It’s important to know how to use your eDiscovery software platform. But eDiscovery software expertise doesn’t stop with eDiscovery software anymore.

This week, I had a post RelFest discussion with Greg Buckles, who is the Editor of the excellent eDiscovery Journal, long time eDiscovery and legal tech professional and friend and fellow Houstonian. We talked about general eDiscovery trends and also Microsoft’s impact on those trends.

On eDiscovery Journal, Greg publishes the updates to the Microsoft roadmap every month that impact eDiscovery. In the latest update, Greg notes “that the Classic Purview portal will be retired END OF THE YEAR. The new Portal is still in preview mode and a known navigation bug may require you to use this link – https://purview.microsoft.com/ediscovery/casespage – to directly access the new portal”.

So, you can’t effectively use the new portal UI yet, but the old portal will be retired at the end of the year. Yep, sounds like Microsoft! 😀

Conversations like this with Greg and others (including the interviews that Tom O’Connor and I have done recently with Greg, Mike McBride, Shawn Huston, Ben Schorr and John Collins) have made it clear to me that eDiscovery software expertise doesn’t stop with eDiscovery software anymore. You have to understand the challenges and considerations with the source ESI platforms that feed data into the eDiscovery platforms.

If you’re evaluating any eDiscovery platform today, one of the most important considerations is the connectors that it provides to source ESI platforms. The consideration isn’t just whether it connects with popular platforms like M365, G-Suite, Slack and many others, but how it connects. If you’re an eDiscovery professional, you need to know: 1) if those connections exist, 2) how they work, and 3) what ESI can be collected from the source ESI platform. That’s expertise that goes beyond just the eDiscovery platform you’re using. As if the job wasn’t challenging enough, right? 😉

So, what do you think? How well do you understand the source ESI platforms that feed into eDiscovery solutions? 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 author, 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.