Tempe, AZ, April 25, 2017 — Ipro Tech, a global leader in the development of advanced eDiscovery software solutions, announced today that it has received a substantial investment from technology private equity firm ParkerGale Capital. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Ipro’s Automated Digital Discovery workflow platform (ADD) helps customers organize, process, review and produce litigation data of vast sizes and complexity. The revolutionary platform enables corporations, law firms, and litigation service providers to manage eDiscovery more efficiently and cost-effectively than ever before.
“Ipro fits our description of an ideal situation perfectly,” commented Ryan Milligan, Partner at ParkerGale. “Our extensive market research shows that multiple customer segments are hungry for an alternate solution. Ipro’s product offering is in a prime position to expand across those segments. All credit goes to Kim Taylor, CEO and the outstanding team he has assembled. We look forward to working together.”
“I’m excited to enter this next phase of growth and innovation at Ipro,” said Ipro President & CEO Kim Taylor. “We’ve succeeded as a bootstrapped operation up until now and are thrilled about the prospect of new ownership with the resources and expertise ParkerGale brings to our Board. Their acquisition is an affirmation that the {I-proclamation} journey we embarked on four years ago was the right course to navigate in delivering what our customers need.”
Taylor continued, “Being part of the 28-year run of Jim King and Greg Horne has been an honor and a privilege. Their contributions are felt wholeheartedly throughout our organization and they will truly be missed. A new chapter has begun and we are jumping in with both feet.”
Ipro is also pleased to announce that Mike Suchsland, former President, Legal Business at Thomson Reuters has agreed to join the Board. “Kim and Ryan asked me if I’d be interested in getting involved with Ipro. I was completely blown away by Kim and his team, a group of dedicated professionals with incredible experience and passion for the eDiscovery business.”
Growth plans for Ipro include increased investment across all departments, including new functionality for its ADD platform and additional products that serve the legal industry as well as targeted acquisitions.
Ipro and ParkerGale would like to extend special thanks and appreciation to Brock Matthias and his colleagues at VRA Partners as well as counsel both from Osborn Maledon, P.A. and Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
About ParkerGale
ParkerGale Capital is a small private equity fund based in Chicago that buys profitable, founder-owned software and technology-enabled services companies where the firm’s operating resources can have a meaningful impact. ParkerGale also hosts the private equity industry’s only podcast, the PE FunCast on iTunes and Google Play. For more information, please visit www.parkergale.com
About Ipro Tech, LLC
Founded in 1989, Ipro is a global leader in the development of advanced eDiscovery software solutions. Ipro’s ADD Automated Digital Discovery workflow platform helps customers organize, review, process and produce litigation data of vast sizes and complexity — more efficiently and cost-effectively than ever before. To learn more visit iprotech.com. To schedule a private demonstration, email [email protected].
Case management and presentation technology like TrialDirector offer a way to review and manage case documents more efficiently on a computer. But, to take advantage of this efficiency, your documents must be in the computer. You need to go digital.
There are several other benefits to going digital besides faster document review.
Scanning your documents can get rid of the mess in your office.
You can drastically reduce clutter. All the piles of documents around your desk could be gone, and you could walk in and out of your office without having to worry about toppling the paper city you’ve constructed over time.
With less clutter comes better organization. Using a computer makes it much easier to find documents and less likely you’ll lose them. Not much is worse than finding out a document was misfiled somewhere in the canyons of filing cabinets. When your documents are on a computer, they’re much easier to find if someone puts them in the wrong location.
Also, when you use technology to manage your case documents, there are countless tools available to make managing those documents much easier. You can quickly review, annotate, and eventually present much more professional-looking items in much less time.
But how do you go digital, exactly? What does it take, and what do you need to do?
In very general terms, you pretty much have two options for getting your documents into the computer:
Ask for digital documents from the start of a case
Scan each document manually
Let’s dig into both options.
Doing it from the Start
This option is by far the easiest and most cost-effective since you wouldn’t even have to waste time dealing with physical documents at all.
Usually, when a case starts, you are in control of how you receive documents from clients and the opposition. Instead of paper, simply request the documents be delivered on a disc or portable hard drive.
Even if the organizations delivering the documents only have physical copies, requesting digital copies puts the burden on them to scan them into a computer.
You might want to specify the file formats you prefer. You can request “native” file formats, if available, or “image” formats.
