- A PUBLICATION OF iCONTROL ESI -

Top Tips to a Successful

eDiscovery Software Demo

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Intro

Know Your Goals

Know Your Players

Know Your Boundaries

Research Your Potential Partners

Prepare for Your Demos

Don’t Forget the Proof of Concept

1

2

3

4

5

6

Introduction.

Because the use of technology to manage discovery has become so

widespread, we take for granted that those seeking software solutions

to discovery needs have a good understanding of a sound software

evaluation process. Over the last few months, however, folks attending

our software solution demos have admitted they don’t know how to

make the most of an evaluation, or what to ask a company when

evaluating software, and there’s no published guide to how to

evaluate. It seems appropriate to share some of our basic advice for

software demos. These guidelines will help you make the most of your

time in reviewing software solutions.

They cover:

� Know Your Goals

� Know Your Players

� Know Your Boundaries

� Research Your Potential Partners

� Prepare for Your Demos

� Don’t Forget the Proof of Concept

Know Your Goals

CHAPTER ONE

1

Know Your Goals.

Prepare a list of the business problems you are trying to solve with

technology. Generally, we need solutions that get us to the most

important and relevant documents as quickly and efficiently as

possible. Tools contributing to that begin at retention and

preservation, and end at review and production. First, decide where in

that spectrum you are shopping. You may be looking for an “end-to-

end” solution or a new answer to just part of the process.

With that scope set, you are ready to think about the specifics you

would like to see in a potential new solution. It can be useful to ask

questions like… What does my current solution do well? What would I

like it to do better or more effectively? What potentially valuable

features are simply missing from my current process?

Prepare a list of the business

problems you are trying to solve

with technology.“

Know Your Players

CHAPTER TWO

2

Know Your Players.

Think through your organization and which of your team will

most likely play roles in use and support. How will you use the

software? Who else will use the software, and are their needs

any different than your own? What training will you, and your

team require? Who will support and administer your use of the

software? Knowing (or at least having some idea) the answers

to these questions helps you identify the players that you may

want to involve in the remainder of the process, giving your

selection a better chance of acceptance and successful

deployment.

Think through your organization

and which of your team will most

likely play roles in use and support.“

Know Your Boundaries

CHAPTER THREE

3

Know Your Boundaries.

Do you need all software installs and data to remain behind your

corporate firewall? Is Software or Infrastructure as a service ok?

Fully cloud-based solutions? For each one of those possible

deployment methods, do you have specific security or system

administration requirements that your selected solution must

adhere too. These, are but a few examples of the many

questions you should ask. Your potential partners will

undoubtedly be willing and able to help you track down the

answers to these questions. That said, to the extent you can

track down the answers, you can use that information to provide

better focus for your search, and save time you might otherwise

use in evaluating solutions that aren’t a good fit for your

organization.

Do you need all software installs

and data to remain behind your

corporate firewall?“

Research Your Potential Partners

CHAPTER FOUR

4

Research Your Potential Partners.

As with previous guidelines, your goal here is to focus your search.

You don’t likely have time to look at solutions from a large list of

partners. You want to establish criteria that ensure the few

solutions you spend significant time evaluating are from partners

that meet or exceed the thresholds you establish here.

eDiscovery is highly specialized and expanding in skillsets required

from IT to legal to Privacy and Security. Look for vendors who

understand the document types being produced so they

understand developing software to manage them. Make sure that

they understand the privacy and security issues associated with

litigation.

Learn about their reputation and time in the industry, and the

availability of support staff in the event of issues with the software.

Research Your PotentialPartners.

Examples of Questions to Ask

• How long has the company been providing eDiscovery

software?

• What is the company’s history in eDiscovery?

• What is their general reputation in the industry?

• Does the company have a list of current and past clients to

serve as references?

• What types of projects has the company worked on in the

past?

• What is the most complex matter they have handled?

• Do they have a variety of experts in legal, technical, privacy,

ESI management?

• Is this a company with a stable history indicating that they are

here for the long run to support their product?

• Are they easy to work with?

• Do they offer training?

• What is the software update cycle and how are updates to

software applied?

Prepare for Your Demos

CHAPTER FIVE

5

Prepare for Your Demos.

Set expectations. Provide your potential partners with (at least in

summary) the Goals, Players, and boundaries that you identify. Set

the expectation that you want to see a demo focused on those

requirements specific to your organization. If creating a demo that

addresses your specific requirements is a challenge for any

potential partner, that’s probably a good sign that their solution

isn’t right for you.

Bring the right team with you so you can get as many of your

questions answered at the demo as possible. Consider your

Players, and think about inviting some or all of them to attend your

demos. Let each potential attendee know why you believe there

attendance to be important, and what you are relying on them to

listen for. Ask each to come prepared with questions focused in

their area of expertise. For example, you may want to include

someone from both IT and legal so that you can ensure the

software deployment fits within your organization’s security

guidelines and provides for a defensible result.

Prepare for Your Demos.

This list of example questions likely highlights the need to involve

multiple areas of expertise. These are the types of questions you

should ask/consider in every software demo (it is helpful to provide

these questions to the potential partner ahead of time):

• Is the UI pleasing?

• Is the software easy to use?

• How are your features different from others who offer this

technology?

• What about security and privacy? Are there any risks associated

with using your technology?

• Is the software cloud-based (SaaS) or is it a behind-the-firewall

installation?

• Do you have infrastructure as a service models (IaaS)

Develop a sheet with

Criteria …“

Finally, develop a sheet with criteria and grade each vendor on the same

criteria. Virtually all applications you evaluate will have different feature

sets. A feature that is present in one application may not be present in

another. Identify those features that are important to you and indicate

the critically of those that are MUST HAVE vs something less important, or

optional. The above table is an example of some.

Don’t Forget the Proofof Concept

CHAPTER SIX

6

Don’t Forget the Proof of Concept (POC).

Before you make your final decision, conduct a POC. Someone

once said that the “proof of the pudding is in the eating,” and

that’s true here as well. The only true way to know whether

you’ve made the right choice is to test drive the software before

you make a commitment. While the best possible POC is a real

project that will get everyone undivided attention, a successful

POC can also be conducted on “test data.” As you go through

your POC, make a list of the steps that will follow the POC. This

is especially important if you are conducting a POC of multiple

software applications. Be sure that you know, at a minimum, the

“success factors” that will be used to judge the whether the POC

is successful. The criteria sheet you use for grading the vendor

demos, should serve as a starting point for grading the success of

each POC. As the POC progresses, you should share your results,

against the selected criteria with the software company, so that

you can discuss and then assign each criterion a PASS or FAIL

result.

The proof of the pudding is in

the eating …“

At the end of the POC, your review of the PASS or

FAIL results for the packages you reviewed will,

more often than not, give you the clear winner.

Questions?

We’re here to answer your questions and to help. Check out our other resources at

www.icontrolesi.com

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