's state government IT and information resource management (IRM). It discusses conducting an assessment that found aging technology and processes, resource shortages, and disconnected efforts across departments. The presentation recommends focusing first on 4 areas: enterprise focus, governance, reengineering business processes, and strengthening technical infrastructure. It identifies candidates for early cross-cutting enterprise solutions and lays out a notional transformation framework and schedule. The goal is providing access to the right information securely and reliably across the state.
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The Metrics Trap...And How to Avoid ItDouglas Novo
- Joe Drouin, CIO of TRW Automotive, initially touted that the company spent less on IT as a percentage of revenue than industry averages, which made him look good. However, this metric eventually proved problematic.
- When budgets for individual business units were examined, IT spending varied widely as a percentage of revenue between units. This revealed the shallowness of using IT spend as a single percentage of revenue.
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The document discusses how implementing ITIL best practices can help IT departments justify expenditures and reduce costs while improving services. It argues that ITIL allows organizations to "do more, for more, with less" by working smarter instead of just cutting costs. Specific areas where ITIL can generate savings are identified as vendor management, bandwidth management, asset management, increased end-user productivity, and increased labor efficiencies. The document provides examples of cost savings and avoidance that can be realized within short timeframes through ITIL processes like service level management, availability management, and capacity management.
2008-0207 - DatacCenter Journal - Myths of the CMDBMichele Hudnall
This article discusses common myths about configuration management databases (CMDBs). It begins by providing background on the growth of CMDBs and why they are needed to help organizations better manage frequent IT changes. It then addresses four common myths: 1) A CMDB is only an internal IT project rather than providing business benefits. 2) Process improvement should be completed before implementing tools. 3) Asset management databases alone can serve as a CMDB. 4) A CMDB needs a single centralized database rather than a coordinated view across systems. The article argues that CMDBs should focus on improving IT services for business users and that tools can help improve processes.
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This document is a special report from Troy Media about Alberta's information and communications technology (ICT) sector. It provides an overview of several topics:
- Innovation is key to fully utilizing ICT infrastructure and meeting challenges in the sector. Focusing on business processes rather than just technology is important.
- Alberta's technology sector does not see the oil industry as competition and instead seeks to work with energy companies to apply ICT solutions.
- Over 54,000 Albertans are employed in the technology industry in roles ranging from software development to technical support. ICT is an important economic driver for the province.
Don't let the common issues catch you out. M&A IT projects are difficult however the issues tend to be common ones. In this whitepaper we help guide you through them so come Day One you have a smile on your face and not a frown.
The document discusses the concept of digital transformation that businesses are currently undergoing. It notes that while consultants emphasize the disruptive nature of digital change, digital transformation is actually a process of compromise that involves optimizing business processes, products, people and assets through automation. The key is for businesses to start with a clear ambition of what they want to achieve through digital efforts and then work backwards to implement changes.
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Law journal news it is dead article; long live it controlling costs while getting the most out of technology - sep 2009
1. LJN’s
Legal Tech Newsletter ®
Volume 27, Number 6 • September 2009
P R AC T I C E T I P IT is Dead; Long Live IT: Controlling Costs
While Getting the Most Out of Technology
X Marks the Spot:
By David B. Cunningham
Lessons Learned
From the Data
Map Process
By Ganesh Vednere
T here is an irony to IT in law firms: Firms spend so much time on issues like
IT infrastructure and upgrade projects that they spend too little time using
technology to improve how lawyers work. Law firms cannot achieve real
value from their technology investments until they change this model. Moreover,
changing the usual model can lower overall IT spending while increasing stability
Creating the right data map and lawyer satisfaction. With our law firm IT benchmarks reflecting that the high-
with the right information takes est spending firms spend twice as much per lawyer on technology as the lowest
time, patience, perseverance and spending firms, there is a lot to be gained by increasing technology efficiencies.
pull. A data map that is hastily With good leadership, streamlining IT infrastructure and rebalancing attention
put together and is missing infor- to IT practice technologies, law firms can have real effects on productivity and
mation will only provide cursory client relations.
support to counsel, and instead A Firm’s Best it investment: it LeAdership
may end up providing fodder to Based on the assessments of hundreds of firms, it is clear that a leading factor
opposing counsel. Some have in the quality and value of a firm’s technology is the proficiency of the IT director.