Native Files
Native file formats are files that can be opened and edited directly in whatever program they were created with, like Word (.doc) or WordPerfect (.wpd). While it might not always be feasible for people to deliver native file formats to you, these formats are beneficial because they contain “metadata” by default.
Metadata basically provides information about the file in question. For example, it can give you the author of the document and the day it was created, making it easier for you to set up a chronology of where the document fits in each case’s story.
Image Files
Image file formats are just pictures of documents. These may be much easier to come by than native files. The most common image types are JPG, PNG, and PDF. Note, while one JPG or PNG file is just one picture of one page of a document, PDFs can contain many pages of a document in one PDF file, making it much easier to store and keep track of multi-page letters or other court documents common in any case.
TrialDirector does provide options to organize image files like JPGs and PNGs into multipage documents, but having it done for you in a PDF is much more effective.
But, what’s that you say? Your case already started? You’re doing the research yourself, and all you have to work with are books and paper? There must be a transition somewhere. Here’s what you can do:
From Paper to Digital
To get all the information contained on all that paper into a computer, you need a scanner. There are all kinds, and the one you want depends completely on how much you’re willing to pay and how fast you want to go. You can get a cheap scanner that lets you do one document at a time, or you can get a scanner that lets you feed multiple pages into it at once and it will cycle through each page for you. Considering how many documents you’re probably working with; the latter may be the best option.
Scan your documents for better case organization.
You might want to check the printer you’re currently using in your office. Chances are, it has the scanning features you need.
“But, scanning each of these documents, it sounds like a lot of work, and I don’t have the time.”
We hear you. We understand. Going paperless is a big undertaking, but in our opinion, it’s absolutely worth it. The initial time investment is minuscule compared to the amount of time you save down the road, especially if you commit to working with all your cases digitally.
But if you really can’t spare the time, you might consider hiring some temporary help to get you started.
Again, the initial investment will be worth it long term.
Also, as you scan your pages, you’ll want to think about the quality settings of each scanned image, especially resolution settings.
Every computer screen has a certain resolution and resolution is determined by pixels. Pixels are all the little boxes that make up the picture on the screen. So, the higher a resolution, or the more pixels, the clearer the picture will be.
However, some people mistakenly think setting the resolution of a scanned image to its absolute maximum is the way to go since they assume they’ll get the best, clearest image, especially if they want to expand that image to a larger screen, like in trial presentation on a projector. It’s not necessarily true, and there are other things you need to consider as well.
For one thing, images don’t need the highest resolution to be clear, especially on large screens. They only need what is sufficient, and a picture’s resolution can be pretty low to be sufficient even by today’s standards.
The reason you want to think about reducing resolution is the space each scanned image takes up on a computer. Each file you scan takes up space. The higher the resolution, the more amount of space.
Consider too, if the file is so big, it might not show up very fast when you’re trying to present it at trial, making long pauses and sometimes uncertainty or awkward situations. You don’t want that in front of a jury.
Another space consideration is if you also want to set a document up for Optical Character Recognition (OCR). When you OCR a document, you make the text searchable and selectable, making it easier to find what you’re looking for as you review documents. But OCR also makes the file size for the document bigger. Ask yourself if you really need this document to be searchable or if it is just a filler in the pile. If you don’t need the search and selection features, you may want to save the space.
So, there’s a quick overview of what it would take to go digital. But we understand there may be a nagging feeling still in the back of your mind…
Is It Worth It?
In short, yes. But let us flip a question back to you. Is the initial time investment worth the future peace of mind of having a clean office? Is it worth the monumental amount of time you save by not having to dig through physical paper to find what you need? Is it worth feeling confident as you want into trial with a simplified setup and more effective strategy?
We say it is, and we want those things for you. Don’t print another piece of paper again. Go paperless!
Once you go paperless, consider using TrialDirector, the leading software in trial technology, for your case management and trial presentation needs. Check out our website to learn more and connect with us on social media!
What file formats do you prefer when working with case items on the computer and why?
What scanners have you used that are especially useful?
If you have any questions about the Keyword Heatmap feature of ADD Automated Digital Discovery®, please don’t hesitate to contact Ipro Tech. An experienced eDiscovery professional is standing by ready to deliver the answers you need.
Let’s reframe the question. What does the best presentation software do? More importantly, what do you want it to do?
