Doug Austin

This Year, The Annual “Mashup” Will Be Different: eDiscovery Trends

This year has been quite a bit different in a LOT of ways.  If you’ve followed my blogging over the past several years, you know that every year, I cover the eDiscovery Market Size Mashup that Rob Robinson compiles and presents on his Complex Discovery site each year.  And, each year, the eDiscovery software and Services market has continued an upward trend (the only question in past year has been how high is it rising?).  But, as I mentioned before, this year is different, so before we can even have a mashup, there has to be an adjustment to the 2020 baseline.

In Resetting the Baseline? eDiscovery Market Size Adjustments for 2020, Rob states: “An unanticipated pandemeconomic-driven retraction in eDiscovery spending during 2020 has resulted in the need to reset the baseline market size for ongoing ComplexDiscovery Market Size Mashup reports. Originally estimated by ComplexDiscovery to reach $12.66B in market size during 2020, revised estimates for the eDiscovery market reflect an adjustment to a newly estimated market size of $10.89B for 2020. This adjustment is a decrease of approximately 14% from pre-COVID 2020 forecasts. This revision also equates to a negative 3.03% growth rate between 2019 and 2020.”

Rob also notes: “These adjustments assume that the relative percentage costs for the overall tasks of collection (13%), processing (19%), and review (68%) remain the same as forecast for 2020 even in the face of the current pandemeconomic conditions.”

So, this isn’t actually the full “mashup”, just the adjustment for 2020 which will (as Rob puts it) reset the baseline for the mashup to come.

Broken down by the numbers, that translates into the following:

Collection, Processing and Review:

  • 2020 Original Estimate: $1.65B collection, $2.40B processing, $8.61B review; $12.66B TOTAL
  • 2020 Revised Estimate: $1.42B collection, $2.07B processing, $7.41B review; $10.89B TOTAL

Software and Services:

  • 2019: $3.39B software, $7.84B services; $11.23B TOTAL
  • 2020: $3.30B software, $7.59B services; $10.89B TOTAL

Rob then proceeds to break down the specific retractions for collection, processing and review in 2020, the revision in the markets for remote and onsite collection and review (not surprisingly, they are almost completely reversed from what was originally expected) and the market adjustments for onsite and remote collection and review.  As usual, Rob lists his market size sources which (this year) are broken down between Post-COVID and Pre-COVID sources.

Needless to say, this downward adjustment for 2020 isn’t surprising, it was expected.  Honestly, at one point earlier in the year, we might have expected a sharper downturn.

Need something to take your mind off the eDiscovery market downturn today?  Go vote!  If you haven’t already, that is.

So, what do you think?  Will the expected rise in litigation (that we’re already seeing to some point) reverse the trend?  Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the authors and speakers themselves, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.

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