even said that is better to not A good IT director will build a solid team, communicate effectively with lawyers,
have a data map, claim ignorance plan and architect with an eye to the future, emphasize testing, be a smart pur-
and hope for leniency than to chaser and better control the firm’s vendors. Every dollar poured into a good IT
state that you have a data map director or CIO pays back in terms of risk mitigation, hassle reduction and cost
and produce an incomplete, half- control — not necessarily lower costs, but better control of spending.
baked and inadequate one and Even a good IT director can become ineffective when working with technol-
anger the judge. ogy leadership in ill-defined roles. An IT leader needs four things from the firm
Many organizations have hun-
outside the IT Department:
dreds of business applications,
1. Representative feedback from a static group or a topic-specific group;
systems, utilities, network file
2. Authoritative decisions;
shares and collaboration sites
3. Qualified advice, recommendations and planning; and
(such as SharePoint, Wikis etc.),
4. Advocacy.
not to mention the potential gold-
continued on page 2
mine of data stored in backup
tapes, archival systems, PST files
and offsite storage. Daunting as
In This Issue
it may seem, creating a data map Controlling Costs While
is actually twice as difficult as Getting the Most Out of
you thought. Really, simply e- Technology . . . . . . . . 1
mailing a “questionnaire” to the Lessons Learned from the
IT or operational folks asking for Data Map Process . . . 1
a list of applications, systems and Gaining Competitive
platforms within the organiza- Edge with Redact-It . . 3
tion may not produce optimal re- Legal Hold Amendment
sults. Instead, a holistic approach At Family Dollar . . . . 7
to the creation of the data map
must be undertaken.
continued on page 4
3. Gaining Competitive example, in one bankruptcy-related appropriate privilege based redac-
litigation matter that I am working tions are factored into the mix, the
Edge and ROI with on, we have exchanged over 60,000 burden on lawyers and litigants can
documents with opposing counsel be overwhelming, particularly since
Redact-It’s Electronic during the last three months, and each redaction must be identified
Redaction Tool this is not a particularly large case. and explained in a log for opposing
Document repositories with well counsel.
By Sean O’Keefe over a million document pages are Years ago, my staff and I used the
not uncommon in this environment. time-honored manual method of
My firm, based in Newport Beach, resistAnce is FutiLe redaction. We printed copies of the
CA, specializes in bankruptcy and Although some lawyers have re- documents to be redacted, used a
creditors’ rights. As part of its prac- sisted the digital revolution, this is black marker or redaction tape to
tice, the firm regularly pursues and no longer an option. e-Filing is now cover the content to be protected,
defends insolvency-related litigation mandatory in the federal courts, and and then made enough photocop-
in the federal courts. This kind of state courts will soon follow this ies of the page to ensure the text
financial litigation is inherently doc- trend. Unless a firm wants to out- was completely blacked out. Then
ument-intensive — often involving source this function (e-filing), high- we would scan the document back
thousands of documents that must speed scanning technology is a must, into the system and along the way
be reviewed, identified and scanned since substantially every e-filed doc- re-review the document to ensure
during the discovery process. ument must be in PDF format. Fortu- all privileged and privacy data was
Twenty years ago, I would spend nately, the cost of this technology is blacked-out. In cases involving tens
days wading through hundreds of now reasonable, and PPM scan rates of thousands of documents, this was
boxes in hot, dusty warehouses and have dramatically improved. a time-consuming and mind-numb-
storage rooms, trying to piece to- The move to electronic filing has ing burden that was prone to hu-
gether the documentary evidence come with its own set of rules. For man error. Although in recent years,
necessary to support or defeat the example, the Dec. 1, 2007 amend- we have used various software pro-
claims involved in the litigation ments to the 2002 e-Government act grams to mitigate this burden, few
contest. Once the documents were (Appellate Rule 25, new Bankruptcy of them provided the flexibility and
culled from this source, each docu- Rule 9037, Civil Rule 5.2, and Crimi- convenience necessary to materially
ment would then be logged and nal Rule 49.1) require filers to redact lessen the burden.