The best trial presentation software needs to have instant document and deposition retrieval, and instant video playback. It should allow side-by-side document presentation and multiple display options as well as a variety of highlight and annotation tools that you can customize.
The best trial presentation program does all these things and more. It organizes. It helps you prepare. It makes your presentation engage the audience.
From the beginning of the case, you gathered and analyzed data: documents, video, depositions, photographs. Maybe you also developed animations, re-creations, or flash files. Now add the Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoints you created that explain key aspects or your opening statement. How do you manage such a multitude of items?
You use an all-in-one tool that lets you do all the things described above. You use TrialDirector.
TrialDirector is designed for and excels at trial presentation, but does much, much more. Let me show you how.
Organize
One of the main keys to success for any case, even before a trial date is set, is organization.
First, set up your case files on your computer or network drive in a way that is secure and easily accessible for you. Then, put those files and data into TrialDirector which will guide you through the case creation and import processes. It’s that simple.
TrialDirector helps you manage and organize documents.
Once inside, your files are automatically sorted by document, transcript, and multimedia. Looking for a PDF? Go to Documents. Want to search transcripts for a keyword? Go to Transcript Manager. Forgot where you put the surveillance video? Go to Multimedia.
With all your data now in one location, getting started is easy. Create a witness workbook and drag case items into the folder where you assign exhibit numbers and apply exhibit labels with a few clicks of the mouse. Next, export the workbook contents to a single PDF that you can email or print then generate an exhibit outline of the workbook to use in court.
And still, there is more. Create exhibit lists in Word, apply redactions, search, print, and add identifiable names to all your files for fast recall.
Now, let’s tackle transcripts…
Use robust search features and a full word index to quickly and easily find specific words and phrases. As you review transcripts, highlight testimony that relates to specific areas of your case with issue codes. As issues are applied, the transcript is color-coded drawing your eye to areas of importance. But what if you need to submit excerpts to the judge? TrialDirector provides several print and report features so you can share only the information you want.
Prepare
Case preparation, without utilizing the right tools, can be tedious, especially when working with physical files. Coupled with the fact that teams often assume their case will settle and won’t even go to trial, they find themselves in trouble when it does. Unprepared, they have to scramble to get a presentation together, putting in extra hours and adding to the stress and cost of the whole situation.
TrialDirector cuts out the mundane, time-consuming aspects of case preparation, and allows you the freedom to focus on what’s most important – preparation and strategy.
Here’s how.
After searching, issue coding, and organizing your transcripts, you’ve decided what portions you’ll show in court. No need for a DVD player and definitely no need to fast forward or rewind to find the parts you want to play. Use TrialDirector to make clips of the excerpts you wish to present. With several options, making clips is as easy as a highlight, right click, select… and voila! Your clip is made.
Now let’s talk about one of the biggest time-saving features: the visual clip editor. It’s a wave file to fine-tune the start and end points of a clip down to the millisecond. In just a few minutes, you can distil hours of deposition testimony to only the clips you need. And, like issue codes, print a report of your clips which gives you the total run time – so if the judge gave a strict 30-minute time limit to play clips, you can use every second you’re allotted and know exactly how long your video will take.
Getting back to your documents, let’s start prepping them for court. Keep in mind, you want annotation tools that you can use ahead of trial as well as at trial. We refer to this as ‘pre-treat’ vs ‘on-the-fly’ annotation. Either way, annotations focus the jury’s attention on a specific part of the document or photograph. Remember, a jury member may get distracted or sneeze or glance around the courtroom. When they look back, they’ve lost track of the three pertinent sentences you were discussing. However, if those sentences are highlighted, the jury will know exactly where you are.
With the ability to pre-treat, you can apply exhibit labels, stamps, arrows, circles, squares, redactions, highlights and more ahead of trial. Save the annotated documents as page revisions, retaining a ‘clean’ original image as well as your marked-up copy.
A word on the iPad…
Do you want to use an iPad in court? Use our free TrialDirector for iPad app! This is a standalone application so you don’t need TrialDirector software for it to work, but use them together and you have the best of both worlds. Make a TrialDirector for iPad workbook in your TrialDirector case (it’s as easy as a right mouse click), drag and drop the material you will use, and export. TrialDirector will create a folder that you can load into TrialDirector for iPad.
