Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Greg Buckles. Published: 2015-02-16 19:00:00Format, images and links may no longer function correctly.
Ever heard of them? I had not until they nicely persisted in trying to get on my schedule for LTNY. I was not able to accommodate them in New York, so we did a follow up briefing to get me up to speed. Everlaw unabashedly focuses tackling the traditional eDiscovery downstream from collections. They claim to be completely homegrown, but I have heard that too many times to give it credit for more than ‘we are not reskinning a third party product’. They are one of the very few providers who acknowledge plaintiffs as a major part of their customer base. Plaintiff counsel needs good technology, but few have the budget to pay the market $/GB rates up front and most providers do not dabble in the contingency game for long. So how can cash strapped plaintiff firms afford Everlaw for matters like the Apple e-book antitrust matter or the GM ignition safety recall? With flat monthly pricing ranging from $20 down to $9 per GB, even David could process Goliath’s production. I like seeing disruptive startups, even when I know that my service provider friends will feel the pain in their sale’s quotas. It is good for the market. In my new-old leaner, meaner truth telling blog style, here are my take-away notes and some screen shots.
- Cloud based SaaS platform covering processing through depo/exhibit support
- $20-9/GB/Month includes processing, OCR, analytics (NO $200/GB bump charge), productions and more
- Not a service provider, though the processing is currently done by Everlaw behind the scenes
- Roadmap: Exposure of processing administration to customers/partners to eliminate current service element
- HTML5 Browser/device independent GUI
- Only sell technology and tech support. No project management or consulting services
- Early service partner channel development
- Primary target audience is plaintiff attorneys. eDJ thinks that this is not sustainable for long term growth (Everlaw feedback: they are strongest in plaintiff attorney customers today and will continue to support this underserved market, but they are targeting the corporate and defense firm market now)
- StoryBuilder case/evidence outlining features
- Prism viewer for most file types. No local viewer. Some custom developed file type viewers like Excel to view formulas and notes
- Built for high speed search and document presentation. eDJ says that performance is only an issue when it holds you back, not a selling point
- Developed thier own email threading with exception flagging gaps or missing emails
- Can create multimatter projects to carry through work product
- Built in team messaging. Keeps information in system. Links back to system, not actual docs
- Focus on large review teams and matters. Dashboard for supervisor to view live reviewer activity status
- Reviewer overturn and error rates reports
- Home grown continuous active learning. Only requires a few hundred review decisions with 50 hot/cold to seed the learning model. Currently single decision engine. Next release will allow multiple issue models to be trained
So what was my take on Everlaw? Too soon to have a firm opinion on any new platform that I have not seen in action, but their feature set and pricing are certainly competitive. Worth kicking the tires if you are looking for a Relativity alternative.
Greg Buckles wants your feedback, questions or project inquiries at Greg@eDJGroupInc.com. His active research topics include analytics, mobile device discovery, the discovery impact of the cloud, Microsoft’s 2013 eDiscovery Center and multi-matter discovery. Recent consulting engagements include managing preservation during enterprise migrations, legacy tape eliminations, retention enablement and many more.
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