photocopied for trial. personal identification information About a year ago, when I was
Today, the discovery universe is from documents filed with the court. again faced with a case that would
very different. Large bodies of doc- Personal information includes, but require the redaction of thousands
uments are already in digital form may not be limited to, Social Securi-
of entries, I decided to search the
when litigation is initiated and the ty and Taxpayer Identification num-
Internet for new redaction software
balance can be quickly digitized bers, the names of minor children,
that would ease this burden and re-
through high-speed scanners. This financial account numbers, dates of
duce the associated costs. My search
allows litigants to create a commonly birth, and, in criminal cases, home
led me to a product called Redact-
accessible database (although the addresses. Although this information
It Desktop, which was made by In-
arguments still rage over who pays should have been removed during
formative Graphics out of Arizona.
for what) and once all of the data is the “paper filing” days as a matter of
Redact-It is an electronic redaction
digitized, the lawyers can efficiently prudent practice, it was frequently
overlooked. Now, failing to redact software program that allows me
search, identify, log, and where ap- to review documents electronically
propriate, redact privileged matter, this information could have severe
consequences for the filer. and search for privileged content.
all without leaving their desks. The program enables me to effi-
This electronic convenience is redAction soFtwAre ciently and automatically remove
also very timely. The current eco- Redaction has always been one of
privacy information — including
nomic downturn has dramatically the more time-consuming burdens
all information that requires redac-
increased the number of corporate inherent in the discovery process.
tion for filing into the federal sys-
Chapter 11 filings. Business bank- For example, a single tax return in
tem — add reason codes for each
ruptcies are typically document a complicated case can have more
than one hundred pages of data, and redaction, and then generate a log
intensive, and the litigation that for opposing counsel.
arises within these cases can gener- half of these pages can include a
Social Security or Tax Identification In April 2008, I purchased a sin-
ate massive discovery burdens. For gle license for $195. The installation
number. Every one of these entries
Sean O’Keefe is principal and found- must be redacted. That’s 50 entries was fast and easy — I basically ran
er of O’Keefe & Associates Law Cor- in a single document. In a case with an executable file to install Redact-
poration P.C. in Newport Beach, CA. 30 or 40 tax returns, thousands of It, opened the program and started
The firm specializes in bankruptcy redactions may be required just to using it that day. The intuitive tools
and creditors’ rights law. eliminate these entries. When other continued on page 4
September 2009 LJN’s Legal Tech Newsletter ❖ www.ljnonline.com/alm?lt 3
4. Redact-It the legal community when they de- focus on other more important tasks,
veloped the latest version of their or better still, to take some time off.
continued from page 3 For a one-time charge of $195, I am
software, version 1.1, which imple-
and visual presentation allowed me mented tools that make the final re- saving my clients thousands of dol-
to integrate the program into my view easier. I have just started using lars and improving the quality of my
practice, without the time and cost this version, but there is an option practice.
of formal training. I found the soft- to show just a few lines of the doc- Eventually, all lawyers will be do-
ware to be effective, flexible, and ument at a time for a focused view. ing redaction electronically; but for
most importantly, user friendly. You I just click a “down arrow” to prog- now, many attorneys insist on do-
don’t have to be a rocket scientist to ress the view window to the next ing redaction the old-fashioned way,
figure it out. document segment until the entire with markers or redaction tape, and
Although Redact-It certainly saved document has been read. When I it’s costing them and their clients’
me time, I also needed the program complete this kind of review, the time and money. So to those still re-
to be accurate and comprehensive. program creates a log entry, along sisting technology and change and
Even with the benefit of this new with every other redaction function clutching their markers and tape, I
electronic tool, I typically will do sev- performed. The improvements also am here to tell you that to stay com-
eral passes over the material. First, I make it possible to record redac- petitive, electronic tools are essen-
use Redact-It’s built-in tool for find- tion steps on the first document, tial. The cost and time savings are
ing privacy information, like Social and to automatically apply these just too important to ignore.
