Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Barry Murphy. Published: 2013-06-11 08:52:22Format, images and links may no longer function correctly. Indications are that eDiscovery solution purchases are about to become more strategic in nature.  A decade ago, it was not uncommon to see non-competitive bids for eDiscovery business because so many purchases were reactive and made under intense time pressure.  In the past several months, however, the inquiries from clients have become more intelligent and more specific – a sure sign that folks are getting ready to make more strategic investments in software and services.

In years past, inquiries tended to focus on broad questions.  A common query would be whether or not corporations were buying eDiscovery software.  Another question might focus on when to buy software versus use a service provider.  But over the last several months, inquiries have poured in with more specificity.  Now, clients want to know what other organizations just like them are doing and whom they are doing it with.  For example, it is no longer good enough to provide general statistics such as how many corporations are “taking eDiscovery in-house.”  Instead, eDiscovery professionals want in depth intelligence.

Companies want to know what others in their verticals and size range are doing, and not about eDiscovery in general.  Questions come in that ask, “what processing/ECA tools are Fortune 100 tools buying, how are they sourcing them (e.g. on-premise software, SaaS), and which tools are they purchasing?”  Many law firm client want to know the specifics of what their peers are doing, and they want the data to match them.  It is not good enough to say that law firms tend to do X or Y; rather, clients want to know what the AMLAW 100 or 200 are doing, or what medium-size firms are doing.

With those types of questions coming in, it is clear that many are working through purchasing decisions or are planning to implement some kind of solution.  At eDJ, we want to understand what all segments of the market are doing and provide the specific data that clients need.  It is not as simple as running an online survey, however, because eDiscovery purchases are complicated and rarely make for good apples-to-apples comparisons.

To that end, we are beginning a conversational survey process where an eDJ analyst will spend 20-30 minutes walking eDiscovery professionals (please, no vendors) through some questions and will be happy to provide feedback, answer questions, etc.  Any and all participants will get the summary results to use as a benchmark for their own activities.  If you would be willing to conduct a short call with an eDJ analyst and be included in this research, please email me and we can set up a time to chat.  As always, all information will be held in the strictest confidence and all responses will remain anonymous.

Barry Murphy can be reached at barry@eDJGroupInc.com for offline comments or questions. His active research topics include information governance, Predictive Coding, and the impact of social media on eDiscovery.  Barry’s latest research report is Predictive Coding: What You Need To Know Now​.

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