I think it might be time for a guest blog post. At a recent roundtable in Atlanta, one of the attendees relayed a quote from her CIO that "Differences Cost Money." I liked the point so I asked Dan Regard of Intelligent Discovery Solutions to illustrate how that point might be applicable to eDiscovery. Dan made the point, both in this posting, below, and on camera in our video blog series, available here.
Recently there have been a number of companies seeking to coordinate their long term information technology plans with the (relatively) recent risks associated with electronic discovery. After several of these, we developed a list of rules, guidelines really, that IT departments can use when making purchases of hardware and software, as well as designing infrastructure and services, that more often than not will move the infrastructure toward a future state that is less risky from an electronic discovery perspective. Furthermore, we were able to reduce these guidelines to a single acronym, CLOCX. As one CIO put it, "when it's time to get serious about eDiscovery, adjust your CLOCX".
So, what does CLOCX stand for? Quite simple really:
C - Strive for fewer Copies of files
L - Strive for fewer Locations of files
O - Strive for fewer (storage) Options for users
C - Strive for fewer Configurations of identical systems
X - Make fewer eXceptions for individual users.
A deeper review of these guidelines can develop into a robust technology plan that is more likely than not to be pleasing to the legal and compliance departments. Fortunately with today's mobility and cloud computing resources, it may be easier than you think. Dan Regard. CEO, Intelligent Discovery Solutions. dregard@idiscoverysolutions.com
I talked with Dan a few weeks ago at CA World and asked him more about CLOCX:
Thanks, Dan. It doesn't take too much of a technical understanding (thankfully, because I am probably the least technical person at CA) to see how having fewer difference in and about your IT landscape will make things easier (read, cheaper) at eDiscovery time. It will make your data map easier to create and maintain, it will make it easier for the IT staff to explain the information landscape to the lawyers (thereby reducing the learning curve that newcomers to your systems will have to endure) and it will make it easier to use bulk tools to perform some of the tasks in the eDiscovery workflow.
As I sit here typing this, it sounds so obvious as to be self-evident. But who among us takes this notion into account when deploying technology or making decisions? If you are, we'd love to hear your experiences.
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