Security numbers. Then I search for same steps to other documents as Discovery is tedious and expen-
the actual Social Security number in soon as they are opened. This fea- sive, and whatever technological tool
question with the text search tool to ture makes sure nothing is missed will get me through the process the
be sure nothing was missed. Even within the documents and it saves most quickly, without sacrificing my
using two search methods, it takes even more time. objectives, is at the top of my list.
just seconds per document. Since I Redact-It has been huge from a For me, Redact-It fits the bill in the
still am a firm believer that there is ROI standpoint, providing cost and redaction arena. I am able to save
no substitute for the human eye, I efficiency benefits for both my prac- both my sanity and my time while
still perform a visual review. tice and my clients. On small cases, saving my clients’ money and in-
improvements And roi with a few hundred documents, I creasing accuracy. This helps me
Redaction errors or omissions can save several hours, which at cur- to maintain competitive advantage.
can have serious consequences for rent hourly rates is a major plus for Few tools at that price can do that
the client and for the lawyer. So I my clients. In the larger cases, the much for the bottom line.
was very glad to see that Informa- savings are even greater. This tech-
—❖—
tive Graphics heard the pleas of nological enabler also allows me to
Data Map Process Start with existing data infrastruc- provide a list of security and access
ture, record and business process groups by the various applications.
continued from page 1 inventories. Typically, the IT infra- Obtaining accurate and complete
structure team will have the list(s) of inventories is always a challenge.
it’s ALL ABout the While it behooves organizations to
system infrastructures, their locations,
(mAp) coordinAtes business/IT owners and platform spend upfront time and resources in
At its core, a data map is an inven- ensuring that these lists are as accu-
names. The records management
tory of the sources of data within an rate as possible, the data map team
team will have an inventory of the
organization, the names and types must make adequate contingency
various types of records generated
of applications or platforms that plans to account for the errors and
through the course of business along
store this data, the processes that omissions in the lists provided to
manipulate the data, how the data with the requisite record metadata,
such as record description, owner, lo- them.
flows within various business pro- Once existing lists and invento-
cesses and how this data is stored, cation, formats and retention period.
ries are obtained, the next step is to
retrieved and accessed. The operations team will have a list of
start mapping the data types to cor-
the various business processes, pro-
responding applications, platforms,
Ganesh Vednere is a manager with cess descriptions, process inputs and
owners and business processes. The
a global financial service consulting outputs, owners, process dependen-
data map team also needs to con-
company based out of New York. He cies and the applications and systems
duct walkthrough sessions with the
has expertise in implementing informa- that are used to execute the process. various stakeholders to discuss how
tion and compliance programs includ- Work with HR to obtain organiza- the data moves from one applica-
ing e-discovery, compliance research, tional charts that show the various tion/business process to another.
records management, legal research hierarchies, roles and responsibilities A data map needs to incorporate
and program implementation. He can within the organization. In addition,
continued on page 5
be reached at gvedn@comcast.net. the information security team can
4 LJN’s Legal Tech Newsletter ❖ www.ljnonline.com/alm?lt September 2009
5. Data Map Process cal mid-size organization, it is rea- • Use Facilitated Sessions. When
sonable to expect a timeframe of at time is short and specific pieces of
continued from page 4 least a couple of months to produce information are required from the
aspects of all data flows within an a data map, assuming the informa- participants, facilitated sessions may
organization. There are several ways tion required is readily available and be the way to go. It may be better
to perform the mapping — starting up-to-date. to gather managers and support staff
with the infrastructure/application • Avoid Reinventing the Wheel. that work in a common business
list and then tying it to the business Leverage any and all existing lists, in- area, assemble them in a room and
process, records, HR and access ventories, projects and programs for target specific questions to gather in-
controls lists. Alternatively, one can harvesting information necessary to formation about their specific busi-
start with the business process list the data map project. In some cases ness process and data flows.
and then map out the correspond- these are not always well published or • Automated Tools. As the mar-
ing data outputs, records and so publicized, hence some digging around ketplace ramps up for e-discovery,
on. This is where the bulk of the may be required to uncover what piec- many players are entering the arena
data map complexity occurs. One es have already been created. with their product and service offer-
option for reducing the complexity • Apply Project Management ings. Given the complexity of locat-
Techniques. By its very nature, the ing data, determining structures and
of the mapping exercise is to pri-
data map project requires a disparate relationships it is no surprise that au-
oritize higher data risk areas with-
tomated tools will eventually replace
in the organization and focus on team of representatives from various
most of the core data map process-
these first and then complete the business lines, legal, compliance, IT,
es. Tools can also ease much of the
other areas. operations and so on. The only way
manual work around collating, clas-
Are we there Yet? to keep the team working together in
sifying and storing the information.