Present
You made it. It’s your first day in court and you are organized and prepared. Launch your TrialDirector Presentation, take a deep breath, and begin…
Remember those witness notebooks? They’re in your presentation toolbar. Press the green (or the spacebar on your keyboard) and the first item in the workbook is displayed. Press the arrow again and the next item in the workbook replaces the image on the screen, press it again and the third item replaces the image, and so on…
When you reach the long letter that you knew was coming and the jury is squinting at the screen, you’re ready. You select a zoom tool, grab the paragraph you want the jury to focus on with your mouse, and it is projected full screen so they see exactly what you are referring to. Even better, the letter remains in the background and you scroll through it while zoomed, moving line by line through the page. Once you finish with the letter, press the green arrow and continue through your witness workbook.
There are so many display options (there are nine different display zones!) and tools (and you can change the colors) in TrialDirector Presentation that it’s impossible to cover them here. The most common and popular display options are full screen (one image, centered) and two images, side-by-side. And if you only learn two annotation tools for on-the-fly presenting, stick to zoom and highlight.
So, if you’re nervous or think presenting with TrialDirector is hard, just remember, even the most seasoned TrialDirector professionals stick to two display zones and two annotation tools.
So, What Is the Best Trial Presentation Software?
The best presentation software helps you organize, prepare, and present. It files your documents and transcripts. It creates exhibit lists and reports. It helps you create a presentation plan of attack. It does more. It’s TrialDirector.
There’s no question any organization can benefit from new eDiscovery technology. However, it’s still important to keep in mind this requires more than just making a purchase. To fully reap all the benefits (and avoid disrupted productivity), there are best practices that an organization should keep in mind when bringing in the latest technology.
Because organizations today vary so much in size and scope, we will discuss a few of these best practices from a high level. There might be one or more practices specific to your own organization, but the following concepts are universal.
1. Outline Your Objectives
For starters, simply replacing your old products is not an adequate objective. Similarly, it’s not sufficient to implement new eDiscovery technology, then send out a company-wide email to announce it, and then hope your team adopts the new software. Instead, apply a project-management approach. Set tangible goals to define your success, e.g.:
Check Workflow Compatibility
Deploy Role-Specific Training
Perform Comprehensive Testing
Ensure Proper Migration
When you’re measuring concrete objectives against tangible metrics, determining success is less of a mystery. It also makes setting future objectives, which might depend on technology integration, much easier.
2. Check Workflow Compatibility
Most organizations are unique in the way individuals go about doing their jobs. New eDiscovery technology is usually deigned to mirror, from somewhat of a high level, these workflows. But don’t assume the technology on your short list will line up perfectly with your own workflow.
Many customer-focused providers — Ipro Tech, for example — will deploy professional teams to your location to ensure a successful integration. This can save you countless hours and resources, as it’s obviously a disruptive process to re-define current roles in order to accommodate new technology.
3. Deploy Role-Specific Training
Your team is made up of individuals with different responsibilities, and their day-to-day experiences with your new technology will vary greatly. It’s important to tailor training specifically to the objectives and challenges these individuals will face.
For example, it’s very unlikely someone in your administrative group will need to troubleshoot database connectivity. Conversely, nobody on your IT staff is going to be responsible for syncing up Bates numbers. Don’t dedicate too much time to training individuals beyond their day-to-day responsibilities, and don’t leave anyone with a knowledge gap that will hamper their productivity.
4. Perform Comprehensive Testing
Just like sending that companywide email to announce your technology launch, it’s not adequate to simply open up access to users and ask them to hunt for bugs. Instead you should employ a comprehensive search for specific shortcomings by applying established testing methods:
Organizational Testing — Audit your organization to ensure necessary resources are available, such as online training and technical manuals, people well versed in the new technology, and a forum or wiki for sharing information.
Feature Testing — Before you add to or modify your new technology, run features through likely scenarios to ensure users are prepared to have them in workflows.
Performance Testing — It’s important to be aware of your technology’s limitations, so deliberately attempt to max out its performance to discover those limits.
Testing, obviously, prepares your organization for any missteps that might occur once your technology is fully implemented. I can’t overstate how important it is to clear these obstacles in testing environment, rather than having them stumble through them during your real-world operations.
