publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/192213
A MANAGED RISK: OUTSOURCING XXXX PRACTICE SUPPORT SERVICES have assessed use a GB per month pricing scheme. Even those that use a subscription model base the recurring cost on GBs. Using the GB model, a firm might elect to keep inactive cases in-house and move active billable cases over to the outsourced provider. This alone should prompt a firm to clean up its practice support data storage. Since you need to account for each GB, there is an opportunity for case remediation. A good portion of data that take up space on our servers are residual data that date back to the inception of the department. There is also a possibility for cases to exist in more than one environment. Think of a firm that migrated from Concordance or Summation to Relativity. A firm might elect to keep all Concordance legacy databases in-house but use the outsourced provider to host data for new matters in Relativity. It will be important to define at the onset of the transition period what is currently active and stays internal. Jackie: Does outsourcing provide an opportunity to develop a better data management policy or case archiving protocol? Sal: Yes, since we face the challenge of finally dealing with dormant data and determining if we should move them to a different environment. This process will require hard decisions on how to manage the data and an opportunity to create a starting point for new policies going forward. The cost for outsourcing should motivate a firm to handle data for closed matters better. Jackie: What happens to the software already purchased by the firm, should outsourcing become a reality? Sal: Some software can be transferred with no problem, and some will have to be renewed after they lapse or run out, either by the firm or the new provider. One important consideration is the need to build in maintenance contracts as the new provider takes over your pre-purchased technologies. If a firm has already purchased Relativity, the firm can opt to maintain ownership of its Relativity licenses with maintenance fees and licensing, as the software is still owned by the firm. However, it will be hosted on the provider's servers. Also, some thirdparty applications — such as LAW Pre-Discovery Processing and text editors — might already be part of the provider's tool kit and will not need to be purchased or renewed. Finally, some licenses might never be outsourced as they are best used when locally installed by the firm. It is extremely important to involve the firm's IT resources in determining which practice support systems work with the firm's current environment. For example, transcript management databases that allow for streaming video might not work properly when hosted by an outside provider. Jackie: Can an outsourced solution increase a practice support department's billable hours? How so? Sal: I believe it can. A practice support professional might spend time focused on managing the current database environment — hours that cannot be billed back to clients. If that task is removed, the project