Once reserved for large law firms and corporations, more and more organizations of all sizes are now reviewing discovery documents on off-the-shelf, web-based platforms. These solutions have gained popularity this decade as law firms and corporate legal departments around the globe have realized that, with the increasing complexity of litigation due to electronic discovery and global venues, cross-enterprise collaboration is becoming a common denominator for document review. Web-based review platforms allow for widespread teams to collaborate and review documents at any location and any time day or night.

The Trend Toward Outsourcing Web Hosting
As document populations grow into terabytes and even into the petabyte range, the trend towards outsourcing web hosting continues to grow. Law firms and corporate legal departments are learning to leverage technology to automate their document review processes. The goal is to increase review speed, leverage greater efficiencies and ensure scalability.

To this last point, one of the main reasons law firms are increasing their use of web-based tools is to help lift the burden from their overtaxed IT staff and overtaxed systems infrastructure. According to a recent study by the International Legal Technology Association, the ratio of lawyers to IT staff in law firms is an average of 35 to 1. Many experts recommend a ratio no higher than 20 to 1. This gap can be bridged–at least to some extent–with web-based tools, which do not tax the firm’s call desk support or cause degradation in its system performance.

Off-the-shelf web hosting companies also ensure that firm’s or corporation’s documents are secure and the system they use is reliable and scalable. As noted above, the demand for more complex document review functionality, including cross-enterprise collaboration, as well as ever-escalating costs and greater outsourcing benefits will further spur off-the-shelf web hosting among small law firms.

Web Hosting Saves Time and Money
As law firms evaluate the shift to an off-the-shelf web-hosting model, the total reduced cost of ownership is often viewed as a major benefit. For law firms, establishing their own hosting capabilities internally is often a large capital investment. The total cost of managing an in-house web hosted document platform is generally higher due to the costs of additional in-house IT staff. In addition, the total cost of ownership also factors in reduction in equipment, software, and initial set up costs, as well as the periodic upgrading of equipment, 24/7 help desk services and around-the-clock monitoring and management. All of these demands require core competence in and commitment to state-of-the-art technology, which is not frequently a key attribute of a typical law firm. 

In my experience, firms that leverage and outsource their web hosting can expect a 25 to 80 percent total cost savings as compared to in-house solutions. Outsourcing enables a firm to reduce its total costs by freeing assets, such as cash that is allocated to capital expenditures and the expense of specially trained staff, which can sometimes account for almost half of the total budget for the in-house document review solution.

The benefits of using an off-the-shelf web-hosting service provider go beyond a reduced total cost. While hosting providers enable small law firms to start their document review quickly and efficiently, they also provide even large, sophisticated firms with a reliable review platform and end-to-end accountability for the performance of the review tool.

Today, there are a variety of review platforms available to law firms. From solutions that law firms are accustomed to, such as (online versions of) CT Summation and LexisNexis’ Concordance, to review tools that include advanced features such as graphical user interfaces, Boolean search logic, concept folders, contextual review, foreign language support and near de-duplication detection. Some tools, such as kCura’s Relativity, even support review of the files in their native formats.

These companies frequently offer extra services above and beyond what most firms are used to having in-house. Among these services are administration rights, including selected access and use, monitoring and reporting of users. Also, there are typically disaster recovery capabilities, security threat monitoring, server backup and data storage. In addition, providers usually offer Service Level Agreements (SLAs) or guarantees to ensure full-time availability and back-up for the web repository. This reliability becomes even more crucial when the website is accessed by co-counsel or expert witnesses outside the firm, who may even be overseas.

The Future of Web Hosting
As small law firms begin to automate their internal processes and develop faster document review capabilities, they must consider how to deliver top-notch performance to the document reviewer. With the increasing importance of web-hosted repositories, it is critical that the web hosted operations are properly managed and supported to ensure their success. Off-the-shelf web hosting services can provide that kind of support while helping law firms decrease costs, increase productivity and improve their bottom line.

Shawnna Childress is Director of National Accounts and Senior Discovery Consultant for Encore Legal Solutions, where she focuses on assisting law firms and corporations with litigation readiness and electronic discovery. She is a co-founder of Women in E-discovery and is a frequent writer and speaker on electronic discovery and litigation. Ms. Childress can be reached at schildress@encorelegal.com.