The Pillsbury team handles multiple terabytes of active project data at any given time. That data needs to be treated across the entire EDRM workflow, preferably in-house and with special attention to the safety and security of documents. Meeting this need requires robust processing capabilities, sophisticated administration capabilities, integrated redaction tools, customizable document productions and, critically, the most powerful analytics and machine learning capabilities available to help attorneys quickly find the key facts that could make or break their cases.
When evaluating the OpenText™ Axcelerate™ platform, Pillsbury was seeking a best-in-class predictive technology.“ We were looking for analytic capabilities that would allow us to visualize large datasets and emphasize investigation, along with providing efficiencies to heads-down document review,” noted Stanton. “We also knew the importance of having someone on hand who can serve as a data steward—someone who understands client information architecture, the needs of the organization to migrate data and the kinds of privacy and regulatory concerns that the organization is navigating.”
Enabling DIY eDiscovery in the cloud
Stanton notes that in selecting OpenText Axcelerate to provide a centralized, cloud-based eDiscovery platform for its litigation portfolio, the biggest shift was implementing a platform that would bring the discovery function in-house. “This ensured that we were no longer beholden to a variety of different third-party providers,” said Stanton. “All data is culled, processed, hosted, analyzed and reviewed in Axcelerate, enabling the firm to standardize processes and enhance efficiencies.”
Today, Pillsbury manages the entire eDiscovery process in-house, from a single interface. The Pillsbury team processes client data, manages its own projects and runs productions themselves, with no dependency on third-party providers. “When Pillsbury was building out our capacity,” explained Stanton, “it was very important to have a well-designed and easily implemented backend administrative capability that we could get up and running without a lot of expenses and training.”
In addition, since Axcelerate is optimized for the cloud, Pillsbury is able to realize substantial efficiencies by reducing infrastructure costs associated with hardware. The team possesses all the computing power it needs on-demand. “We’re able to leverage a very small team to perform an incredible amount of work that would, in other platforms, require a lot more staff and likely a larger commitment to on premises resources,” explained Director of Litigation Support Services, Gordon Moffat.
Axcelerate is also among the most secure eDiscovery platforms available because it leverages the AWS Cloud and takes full advantage of all the plenary security features available. “As part of our assessment of OpenText™ Axcelerate™ Cloud, we analyzed the security parameters and recognized that a distributed cloud-based implementation, when well architected, is at least as secure as having an on-premises installation,” said Stanton.