The following are some key lessons a cohesive manner is to have one or
• Updates and Maintenance.
learned from the data map process. more strong project managers with
Once the data map is developed,
• Deploy the Right Resources. experience in large scale projects a process for periodic updates and
Creating a data map requires a col- who have gone through the program ongoing maintenance must be insti-
laborative effort on the part of legal, implementation lifecycle. tuted. A data map that is outdated
IT, business, operations and compli- • People Have Day Jobs Too. Most does not really serve its purpose. As
ance areas. It is not just a one-person resources allocated to the data map business processes and systems are
show. Legal needs to determine if the project will continue to have their updated or upgraded, the appro-
end product is good enough for use “day” jobs. It is rare that a project priate information in the data map
during litigation; IT needs to provide team will get dedicated representa- must also be updated. At the same
relevant information about servers, tives from the lines of businesses and time, when systems are retired or
data and metadata; business and IT. Typically, one can expect part-time replaced, updates must be made to
operations teams need to provide resources to be provided to support the data map to reflect where and
information on business processes; the project. How part time it gets de- how the data will be stored for re-
while the compliance team provides pends on how well management has trieval at a future date. This last part
details on what controls have been been updated on the need and im- is important as there are instances
established on information flows. portance of the data map project. The where data may not be accessible via
• Apply a Methodical Process. key thing to keep in mind is not just reasonable means and organizations
The process of how a data map is to have a large number of individu- will have to demonstrate that this is
created is in many instances as im- als on the project, but rather to have indeed the case.
portant as the data map itself. The the right resources on board. Quality concLusion
quality of the data map — and its reli- trumps quantity here. Daunting as it may appear, creat-
ability — is directly dependent upon • Use a Risk-Based Approach. ing a data map is a key aspect of the
how well the process of collecting, Somewhere in the middle of the e-discovery process. Organizations
collating, analyzing and classifying data map project, it is easy to get must start the process of creating
the underlying data is implement- lost in the sheer volume of informa- one now rather than waiting until
ed. It is best to follow a consistent tion that is being collated and ana- litigation requires them to do so. A
framework throughout the process lyzed. In most large organizations, well-developed and well-document-
and ensure that all involved teams it is somewhat impossible to gather, ed data map will prove useful in the
follow the process. identify and tag every single piece long run, both from a litigation and
• Establish Reasonable Time- of information. While it is hard to operational perspective. It allows
frames. Setting up a time frame is predict what kind of information legal to support its case in court,
usually not an option when there is a will be required to be produced business to understand the types of
litigation fire drill going on, but if the once in court, one can at least make information it works with and IT to
situation permits, an attempt should risk-based assumptions on the types have a full and complete list of sys-
be made to evaluate and establish of data sets required and focus best tem assets.
reasonable timeframes. For a typi- efforts on them. —❖—
September 2009 LJN’s Legal Tech Newsletter ❖ www.ljnonline.com/alm?lt 5
6. IT Is Dead 1. Services that are notably man- and for how long. Software vendors
intensive but not user facing? have long recognized the conver-
continued from page 2 2. Services that require specialist gence of e-mail, document manage-
and recovery capabilities are built skills, but aren’t full time? ment and records management, so
into storage systems like those from 3. Services that require 24-hour at- companies such as Autonomy (now
NetApp (which can also manage tention? owners of iManage/Interwoven) and
other vendors). By combining smart 4. Services that need high capital Recommind provide sets of tools to
systems with good firm retention investments? support a single, unified electronic
and archival policies (notably in- One firm, for example, had sever- matter file from open through close,
clusive of litigation support), firms al IT staff employed to run backups and effective e-mail management.