5. Ensure Proper Migration
Once your previous technology is completely phased out, it’s going to be very difficult (if not impossible) to recover any data phased out with it. Gain peace of mind you’re retaining any data you’ll eventually need by performing a full-scope migration for new eDiscovery technology. Think of this as a checklist reminding you to gather up important items like:
Historical Data — This often-archived data, when re-examined, can guide future efforts through insights into activity, contextual factors and trends.
User Information — Avoid duplicating setup tasks by checking information related to how individuals work within an environment.
Work Product — Perhaps most importantly, protect that critical data prepared specifically ahead of litigation.
With these data sources checked off, you can more confidently sunset the technology you’ve been using without worrying that critical resources are vanishing alongside it.
Get Answers Today
If you have any questions about the material in this post, please don’t hesitate to contact Ipro Tech. An experienced eDiscovery professional is standing by ready to deliver the answers you need.
Look around your office. What do you see? Perhaps there are towers of stacked paper, or piles of boxes, each gushing with case documents, or maybe walls of shelves holding large notebooks with documents stuffed inside.
Are these things obstructing your way around the office? Do you have to climb over or shimmy around piles of notebooks and paper just to get to your desk?
If you recognize any of the descriptions above, and you think that’s a problem, keep reading.
We want to help you along the first steps of getting your law office organized and saving time with technology.
There are options available today that let you fit all those documents into a device, like a USB flash drive, that only takes up a few inches on your desk. So, that mess you’re looking at right now? Gone.
Not only that, but you can use that device and other tools to organize all those thousands of documents and search through them in seconds rather than minutes or hours.
The benefits of such tools are priceless, yet many law firms and organizations still don’t use them. Why? We ask ourselves this question a lot, and we’d like to take this opportunity to address some of your possible concerns we found to be the most common.
Let’s start with an easy one.
1. Time – I Don’t Have It
Ah, yes. Time. As an attorney, every single minute of your life is accounted for, and there’s none to spare to learn about new tech. Every minute you spend trying to figure out how to use this stuff is a minute you haven’t spent on your case. You may think it’s better to play it safe and do things the “tried and true” way. Just get it done the way you know how right?
Respectfully, we think that’s wrong.
You do have time. In fact, you may be hemorrhaging time, your most valuable resource, by holding onto old methods of doing things. As we already said before, working with documents on a computer turns the hours you would spend working with paper into minutes and seconds.
Here’s an example of how: Let’s take a simple task, such as finding a document you want to present at trial.
Currently, you get up from your desk, go to wherever you store your case documents, find the right box, shelf, or drawer, open the box, and proceed to finger through all the folder and files in the box. Once you find the right folder and eventually the right file, you pull it out and take it back to your desk.
Or you might have a paralegal or assistant do all of that for you. In any case, that simple process absorbed valuable time. Now, compound the time for all the other hundreds to thousands of documents circulating in each case.
It adds up. You’re spending hours, days, and weeks just on one simple task.
Suppose you could do all of it with technology without even leaving your chair, right from a computer? You can! In fact, some programs will find documents for you. All you do is enter a few search terms and it filters through everything for you in milliseconds.
Then, once you have the document, you can review and even annotate it right then and there. No need to print. No need to make copies. It’s all done for you.
And we didn’t even talk about the significant loss of time when something is misplaced or misfiled. You know that’s bad.
With computers and programs these days, if something is misplaced on the file system, there are countless fast and efficient ways to help you find lost items much more quickly than sifting through the mountains of paper yourself.
Sure, it may take an initial investment of time to learn how to use the technology and implement it, but that is nothing compared to the amount of time and resources you save later.
Receiving the documents, printing the documents, transporting the documents – all the monetary, time, and mental costs of handling physical documents are dramatically reduced by going digital.
You just need to get over that first hill, and then you coast with a nice refreshing breeze as you go.
Technology gets you away from wasting time on mundane tasks and lets you get back to what matters – strategizing and winning your case.
But your time, or the lack thereof, isn’t even the real issue in our opinion.
2. Fear of Change – The Real Issue
Everyone can get set in a routine. They set up a comfort zone, where everything they do is part of the norm, and they resist anything outside of that zone or even slightly unfamiliar. Breaking away from a routine is usually difficult.
Herein lies the real problem. You may be afraid to change. You are so used to doing things the way you currently do them you perceive your current process for preparing for and presenting at trial is faster when it demonstrably is holding you back.
