Cloud and Social Media Applications Relevence in E-Disclosure

Clearwell Systems, a leader in intelligent e-disclosure, today announced findings from a survey conducted in conjunction with analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). A survey, titled “Trends in E-Discovery: Cloud and Collection,” highlights the rise of litigation, the enterprise trend toward bringing e-disclosure in-house, and, in particular, the growing impact of cloud computing and social media on electronic disclosure. These mediums will double in importance and scope for e-disclosure this year, according to respondents. The survey results were based upon responses gathered from more than a hundred Fortune 2000 enterprises and government agencies.

“The recent Texas court ruling allowing Facebook accounts to be screened as part of the jury selection process is just one example of the increasing importance of social media in the legal industry”

According to the results, 30 percent of respondents reported cloud-based applications as in-scope for e-disclosure in 2010. In 2011, that number is expected to jump to 60 percent, illustrating the pervasiveness of cloud computing as part of corporate IT infrastructure and the need for companies to be in control of their data both inside and outside of their firewalls. Yet despite the rising importance of cloud-based applications in e-disclosure, only one quarter of respondents deemed their organisation truly prepared to handle e-disclosure requests involving the cloud. When asked why they were unprepared to respond to the necessary cloud-related requests, 39 percent stated they had no prior need, while an alarming 37 percent reported their organisation had simply no defined policy for discovery of cloud-based applications.

SharePoint and Facebook top list of most relevant sources of electronic evidence in each medium, commanding 61 percent and 79 percent of responses, respectively

Key survey findings include:

• 60 percent of respondents anticipate discovery of cloud-based applications in 2011, double the number who reported cloud applications in-scope in 2010.
• 58 percent of respondents expect to manage social media applications as part of e-disclosure in 2011, more than double the 27 percent who did so in 2010.
• With 61 percent of responses, collaboration suites such as SharePoint were cited as the most pervasive cloud computing technology impacting enterprises, followed by cloud-based email at 54 percent.
• When asked what types of social media applications would be the most relevant for e-disclosure, 79 percent named Facebook, followed by Twitter (64 percent) and LinkedIn (55 percent).
• Over 70 percent of the respondents saw the number of lawsuits and regulatory inquiries increase from 2009 to 2010. Nearly half of those surveyed stated that the number of lawsuits increased by up to 20 percent and approximately 8 percent reported a dramatic increase of 50 percent or more.
• The expected rise in litigation in 2011 is nearly identical to the rise seen in 2010, with 7 out of 10 companies believing that investigations will continue to increase.
• Nearly all respondents (93 percent) intend to bring some portion of e-disclosure in-house over the next year, illustrating the continued emergence of e-disclosure as an integrated business process within the enterprise.

“The recent Texas court ruling allowing Facebook accounts to be screened as part of the jury selection process is just one example of the increasing importance of social media in the legal industry,” said Brian Babineau, vice president, Research and Analyst Service, Enterprise Strategy Group. “In addition, our research indicates that 34 percent of companies are currently using cloud-based applications and another 21 percent plan to, which means that e-disclosure activities will have to incorporate these new enterprise data sources. These two market trends exacerbate the urgency for enterprises to take the necessary precautions and implement the proper processes to meet the ever-changing demands of rising litigation requests. Organisations must proactively address cloud computing and social media as part of their overall e-disclosure strategies, or otherwise expose themselves to magnified risk and added expense.”

“The explosion of electronic data coupled with the continuous rise in litigation has pushed e-disclosure to become a core business process for organisations in every industry,” said Kamal Shah, vice president of products and marketing at Clearwell Systems. “The results of this survey illustrate how important it is for companies to adapt their e-disclosure strategies to address new technologies and data sources, like cloud computing and social media, or be at risk of non-compliance. Solutions such as the Clearwell E-Discovery Platform, which provides Microsoft BPOS and full SharePoint support, help corporations manage these ever-evolving mediums, take greater control of the e-discovery process and mitigate risk.”

ESG’s full report and analysis of the survey findings can be downloaded from Clearwell’s website at http://info.clearwellsystems.com/wp-esg-research-survey.html.