Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Barry Murphy. Published: 2013-03-18 10:27:40  Producing eDJ research is a team effort.  As always, you can find our latest reports on the eDJ Research Reports page of the site.  We have a great group of analysts, each of whom has deep knowledge within very specific topic areas.  There is a natural synergy between those topics areas and we capture those synergies and tie all eDJ research together into themes.  Many clients and readers ask what kind of research we are focusing on, so we pooled our research agendas to create a broader, company-wide one.  The eDJ research agenda for 2013 focuses on the following themes and topics – the analyst leading the topic is noted each time (please feel free to reach out directly to the lead analyst for a topic if you have questions or suggestions):Cloud-based ESI in eDiscovery (Greg Buckles)For a long time, SMB companies were the primary consumer of Cloud based communication, collaboration, document management and other Saas offerings. SalesForce, Google docs and Microsoft BPOS/Office365 have demonstrated the increasing maturity and scalability of these Cloud solutions. However, global corporations present a very different set of discovery, regulatory, privacy and security challenges as compared to their SMB counterparts. My research will focus on evaluating whether these Cloud offerings have the maturity, stability and flexibility to address these challenges.eDiscovery Education (Mikki Tomlinson) This research project will analyze the current sources of eDiscovery education, consumer needs and trends.eDiscovery Technology: Best-of-breed versus platform (Barry Murphy)Software providers have been marketing eDiscovery platforms for almost a decade, yet no one provider dominates.  Not only will I be looking at the evolution of eDiscovery platforms – both for corporate and law firm use-cases – but I will examine when it makes sense to invest in a platform with breadth of functionality versus a point solution that may have best of breed functionality.   This research will require not only an investigation of the tools available – and the associated tracking of functionality on eDiscoveryMatrix.com – but also tracking of the tools that different types of organizations are selecting.Evolution of Technology-Assisted Review and Predictive Coding (Barry Murphy) Technology-assisted review (TAR) and Predictive Coding have been hot topics for the last several years, but 2013 is all about getting to the nitty-gritty of how these approaches work.  My research on these subjects will focus on trends in adoption and case studies of actual experiences.  I will delve into the workflows that are showing promise, feature leading practitioners and incorporate their experiences into my writing.  I will also begin to stratify the providers in the space so that consumers know our opinion on the strongest available options in the market.Evolving business models of solution providers in the eDiscovery market (Barry Murphy)Increasingly, law firms are offering services built around technology, services that once were the domain of service providers.  This has led to strange competitive bedfellows at times and created issues for service providers that want to be transparent with customers, only to find that there are competitive implications.  Are law firms wrong to compete with service providers?  In a market economy where there is a revenue opportunity, probably not.  But, I will examine what that might mean for corporate eDiscovery professionals as they make decisions on eDiscovery solutions.Information Governance: The Ground-floor View (Barry Murphy)It is great to think about IG at the highest levels and to understand how things like automated classification can ease the burden of managing huge volumes of digital information.  Sometimes, it is fun to simply guestimate when such practices will be commonplace.  eDJ clients, though, also want to know what they should be doing today – and what their peers are doing today – in order to meet minimum requirements and given limited budgets.  To that end, part of my IG research will be a realistic look at what organizations of all sizes can do to get information under control in a cost-effective way while minimizing risk as much as possible.  At eDJ, we do look at perfect-world scenarios and do look at long-term trends, but we also present the realistic point of view that can provide tips and tricks that can actually be put into action immediately.International eDiscovery (Jason Velasco)eDiscovery is not confined simply to the US litigation.  Whether the matter involves gathering data from countries with strict data privacy laws or dealing with multi-lingual data sets, the eDJ Group team will cover the topic to provide assistance on legal trends, international laws, and technology used for international eDiscovery matters.Intersection of information Governance (IG) and eDiscovery (Barry Murphy)For a long time, IG has been the “starting point” in the eDiscovery lifecycle, but is such a complex topic in and of itself.  Throughout the year, I will track how organizations are actually practicing IG in order to address the challenges of eDiscovery.  We will build on surveys we have already conducted on defensible deletion and Legal Hold so that clients can begin to benchmark their own efforts and understand where peers are in terms of IG Maturity.  Look for our report on this topic in March 2013.Legal hold notification (Mikki Tomlinson)Legal hold notification, although not a “new” eDiscovery topic, continues to be a current conversation and hover at the top of the priority list for corporate legal departments.   This research project will entail the analysis and market impact of evolution in legal hold practices, case law and technology.Legal Hold Process Management: Progression of legal hold notification to collection workflow (project management) and collection tools (Mikki Tomlinson)Legal hold notification and data collection are disconnected processes for a significant number of organizations and law firms, leaving eDiscovery professionals to employ ad hoc procedures and tools to string these two key functions together.  This research project will examine these challenges and the development of new technologies that promise to bridge the gap.Mobile Device eDiscovery (Greg Buckles)Corporate workers and their ESI are becoming increasingly mobile. Policy or not, BYOD is a corporate reality that legal departments must now accommodate. My research on this new trend will focus on policies, practices and technologies to tackle these new devices and ESI formats from preservation through review.Neutral eDiscovery Experts (Jason Velasco) eDJ Group will explore the role of a neutral expert and how to effectively utilize one to manage the workflow and costs of complex eDiscovery matters.Preferred Vendor programs (Babs Deacon)This research will include surveys on Law Firm and Corporate Maturity levels of having preferred vendors for eDiscovery and ROI metrics for in-house versus outsourced eDiscovery services.  Reports will include best practices on what metrics are necessary to benefit from preferred vendor programs, e.g. subscription pricing, evaluating in-house vs. outside eDiscovery methods related to costs – how to calculate ROI, and how to do a side by side comparison when selecting a software or service provider.  Look for a March 2013 report on the Top Five Secrets to Vendor Selection.  You will also see case studies on “vendor fails,” good uses of TAR, and TAR metrics.Service Provider Market in eDiscovery (Babs Deacon)This research will examine the key considerations buyers must make when selecting a service provider, the hidden story behind service providers and project management, when and why to hire a consultant, and how managed review outsourcing fits into eDiscovery plans.Social Experience and its impact on IG and eDiscovery (Barry Murphy)People still heavily utilize email as a collaboration tool, but more and more are starting to use more social technologies to communicate with each other.  And these more social interactions – whether conducted on social networks like FaceBook or LinkedIn, enterprise social tools like Jive or Connections, or simply using Instant Messaging – are discoverable.  These technologies also present new eDiscovery challenges.  My research will look at how often these new data types are coming up in eDiscovery, the innovative solutions to deal with these new sources of data, and emerging best practices.eDiscoveryJournal Contributor and Lead Analyst – Barry Murphy

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