William Pollard, a physicist, said, “Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.”
Whether it was in law school or when you first started out as a professional, you spent a substantial amount of time, even sleepless nights, teaching yourself to do things the way you currently do them. Now you’re comfortable with those methods. In fact, you’re very good at what you do.
But times change. Things that worked well in the past don’t work as well anymore. With increasing amounts of case data and less time to prepare, it’s time to adapt to the progressing world around you or you risk getting bogged down in inefficiencies. It happens in every industry, and it is happening in the legal industry.
We strongly suggest you put in the time needed and get up to speed with the current technology today and provide your clients with the state of the art representation they deserve.
Which leads us to the final concern we want to bring up.
3. Cost of Entry – The Hidden Cost of Denial
You may feel it’s too expensive to get up to speed.
While there are very expensive systems out there with impressive functions and features, there are just as many or more options that are much less expensive or even free. You can easily use the internet to find options to help you simplify and organize your case.
Also, think about the hidden costs of refusing technology. We’re not just talking about time and money. Your ability to rationalize and think clearly is severely influenced by your surroundings. Minds function in parallel with their environment, even down to how you are dressed.
How are the messy piles of documents in your office affecting you? Gaining some clarity and peace of mind is worth at least entertaining the idea of implementing technological advances in your practice. You’ll be able to make better strategies and be more prepared to confront unexpected challenges.
Using technology to become more efficient not only eases your mental strain and saves time and money for you, but it also saves the same for your clients. Any tool that improves the firm improves the client’s experience, providing the quality help they need faster.
Plus, the longer you wait to implement these tools, the more expensive it will be later on, whether or not you ever implement them. The younger generation of lawyers and paralegals are learning these technologies in school. In many cases, they grew up with this stuff. It’s basically part of their DNA.
Invest now to save later. Stay up to date with the rising generation.
You can start out small if you have to, one improvement at a time.
Get Started Now – Let Us Help
If any of the concerns we discussed above apply to you, you could greatly benefit from an application like TrialDirector. We can help you every step of the way.
TrialDirector is cutting edge trial preparation and presentation software.
With TrialDirector, you can review exhibits. It uses a couple document browsing tools to let you find exactly what you’re looking for. Then you can open the document in a larger viewer, browse through the document if it has multiple pages, and even draw markups to focus the jury’s attention in preparation for trial. You can review video and deposition transcripts as well.
If you have a hard time browsing through all the documents you are preparing for trial, you can organize individual items in your case into different folders called workbooks. There are different types of workbooks that make other tasks, like presenting at trial, much easier.
Finally, you can take the case you worked on in TrialDirector with you to trial for presentation. You can present a set of exhibits in order, or you can call up exhibits on-the-fly as the trial develops. There are several things you can do to capture the jury’s attention too. You can make callouts, mark annotations, and show exhibits next to each other to compare and contrast. You can even link an exhibit to a deposition video and have it appear seamlessly at the right moment while the video plays.
We also offer in-depth training services through TrialDirector University to help jump-start your experience with taking your cases to the next level with technology. Learn more at TrialDirectorUniversity.com.
There are countless hours you can save using technology throughout the life of any case. Make the decision and take steps to use it now!
TEMPE, Ariz., April 7, 2017 — Ipro Tech, LLC, a worldwide leader in eDiscovery solutions, announced today that time is running out to register for its signature Ipro Innovations 2017. The widely anticipated and popular event is free to attend and is slated for April 24 through April 26 at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“Innovations has drastically improved year-over-year and 2017 is going to be an incredible experience,” said Ipro President & CEO Kim Taylor. “We’re very proud that so many top-tier legal professionals are attending again this year and we’re doing everything we can to accommodate people who have yet to register.”
Ipro Innovations is a 2.5-day event that features a wide variety of free, hands-on workshops for eDiscovery best practices, business process improvement as well as sessions designed to maximize the benefits of using Ipro technology. Additionally, it offers numerous opportunities to connect with industry peers, forge business alliances, and gain advanced knowledge from eDiscovery thought leaders.
Each session has been carefully designed for maximum engagement, enabling attendees return from the event with tips and techniques for handling even the toughest eDiscovery challenges — from increasing efficiency to lowering eDiscovery costs.
