Image courtesy of BIA
Business Intelligence Associates has announced further upgrades to its web-based e-discovery application, TotalDiscovery.com, which launched at LegalTech New York 2011. The upgrades include browser-based mobile access to services and forthcoming native smartphone applications.
Refinements announced July 20 allow clients to manage their discovery projects directly from iPhones, iPads, BlackBerrys, Android, and other devices that support a mobile browser. BIA President Brian Schrader said in an e-mail communication that mobile browser support currently includes Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Safari, but the default Android browser is not currently compatible.
The company also plans to launch dedicated mobile applications for the various smartphone platforms in the future, says Schrader. Status, access reporting, and data collection initiation are just some of the portable things that the mobile version of the website offers users, which Schrader believes allows for real-time status reports.
The company says the website, which originally launched at LegalTech New York 2011, allows IT departments to gain more visibility into "data needed by legal [departments] for case development." It also provides IT departments greater control "over discovery processes and standardized workflows" at earlier litigation stages, says a statement from earlier this year. Schrader says that over 200 new users have joined since the site launched, and that it is in use in "over a dozen active legal matters."
Schrader also adds that the target audience for the site is "anyone who has to collect data for litigation or an investigatory matter." He goes on to state that "we have corporations (both IT and legal department professionals) and other e-discovery service providers and computer forensics experts."
One of the main goals of the TotalDiscovery.com website is the identification, collection, and delivery of legal data. BIA prides itself on the minimal setup required of the product; all that is needed to get started is logging into the site and registering. BIA also emphasizes TotalDiscovery.com's affordability, and claim that their tools provide "unprecedented control over the left side of the EDRM."
Pricing starts at $50 per month per user; and because of this pre-established pricing, BIA sees that straightforward cost predictions are another plus for the application. TotalDiscovery.com's underlying technology "is BIA's mature and proven DiscoveryBOT ESI Collection Engine," Schrader notes. With its use of AES encryption technologies for secure data preservation and transfer, the company president believes that security is another product highlight, as it is Unicode and privacy law compliant.
Also included with the original site launch in January is Data Profiler -- which is a free tool that helps IT take a snapshot of data volume and formatting in a corporate network, with minimal IT feedback. This built-in feature's primary goal is to "estimate your costs before even spending any significant money," and Schrader adds that the "real-life statistics that the Data Profiler feature helps customers get away from the guestimates that plague the early stages of e-discovery." The hope is that Data Profiler will help users get a "real handle on actual costs," says Schrader.
Headquartered in New York City, BIA also has offices in San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and in Southwest Michigan. The company maintains digital evidence response units throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
Brendan McKenna is LTN's news editor. Send e-mail.
Subscribe to Law Technology News
