Victor Limongelli President and CEO Guidance Software

Guidance Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: GUID) has announced a new unified e-discovery software platform that provides legal and information technology (IT) teams with an in-house electronic discovery system that enables better case decisions, faster, while reducing risk and lowering costs.
 
Guidance Software’s EnCase® eDiscovery version 4 provides a single, unified solution that addresses all of the stages of the electronic discovery process that organizations want to bring in house. With EnCase eDiscovery, risk and costs are lower because organizations don’t have to spend time or money trying to integrate incompatible point solutions for each step in the e-discovery process, or transfer data between, and train users on, disparate systems.   
 
EnCase eDiscovery also offers the industry’s first “true early case assessment” by allowing legal teams to analyze and review data at any stage of the electronic discovery process, enabling better case strategy decisions to be made faster.
 
Understanding the Data Universe Drives Better Case Strategy Decisions
EnCase eDiscovery enables enterprises to understand what their data universe looks like, who has what data and how much they have – all available early, before collection and processing of data occurs. Users can quickly identify relevant data sources, get metrics on total data versus potentially relevant data, and understand how much data could be eliminated, which provides a solid understanding of the case’s potential costs, keywords and custodians.
 
With this unique capability, corporate attorneys can test search criteria before electronically stored information (ESI) is collected, and customers can determine how to negotiate search terms, date and time criteria and file types before the meet-and-confer with opposing counsel. Through this optimized process, enterprises gain clear advantages with assessment before collection – unlike other solutions that first need to have collection and processing complete before any analysis can be conducted.

Compared to other products, in which analysis and review can be performed only after collection and processing are complete, EnCase eDiscovery offers the industry’s first “true early case assessment” -- an analysis and first-pass review system that legal teams can use at any stage of the electronic discovery process, such as during collection, after collection, or during and after processing.
 
“Early data assessment is the lynchpin for better case management, outcomes, and risk mitigation,” said George Socha, Jr., Esq, Socha Consulting LLC.  “Early data assessment leads to more reasonable litigation hold and preservation and stronger defensibility regarding what was done along the process to produce a responsive dataset.”
 
EnCase eDiscovery enables organizations to understand case facts rapidly, better prepare for meet and confer conferences, negotiate keywords with opponents, and perform first-pass review in-house to reduce data sets prior to outside attorney review, thereby increasing speed and reducing cost.
 
Risk is Lowered with a Defensible, Repeatable Process
EnCase eDiscovery lowers risk in three ways.  First, it eliminates the need to deploy multiple products just to address e-discovery.  
 
“With EnCase eDiscovery, customers can now do everything they want to do in-house by using our new single, unified solution,” said Victor Limongelli, chief executive officer, Guidance Software.  “Unlike point products that increase risk by forcing organizations to transfer case information from point solution to point solution, EnCase eDiscovery unifies steps across the e-discovery process enabling legal and IT to collaborate.”
 
Second, it bridges the gap between legal and IT through a common shared data repository and purpose-built interfaces for legal and IT, thereby ensuring better information flow within an organization, and making it easier to have a defensible, repeatable, e-discovery process.  
 
“Cases in 2009 demonstrated that companies without clear, consistent and repeatable processes for the identification, preservation and collection of electronic documents, will be the subject of judicial sanctions,” said Debra Logan, VP Distinguished Analyst, Gartner.  “Discovery costs can be lowered substantially with the application of technology, especially archiving, legal hold and collection software.”
 
Third, eighty percent of the risk in the e-discovery process is in legal hold, collection and preservation. Part of the unified EnCase eDiscovery system is a legal hold capability that ensures legal obligations are met with better management, tracking and enforcement of legal holds. EnCase eDiscovery also eliminates the need for licensing and management of a separate legal hold point solution. Unlike other solutions that are highly disruptive to business operations by relying on so-called “preserve-in-place” methods, EnCase eDiscovery quickly and easily collects and preserves content across the network – from live email servers, desktops, laptops, file servers, and more – without any disruption to employee day-to-day operations.
 
Training and Professional Services Available
EnCase eDiscovery is backed by Guidance Software e-discovery expert services <http://www.guidancesoftware.com/ediscovery-services.htm> that provide industry standard best practices, training, and certifications EnCase Certified Examiner (EnCE) and EnCase Certified eDiscovery Practitioner (EnCEP).
 
Guidance Software is recognized worldwide as the industry leader in digital investigative solutions. Its EnCase® platform provides the foundation for government, corporate and law enforcement organizations to conduct thorough, network-enabled, and court-validated computer investigations of any kind, such as responding to eDiscovery requests, conducting internal investigations, responding to regulatory inquiries or performing data and compliance auditing - all while maintaining the integrity of the data. There are more than 30,000 licensed users of the EnCase technology worldwide, the EnCase® Enterprise platform is used by over half of the Fortune 100, and thousands attend Guidance Software's renowned training programs annually.