have literally reduced storage needs and provide 24-hour monitoring of As the economy has changed,
by over 60%. the firm’s network. While one could one of the few areas in which firms
IT Data Center. Often overlooked, applaud the generosity of their mon- have invested more resources is in
a key benefit of consolidation is the itoring focus, they were able to turn nurturing client opportunities and
potential to avoid or reduce costly to a vendor service for about 10% of relationships. Despite investments
power and cooling upgrades. the firm’s previous cost. And frankly, in marketing software, firms are un-
These changes will simplify IT the vendor was able to afford bet- satisfied with their own abilities
operations and staffing levels to ter monitoring and troubleshooting to learn whom and what the firm
one IT staff managing infrastructure tools. Other examples include help knows about clients and potential
and PCs for approximately every desk (notably after hours support), clients. Passive technology, such as
100-150 users. The upcoming re- database maintenance, Wide Area ContactNet, mines information about
lease of Windows 7 and, assumedly, Network monitoring, security con- relationships from e-mail, voice sys-
better economic conditions are ex- trol and disaster recovery testing. tems, billing systems, etc. Such soft-
pected to kick-start more firms into Get more From ware combines internal and external
making these improvements over prActice technoLoGY information sources and requires no
the next 12 months. With IT infrastructure streamlined, additional effort to keep informa-
Get A reALitY check resources can be redirected to ap- tion current. Having this “six degrees
ABout outsourcinG plying technology to the practice of separation” network available at
Evaluating outsourcing is uncom- of law. Practice technology objec- a lawyer’s fingertips can enhance
fortable for law firms. However, tives include supporting the qual- business development and help to
rather than consider outsourcing to ity and profitability of legal services strengthen client relationships.
be an all or nothing proposition, rec- to clients, while enabling lawyers The precedent for firms using
ognize that vendors provide a menu to spend more time on high-value technology to enhance their ser-
of services from which a law firm work and client-facing activities. vice delivery is unfortunately low.
can choose (hence the term “man- At the core of practice technology The 2008 Association of Corporate
aged services” is often used). There is document and e-mail manage- Counsel Value Challenge findings
are a small number of legal-specif- ment. Common issues are fragment- reflect the frustration from corpo-
ic managed service providers (e.g., ed client matter files (electronic and rate counsel on law firms’ abilities
Keno Kozie, MindShift, IntelliTeach) paper files scattered across multiple to effectively budget, staff projects,
that can match your internal costs, locations and applications) and dif- track fees to budget, share knowl-
provide lower risk of failure and se- ficulty finding and sharing matter edge and communicate status. Like
curity breaches, and provide deeper materials (lawyers and staff perform other areas, technology can only
bench strength of IT skills than most redundant, inefficient searching and play a supporting role in improving
firms can afford. filing activities and redundant paper these business functions, but there
Therefore, it is smart for a firm files consume unnecessary amounts are many simplified project man-
to undergo a “sourcing analysis” to of physical space). As a result, while agement and collaborative extranet
compare its internal risks, service good service is likely maintained, it technologies available for firms. In
levels and costs to those of external is done with more effort than neces- a time when investing in client re-
vendors. At a minimum, the firm will sary while profits are undermined lationships is a priority, providing
understand its own areas of potential and client service could be compro- clarity on matter status can be a
improvements. While only a minor- mised. firm’s strong differentiator.
ity of firms will turn core operations Such practice issues require a One of the fastest changing aspects
over to a vendor (e.g., hosting and blend of people, process/policies to client relationships is an arrange-
managing the e-mail system), all firms and technology to address. In re- ment in which a firm’s fees are based
should list and scrutinize the services lation to electronic matter files, an partially on the success or satisfac-
provided by IT. Four areas to look at e-records management policy and tion of the work product. To make
IT for managed service opportunities retention schedule should serve as such an arrangement profitable,
can help focus the analysis: guides for what is stored, where continued on page 8
6 LJN’s Legal Tech Newsletter ❖ www.ljnonline.com/alm?lt September 2009
7. A Focus on Customer issued a hold notice via our corpo- impLementinG Fusion
rate e-mail accounts and hard copy. The implementation process went
Service: Legal Hold We tracked the details of each legal extremely smoothly. We chose to
Management at hold, including reminders and hold
releases, using Excel spreadsheets.
keep Fusion Legal Hold behind Ex-
terro’s firewall, allowing us to forego
Family Dollar We found this process to be lacking, on-site installation; and implement-
and determined we needed a “one- ing the ASP model was a simple,
By Kevin Anderson stop” communication link with cus- easy process. Exterro had a solid
todians, with automated audit trails. implementation plan before rollout,
Family Dollar Stores is a neigh-
We also wanted to move away from and we were quickly able to lever-
borhood-based convenience and
the practice of regularly using outside age its integration capabilities to
value retailer with more than 6,600
counsel to handle the creation of cus- incorporate our pre-existing tech-
locations in 44 states, and more than
tom legal hold notices for our litiga- nology with Fusion. Our transition
45,000 full-time employees.
