One fact of business life is that software products reach the end of their life and are retired, meaning companies no longer distribute, support or update the product. Because retired products are no longer updated, they become inefficient and vulnerable to security breaches, creating liability for users. Software vendors retire products for many reasons, including that the technology has been surpassed by newer innovation, companies going out of business, mergers with companies that develop similar software or loss of users and therefore revenue.

The e-discovery software industry is no different, so it is logical that some products will reach the end of their life—perhaps some of yours already have. When this happens, law firms and legal departments should view this as an opportunity to migrate to a better, more advanced and secure product, rather than looking at the change with trepidation or dread. There are many steps a law firm or legal department can take to simplify and ease the transition to a new product.

1. Create a Transition Plan