The Price of eDiscovery

2007 was a banner year for data theft; a record number of publicly reported security breaches were recorded and compromised personal records are at an all-time high. With this being said, the ability to investigate exactly what occurred during a unauthorized disclosure is essential. With eDiscovery tools being a relatively new idea to mainstream networking, how do you determine the key qualities for an eDiscovery solution?

How do I determine whether a solution will be successful in the longterm?
InfoGovernance set up a good discussion and formula that you can use to evaluate the longterm success of an eDiscovery solution. It’s very helpful to read when you’re trying to set up a “bake off” between multiple eDiscovery vendors. With the field being new, you not only need to take into account the success of the solution to be “useful” for your situation, but the ability of the company to succeed. If you’re spending thousands of dollars on a solution from a small company, you also want to be sure the company will be around. The questions to ask about the company and solution are outlined here.

How do I determine a reasonable price and the ROI from an eDiscovery solution?
Although there is a lot of marketing speak from vendors around eDiscovery tools, there are also several online resources that you can use to get around this. For example, MarkYacino wrote a great piece about some of the basic vocabulary you’ll need to understand when speaking with vendors. Gartner and Network World have also developed resources around purchasing and using eDiscovery tools. From a legal perspective you can also check out Nixon Peabody.

In a past post I have outlined other online resources for eDiscovery.