Ride the Lightning

Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

EDna Has Multiple Suitors!

March 8, 2010

In my last post, I asked if the EDna challenge created by Craig Ball had been met.  One suitor for EDna has written me and now we have another suitor. I have to laugh to think that my enthusiastic friend, Rob Robinson, has already beaten me to the punch by printing this in his blog, but since the original was in my mailbox, I'll offer it up here too. I am the turtle to your hare Rob. 🙂

Thanks for writing Michael. We offered to take a look at the Digital WarRoom's products and extend the same offer to Affirm Discovery.

Hi Sharon, 

Yes, it has but I don’t believe GGO are the ones that have met it.

According to your post GGO is offering “an appliance” based on perpetual licensing. The information that is posted does not provide any pricing information so how is anyone to know whether they have met the challenge or not. Based on the limited information provided, namely “In fact, we have built a product roadmap around the EDna challenge. We will be releasing perpetual license appliances with over 90% functionality similarly offered by products from Clearwell, Exterro, and Recommind, for about 1/10 price.” Its more conceivable to me that this is just another example of vendor propaganda!

Last time I checked, Clearwell, Exterro, Recommind or any of the other vendors listed or not in Gartners market scope do not offer anything for $10,000. ( 1/10 of $10,000 is $1000.00) which is the maximum amount that EDna is willing to spend.

The challenge has been met by a company named Affirm Discovery and their products “Native File Collect” and “Native File Lock”. Their products will not be released to the public until next month but we have been involved in the beta testing and based on the testing we have done, I am confident that Affirm Discovery has met the EDna challenge. The best part about it is that anyone can use it. There is no hardware, appliance, SSH super Tunnel, or any of the other hype to install and you don’t have to sacrifice your first born child to answer a discovery request. It’s a plain and simple solution at a very effective price. The solution is launched from the web and all processing takes place on the clients computer. No client content other than the path and file name of the file collected and the size of that file are ever transferred to Affirms website.

Native file lock (in brief) is a self contained database that houses the collected native file, extracted meta data and text, capability to TIFF on the fly and redact, an internal viewer, and tagging capabilities. Sub deliverables of Native File Lock can be created from the main deliverable and distributed at no charge. And if none of that makes a person happy, they can export a full production with load files and extracted text to load into the main review platforms for their own use. The pricing is a $25.00 transaction fee for every deliverable download (less than most vendors charge for a DVD) and a charge of $0.30 per MB for data processed (Calculated on the file size that is identified with Native File Collect).

 Some Features:

  1. Deliverable building application launched from the web site(can have a user account and be invoiced monthly per usage amount or be an express user and pay per use via CC)

Account holders have a dashboard and are able to assign sub accounts and preset settings for the collection, processing and deliverable creation (FREE)

  • Load native files without altering meta data, extract meta data into a table view, and extract text of loaded files
  • View multiple file types with the internal viewer, also supports audio and video files
  • Open excel, power point and word files via native application if desired (no changes can be saved or permanent alterations made)
  • Files with no extracted text are identified by an icon in the file tree view
  • Specify soft numbers for files that are loaded
  • Extract attachments from email when loaded into separate records
  • Create TIFFS on the fly of supported document types
  • Create customized tags
  • Ability to tag or untag files individually or as a group
  • Ability to redact tiffed files and have the redacted images replace the native file in a production
  • Ability to create a sub deliverable with the same or customized functionality as the original for distribution to other parties
  • Index based search ability (multiple options)
  • Filter (date, deduplication, file type…etc), and query ability for tags and table views
  • Ability to add additional .NFL files to the deliverable for review, combination and sub deliverable creation
  • Batch TIFF by tags
  • Ability to burn in TIFFS with bates and designation if desired
  • Ability to export productions with load files to load into other review platforms if desired

    • The basic workflow:

    1. Affirm offers a free download of an application to identify files that need to be collected. The download allows a custodian to select the files they wish to be collected. Outlook email is supported by a plugin and can be selected for collection at the message level

    Once the files and emails have been identified, the path to the files and their sizes (reported by the file system) are uploaded to the web site (no file content is uploaded and this is the size that is calculated for invoice)

  • The user authenticates and the file list to be collected is populated
  • Several options such as numbering, password protection, output location, text extraction, indexing…etc, are selected by the user (if they have not been pre selected by an account holder)
  • User selects “Create Deliverable”
  • Application with the file location map and desired deliverable settings is downloaded to the client side and runs
  • Files are collected based on the file lists and deliverable is created based on settings
  • User then sends the deliverable to counsel
  • Counsel then reviews and if applicable creates a sub deliverable or whatever they want to do
  • Production is made to opposing

    • The basic use case:

    The lawyer or paralegal have a new case assigned. The client and his/her organization has data that is responsive to the discovery request. The budget is tight and the client states that they want to collect their own data but do not have the necessary tools and ask for guidance. Funds to hire a team of forensic consultants or even one for that matter, is not in the budget, nor does the client see the value anyway, after all, it’s a small matter. The paralegal is an account holder at Affirm discovery. She/he logs in and creates a new matter for tracking. After speaking with the client, a list of custodians that have relevant data are identified and their email addresses are supplied to the paralegal. The paralegal adds custodians to his/her newly created matter based on the information provided by the client. The paralegal assigns each custodian a username and password to the site and then sends them all a similar instructional email. They are to go to the site of Affirm Discovery and download the FREE application used to identify the files and emails that are to be collected. Once they have the application installed, they are to select the emails and files that are relevant to the request and that have been explained in the l
    it hold that was previously distributed. Once
    the files are selected/identified they are to connect to the Affirm website (using the tool). The individual custodian is presented with a login screen, they enter the username and password supplied to them in the instructional email. Once they are on the web site and the list of files that they have identified for collection is verified they would be presented with a list of settings. Since the custodians have never been through this process they are very happy that the paralegal has predefined the settings for each custodian (this gives the paralegal great confidence that she/he will get exactly what they want as far as format). The custodian selects the “Create Deliverable” button and the process begins. Once the collection process is over on the client side, the custodian is instructed to send the deliverable that was created via external hard drive or CD to counsel for review.

    Once in the hands of counsel, they can decide to combine the entire collection (all deliverables from the client) and run a number of queries to filter and deduplicate to make review easier and faster. Custom tags are set up and either batch printing can occur for files that need to be redacted or they can be printed as the review progresses and tagged for later production.

    I could go on and on, but I think you can see from this email that I am bringing to your attention a very needed and useful application.

    If you have any questions please feel free to contact me as I have been authorized to respond to any questions you may have.

    One thing is for sure, once this offering hits the market, there will be some very unhappy service providers.

    Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

    Best regards,

    Michael A. Bean, EnCE
    President, In2itive Technologies
    www.in2itivetechnologies.com

    E-mail:    Phone: 703-359-0700

    www.senseient.com

    http://twitter.com/sharonnelsonesq