tion portfolio. We knew it was time to was seamless and there was nei-
As the director of litigation support,
rethink our legal hold process. ther significant interruption in our
I work with a team of 26 attorneys
and various information technology FindinG the riGht soLution day-to-day activities nor any system
We decided that automating our compatibility issues. I worked with
(IT) professionals. I am the primary
legal hold process was the best way our IT department and Exterro’s cli-
driver for all e-discovery, information
life cycle management, privacy and we could give good service to the ent success and engineering teams
litigation management processes. At business people with whom we work to deploy Fusion Legal Hold and its
any one time, Family Dollar has doz- while also mitigating risk for the or- features:
ens of professionals collaborating on ganization and reducing the time • Fusion’s integration points en-
multiple pending cases in a variety spent on the legal hold process. abled us to feed custodian data
of fields. We came up with several require- to Fusion from our HRIS system
ments going into our search for an and Oracle e-Business Suite, and
communicAtion BreAkdown: link Fusion’s functionality to
automated solution. First, we needed
cumBersome LeGAL it to capture and create audit trails of our custodians via Microsoft Ex-
hoLd process all hold activity. Second, we needed change Server. This eliminated
We send out litigation holds al- a solution that would provide a cen- any need to manually enter cus-
most daily to up to 400 custodians at tralized way to manage legal hold todian information into Fusion;
a time, including anyone from store responses and answer custodian and with approximately 3,500 users
managers to senior organization of- data stewards’ questions. Third, it — that’s a major time savings.
ficers. e-Mail is the most commonly needed to be intuitive and easy to • Fusion Legal Hold’s notifica-
targeted type of data in our holds, use without specialized training. Fi- tion management increased ef-
but we also often place holds on a nally, it needed to be cost-effective. ficiency by automating and sim-
wide variety of other data, including I began my search by looking plifying the process of creating
unstructured file network-situated at automated legal hold solutions legal holds, identifying custodi-
data and structured data; and we de- from several leading legal software ans and data, and issuing legal
cide what to hold based on the na- providers. While many offered sev- hold notifications. Additionally,
ture of each case. eral features we needed, an in-depth automated notifications enable
In developing our litigation hold analysis of Exterro’s Fusion Legal our IT team to know what data
process, we had created a manual Hold revealed it to be the best fit for needs to be retained without the
approach to the large number of Family Dollar’s needs. legal department having to initi-
litigation holds we managed. How- Exterro’s Fusion Legal Hold met ate a separate workflow to com-
ever, we found the process to be all of our requirements, and offered municate with them.
very labor-intensive. When a trigger- several additional features that made • Fusion’s unique collaborative
ing event came to our attention, we our decision an easy one: tools enabled us to share the
Kevin Anderson is the Director of • A secure, audited and direct link identities of custodians with our
Litigation Support for Family Dollar between custodians and legal IT department in real-time. The
Stores, Inc., a Fortune 500 company teams that would allow custo- collaborative tool we’ve found
based in North Carolina, where he dians to ask questions and our to be most useful is what we
focuses on e-discovery, technology legal teams to answer them from call the “ask questions” feature.
and privacy issues. Anderson has a central repository; Custodians in the field and IT
more than 18 years of experience • Superior integration capabilities, managers can immediately send
in the practice of law, including a including the ability to integrate their hold-related questions to
decade in private practice and eight with our HR system and existing us via Fusion, without having to
years of experience as in-house matter management system; and either log out of the system or
counsel in the retail industry. • Competitive price point. continued on page 8
September 2009 LJN’s Legal Tech Newsletter ❖ www.ljnonline.com/alm?lt 7
8. Family Dollar said, “I love this thing.” Overall, we • Gap time reduction. We’ve re-
had a very positive response from duced the lead-time between trigger-
continued from page 7 ing events and legal hold issuance.