Innovations will host keynote speakers Erik Qualman and Ari Kaplan. Qualman has been called a “digital Dale Carnegie” and the “Tony Robbins of Tech.” His Socialnomics work has garnered acclaim from leading academic, government and media organizations. Kaplan, an author, attorney and legal industry analyst, is an inaugural Fastcase 50 honoree, a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management, and a finalist for ILTA’s Thought Leader of the Year award.
The event will also include numerous opportunities for fun and relaxation, such as cocktail receptions. Ipro’s popular Salsa Challenge and the Top Golf kick-off party. Talking Stick Resort is one of the Valley’s premier destinations with two golf courses, a spa, several live entertainment venues and a casino. April weather in Scottsdale is the finest in the country, typically with highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s.
Registration and full conference details are available on the event website at www.iproinnovations.com.
About Ipro Tech, LLC
Founded in 1989, Ipro is a global leader in the development of advanced eDiscovery software solutions. Ipro’s ADD Automated Digital Discovery workflow platform helps customers organize, review, process and produce litigation data of vast sizes and complexity — more efficiently and cost-effectively than ever before. To learn more visit iprotech.com. To schedule a private demonstration, email [email protected] or go online to find a Partner today.
There’s no “magic bullet” that will fractionalize eDiscovery costs, but that’s not to downplay the importance of chipping away at them. According to Norton Rose Fulbright’s 2016 Litigation Trends Annual Survey, on average litigation spend can account for at least 0.1 percent of revenue for companies worldwide. And because discovery can eat up more than 50 percent of the cost of litigation, it’s understandable that respondents were wary of eDiscovery spending:
“A significant proportion of respondents talked about the costs and resource implications of eDiscovery and how it was growing out of proportion to the benefits gained.”
—Norton Rose Fulbright’s 2016 Litigation Trends Annual Survey
But rather than considering this a negative, it’s important to see the big opportunity: you can become a hero to your organization by leaning out expenditures on eDiscovery. Empowering you to seize that opportunity is what drives innovation here at Ipro Tech. Let’s take a look at three ways you can save eDiscovery dollars by spending wisely and reducing the amount of time, people and errors involved in the process.
Understand the Scope of Your Data
In the book E-Discovery: An Introduction to Digital Evidence, you’ll find an important (if not common-sense) assertion: “E-discovery costs can inflate rapidly when investigators haven’t planned the discovery’s scope carefully…”
Be fully aware of what it’s going to take to get through your data, and then make sure you have the right resources in place to handle the job. It’s incredibly stressful — not to mention expensive — when you’re left at a standstill because your technology or personnel aren’t enough to get it done.
You can save a substantial amount of money simply by shopping around, rather than scrambling to add resources at the last minute.
Automate Key Steps of Your Workflow
With the advent of new eDiscovery technology, such as Ipro’s ADD Automated Digital Discovery® platform, it’s becoming possible to get more done with fewer touches. For example, you no longer need staff dedicated to pushing batches through your workflow. Streaming technology can automatically move data, for example, between processing and review applications — creating a dynamic feed of documents without long waits for each batch.
Fewer human touches not only saves you time, it can drastically cut down those errors which are, frankly, unavoidable with people handling data. To further simplify the process, some of the newest eDiscovery technology includes an easy-to use interface that lets anyone with user permissions upload data to your workflow. You can also find features that help you establish chain of custody, and create numerous types of reports.
Leverage Cloud-based Resources
As we’ve discussed before, leveraging cloud-based resources for eDiscovery can provide a huge competitive advantage. For starters, you avoid the significant expenses involved with IT personnel and infrastructure. Many of today’s most customer-centric technology providers stay on the leading edge with offerings such as software (SaaS) and infrastructure (IaaS) as services.
Savings aren’t the only advantages of moving to the cloud. Because you can add resources as needed, without long-term commitments, you can take on larger (and more lucrative) matters without maintaining the resources needed to handle them. The cloud also removes many technological headaches, leaving you free to focus on litigation.
The Ipro Cloud is one option here, and Ipro has developed a network of more than 400 service providers who offer our software via their own hosting platforms.
Get Answers Today
If you have any questions about the material in this post, please don’t hesitate to contact Ipro Tech. An experienced eDiscovery professional is standing by ready to deliver the answers you need.
