The Sedona Conferences's Best Practices for the Selection of Electronic Discovery Vendors, recommends that in defining the scope of work in a Request for Proposal from a vendor, a firm list the following general requirements for the collection, processing and hosting of electronic documents:
1. Specify the potential time of engagement in the number of years that the vendor's services may be required.
2. Specify the number of documents to be reviewed, and how many may be in native format. E.g., 100,000 to 1,000,000.
3. Specify how many hard drives and servers data will be collected from.
4. Specify the number of hard copy documents that will need to be scanned, OCR'd and manually coded.
5. Database specifications - [use the mnemonic LIMBOS, whatever database will keep you in limbo for a long while as it runs. ]
a. Load file for in-house review.
b. Document Image specs - Group IV Tiff images - 300 dpi
c. Metadata must be collected for native files converted to images.
d. Back-up procedures must be verified.
e. Organize documents by producing party, etc.
f. Security of the facility, server and database has to be confirmed and auditing procedures related.
6. Avoid Spoliation of electronic files and show chain of custody.
7. Specify De-Duplication procedures.
8. Specify algorithms to segregate data into review folders.
9. Document Review [use the mnemonic: PAT PM A ONE, pat your A-1 project manager on the back.]
a. Bulk Printing to a local printer.
b. 24/7 Access by 10 or more users at a time. .
c. Initial Training in person; subsequent training online.
d. Access to tech support and a Project Manager.
e. Levels of security to allow access to users should be controlled by Administrator based at the client firm.
f. ONE web based tool for all data - not requiring downloads.
For the whole list of general requirements use the mnemonic, DR HANDS ToE, DDS - think in terms of a doctor for all of the appendages.
DocumentReview HardcopiesAlgorithmsNumberofdocumentsDrivesandServers TimeofEngagement, DeduplicationDatabaseSpoliation.