the legal team as well as the custodi-
pick up the phone to call us. Our ans and IT team members. Fusion’s templated holds and inte-
answers flow back to them im- end resuLts grations with our HR system allow
mediately, and the whole conver- With Fusion in place, once a trig- us to quickly scope large litigation
sation is tracked and tied to the gering event comes to our attention, projects. Additionally, we can now
hold itself for future reference. a member of the legal team can im- quickly target the data to be retained
• Fusion’s audit trails created efficient mediately create a legal hold by with clear litigation hold notices that
defensibility and cut down on the choosing the template appropriate to minimize inefficiencies and reduce
time spent tracking holds by en- matter type and modifying it as nec- duplication.
abling our users to see, at a glance essary, or creating a new hold using • Time savings and efficiency.
and in real time, who has and who Fusion’s simple three-step wizard. We’ve reduced the time spent per
has not responded to each hold The hold is then approved and sent week on tracking legal hold processes
notice. We can view event history out rapidly via Fusion’s messaging from about 10 hours to about 30 min-
for a hold or matter, and export a system, with built-in escalations and utes — a time savings of 95%. Since
timeline if necessary. reminder parameters. Fusion tracks its implementation in January 2009,
• Fusion’s hold templates reduced and audits all activities related to that Fusion has saved us significant staff
the time spent on creating new hold, alerts the legal team when ac- hours in tracking and administrative
legal holds by about half, prov- tion is needed, and allows our custo- work alone, freeing our legal talent to
ing particularly indispensible for dians to ask questions and our attor- focus on their core competencies.
large litigation projects. neys to answer immediately. When • Defensibility. We now have an
• Fusion’s release process allows the matter is resolved, the hold is re- automated method of tracking and
increased efficiency by enabling leased with the click of a mouse. monitoring the legal hold process
us to release legal holds with The aspects of the software that we that requires little intervention on
just a couple clicks of a mouse, have been most satisfied with are: the part of the legal team, and shows
freeing our IT department to re- • Streamlined process, compli- exactly what happened with respect
turn affected data to its regular ance. Fusion has cut the inefficiency to each hold issued on a custodian-
retention and destruction cycle out of the legal hold process, greatly by-custodian basis.
and allowing for timely data dis- improving our customer service and concLusion
position. accessibility. Additionally, by allow- Since its implementation, Fusion
Getting buy-in from our constitu- ing end users to review legal holds as has reduced our legal-hold related
ents was fairly easy. I sat with each part of their normal, day-to-day busi- outside counsel expenditures substan-
attorney and paralegal while they cre- ness processes, Fusion has embedded tially, cut our spoliation and human-
ated their first legal hold, and overall compliance into everyday workflows. error related risks, and given us the
it took about two weeks to get every- • Reduced costs. By reducing our transparent and fully audited system
one comfortable with the new tech- reliance on outside counsel and staff we need for a fully defensible legal
nology and associated process. One time to create, process and track le- hold process.
of my most difficult-to-please parale- gal holds, Fusion has helped to re-
gals even walked into my office and duce our legal-hold related costs. —❖—
IT Is Dead best practices, experts, etc.) quick- for IT departments to simply keep
ly and easily. Matter and practice systems running, the role for IT in
continued from page 6 supporting lawyer productivity is
financial dashboards can provide
a firm has to learn how to price current status and issue informa- the dawning of a new age for many
such work, how to define success tion. Any effort to create efficien- firms.
or satisfaction, and how to man- cies pay off handsomely, especially —❖—
age progress against the budget. since a recent study within profes-
Few firms are yet good at all three sional service organizations reflects The publisher of this newsletter is not engaged in rendering
areas. Technology can play a role that people spend 30% of their time legal, accounting, financial, investment advisory or other
professional services, and this publication is not meant to
not only in managing matter time simply searching for content. constitute legal, accounting, financial, investment advisory
and budget (as above), but also in Never before have firms been as or other professional advice. If legal, financial, investment
advisory or other professional assistance is required, the ser-
providing access to existing firm willing to shake up the traditional vices of a competent professional person should be sought.
resources (templates, precedents, focus of IT. While the age is over
To order this newsletter, call: On the Web at:
1-877-256-2472 www.ljnonline.com
8 LJN’s Legal Tech Newsletter ❖ www.ljnonline.com/alm?lt September 2009