Electronic Discovery Requirements Escalate

To accurately assess how the demand for digital archiving and information access solutions will evolve over the next several years, ESG used a mix of online survey-based research involving 441 North American IT decision makers and in-depth telephone surveys with 27 General Counsel and other senior legal staff at North American organizations in order to examine the impact of e-discovery activities and processes within their organizations.

The on-line survey research was part of a larger survey of e-mail, database and file-based archiving trends. The scope of analysis with IT decision makers included questions designed to:

• Identify the extent to which internal IT organizations are asked to support e-discovery activities and processes
• Analyze the types of records most frequently requested
• Assess the impact of e-discovery processes on long-term information retention and access investments

By comparison, qualitative interviews with senior legal executives in a range of industries were aimed at:

• Understanding the decision making, budgeting and funding processes associated with e-discovery projects
• Anticipating expected growth in the total number of e-discovery projects and spending levels over the next few years
• Learning about the age and types of data typically requested
• Identifying the major e-discovery cost drivers by functional activity
• Considering the full range of internal and external services and tools used to support e-discovery processes currently and in the future

For more information on the contents and findings of this report, please download the executive summary below.

Executive Summary