The first time I saw someone with a netbook, I have to admit thinking, “Who in the world would want a computer that can only connect to the Internet? What about all your files and applications?” That skepticism didn’t last long, though, especially after I saw the price of netbooks — and spent an entire day lugging my 2000s-era laptop around various airport terminals. It’s fair to say experiences like mine helped cloud computing catch on as quickly as it has.
But in some industries folks aren’t so quick to fall in love with the latest technology, and law is certainly one of them. That means early adopters of new legal technology — when it eventually proves essential — will hold significant advantages over those who maintain wait-and-see attitudes. Cloud eDiscovery is a perfect example. With that in mind, I’d like to present what are (in my humble opinion) four of the biggest reasons for moving to a solution like the Ipro Cloud.
1. Cloud eDiscovery Saves You Big Money
Technical resources like servers and IT personnel are expensive, but you entirely avoid those costly outlays when they’re the responsibility of your cloud provider. In fact, many of today’s most customer-centric technology providers are also creating new pricing models — usually tailored to your business needs, as an enticement — that allow you to avoid paying for something you don’t use.
2. Cloud eDiscovery Lets You Focus on Litigation
Let’s be honest: you can only get so much done in a day, and it takes lots of time to learn new stuff. If you’ve put decades toward becoming one of the best in your field, why learn how to be an IT guy? Cloud eDiscovery removes not only much of the cost of technology, but also most of the headaches that come with configuring and maintaining it. You just focus on what you do best… litigation.
3. Cloud eDiscovery Makes You More Nimble
With the ability to add software and infrastructure as needed, you’re free to grow your business in real time, without being handcuffed to projected growth. This business model, which effectively levels the playing field, is quickly catching on. In fact, Forbes estimates that worldwide spending on cloud services will have grown nearly 20 percent — to more than $141 billion — between 2015 and 2019.
4. Cloud eDiscovery Can Give You a Competitive Advantage
Let’s look at competition in the legal sphere like a foot race: If your competitor maintains that wait-and-see attitude while you confidently move forward, it’s like taking off at a dead sprint while your opponent has yet to get past the starting line. If I haven’t convinced you by now, perhaps it’d be best to leave you with some thoughts from the Harvard Business Review:
As cloud services have matured and adoption has increased, research has consistently shown that using cloud has enabled companies to act more quickly and to collaborate more easily. This has conferred competitive advantage on early adopters.
Get Answers Today
If you have any questions about the material in this post, please don’t hesitate to contact Ipro Tech. An experienced eDiscovery professional is standing by ready to deliver the answers you need.
The support provider will integrate ADD into its data centers, leveraging the solution as part of its own management solution platform.
In a match of well-known legal technology companies, e-discovery and litigation support provider Advanced Discovery announced March 14 that it has integrated Ipro’s Automated Digital Discovery (ADD) product into its own software and workflows. The integration represents a partnership between the two companies, alongside the culmination of Advanced Discovery’s search for an e-discovery software partner.
Moving forward, Advanced Discovery’s matter management workflows will feature custom development in order to integrate ADD into its secure data centers, leveraging the tool as part of its own multi-matter management solution platform. The goal, Advanced Discovery CEO Jim Burke told Legaltech News, is “a scalable and secure multi-matter solution to address the demands and expectations of corporations and large law firms.”
“Customers will see their data faster, have more efficient ECA and will have more choices when it comes to industry-standard review platforms,” he added.
Ipro’s preexisting customers will not see a change through the partnership, though Ipro CEO Kim Taylor did tell Legaltech News that the company plans to leverage Advanced Discovery’s knowledge and feedback to improve further upon its own ADD platform.
“It also gives Ipro’s law firm and corporate clients another strong partner to go to where they can get a great ADD experience,” Taylor added. “Advanced Discovery has been a pleasure to work with, and we’re looking forward to a great partnership over the years.”
Burke said Advanced Discovery began looking for an e-discovery technology partner about a year ago, taking with it a specific set of criteria: “speed, reliability, accuracy, security, scalability—and flexibility for custom development.” Advanced Discovery was also looking for a particular culture fit, with the right knowledge and people in place to make a partnership worthwhile and supplement the company’s own custom software solutions.
Having worked with Ipro over the years given an overlap in clients and the “small world” nature of the industry, Burke noted, “They were an obvious solution to consider, given their reputation.”
“It’s more efficient and cost effective to partner with software development specialist with their kind of experience,” he added.
