Recommind keeps the good news coming

It is barely a fortnight since I reported on Recommind‘s coup in appointing Nick Patience as Director of Product Marketing and Strategy. Since then, Recommind’s name has turned up more often than I can keep pace with.  I put it that way because I try to leave space between multiple references to the same provider, which becomes difficult when a lot of separate stories emerge at once.  Only one of the stories, a product announcement, is LegalTech-specific; the rest seem just to have happened along at the same time.

If I group them together now, that will this leave space for whatever comes along after LegalTech.

Axcelerate eDiscovery 4.3

The fact that Recommind is amongst the leaders (in time terms as well as in reputation) in the technology known as predictive coding, may obscure the fact that its roots are in broader information management software and that the predictive coding component is but a part of its overall eDiscovery offering. The technology originally developed for broader search and categorisation has two eDiscovery components, Axcelerate ECA and Collection and Axcelerate Review and Analysis, which between them perform the functions implicit in their names.  Axcelerate On-Demand extends the same capabilities into the cloud and, as again its name implies, is available without in-house installation – like tomorrow, if you need it.

Axcelerate eDiscovery 4.3 introduces new seamless management capabilities across the entire process. The press release quotes Woods Abbott, Senior Manager of Legal Operation / eDiscovery at Raytheon, as praising not just the processing and workflow capability but, crucially, the sampling tools which are a big part of the battle to convince lawyers that they retain control of the decision-making.

AccessData releases all-new version of Summation

AccessData was not in a hurry to bring out its all-new version of the Summation line of eDiscovery products.  The company already had a 20-year history in digital investigations when it bought Summation iBlaze, Enterprise and CaseVantage towards the end of 2010. It was a product-line with a long history and a very large user-base and, when I spoke to them at the time, AccessData were under no illusions as to the work which would be needed to bring the product range up to date.

It must have been tempting to rush the job as new players entered the market, but AccessData resisted the temptation in order to make sure that, when it came, the relaunched Summation would hold its own with the competition. I have not seen it yet, but it looks as if they have made a thorough job of it. To quote from their own description:

Summation offers both comprehensive early case assessment capabilities – data ingestion, processing, culling, export with load file creation and first pass review – and final review features – search, annotation, redaction, production tools and transcript support – in one product. This integration means that users can move data from the ECA stage directly to final review without creating a load file, exporting or re-processing. In fact, all stakeholders from IT to in-house teams to outside counsel can efficiently and securely collaborate in a single platform.

That page includes a summary of the main features and links to product brochures.

Information Governance, UK eDisclosure and International Discovery in three days

In an ideal world, I would keep the week before LegalTech free.  Product announcements pour out with accompanying (and welcome) invitations in advance to find out about the new developments (that is preferable, incidentally, to those who make big announcements and assume that I will pick up on them). The diary needs constant adjustment as I ditch optional LegalTech sessions in favour of fitting in meetings. My own LegalTech sessions (of which more below) require preparation. Computers, cameras, address books need preparatory attention, and reference papers must be copied somewhere accessible. A week away involves boring domestic details of shirts and shoes and suits, and you just can’t get the servants these days.

Just the week, all in all, to have a big webinar to moderate, a seminar to lead in the North of England and an invitation to speak at a conference in Brussels on three consecutive days.  And in the middle of all that, the EU commission announces a re-revised data protection regulation just as I have finished reading the 116 page leaked version.

Two consequences follow. One is this, a compendium article (which I rarely do) pulling together multiple threads as an alternative to overlooking them all. The other is that I have undoubtedly missed things which I would normally have caught. For the avoidance of doubt (and conscious as I am of a rough duty of balance in what I write) the difference between things I have covered and things I have not written about is one of timing rather than any perceived priority of importance.  if the news broke whilst I was in an aeroplane or under the Channel, then I may have missed it.