Are You Paying Too Much for eDiscovery?

Understanding In-and-Out, All-In, Bundled and Managed Services

Given that budgetary constraints are one of the leading elements impacting the conduct of discovery, eDiscovery continues to challenge law firms and legal departments due to a lack of consistency and transparency in pricing. Further complicating this predicament is the increasing size of data sets from evolving data sources that attorneys must filter to build strategy, which takes added time and, ultimately, costs more. This lack of consistency and transparency appears to have many reasons, with most originating from the fact that eDiscovery solutions (software and/or services) tend to be complex and require an understanding of need, volume, and duration before a quote can be provided – which aren’t always known at the outset.

Strategic eDiscovery vendors increasingly offer customized pricing solutions based on a consultative approach that takes the time to understand budgetary constraints and specific needs of a matter first, versus less mature organizations. This approach helps legal teams avoid paying for unnecessary services. It facilitates an informed conversation that saves legal teams and clients’ money and potentially achieves a better outcome on their behalf.

This article investigates the differences between In-and-Out, All-In, Bundled, and Managed Services pricing solutions to provide some insight for legal teams as they choose the arrangement that’s best for them so that they never feel forced into a prescribed model that may not be the best fit for their unique needs:

In-and-Out, All-In and Bundled pricing solutions are based on pricing per GB. For legal teams to get the most out of per GB pricing, a lot must be clarified beforehand, like filter criteria, search terms, user licenses, Project Manager involvement, processing arrangements, and presumed hosting length. 

• In-and-Out pricing configurations – This is the most known pricing configuration and is most applicable when a legal team expects to significantly narrow their collection once it is searchable/cullable. As the name indicates, a per GB charge is applied to the data set based on compressed size upon “In”gestion. Search terms and data filters are used within the processing engine to cull irrelevant data, where a per GB charge is then applied to the resulting (out) data set. That data set is then promoted to the hosting environment for further analysis and review. 

• All-In pricing models - This is a relatively new, more simplified pricing configuration. It is most applicable when a legal team does not have much predetermined information about the data they mean to find and means to cast a narrow net at the collection level or have a limited number of custodians. As the name indicates, a per GB charge is applied to the compressed data set upon ingestion. Once data is in the hosting environment, unlimited search terms and data filters can be used as more is learned about the matter to cull irrelevant data for further analysis and review. 



• Bundled Pricing Solutions – Pricing bundles are a fairly new development used by SaaS providers in eDiscovery and are a source of tremendous confusion for legal teams. In its purest form, a bundled pricing solution reduces or removes processing fees at the expense of higher amounts of hosted data. Additional items like user licenses, data analytics or training may also be included; however, many eDiscovery vendors package their service in a similar fashion to cable providers, creating price bundles that include tools that are either unnecessary or useless in a particular matter.

Some law firms have done away with the billable hour in favor of more creative fee arrangements. Similarly, eDiscovery vendors are offering discounts on services, particularly for bulk purchase. Managed Services offerings are fixed volume solutions with pricing that can be simpler and more transparent; however, it does require a contract commitment. 

• Managed Services offering - With managed services offerings, minimum hosted storage size is guaranteed, and their prices have been set in advance and billed monthly. With a fixed volume plan, legal teams can do whatever they need with the space allotted. They can add, delete, analyze, produce, or reproduce as much data as is required. One key component must be considered with managed services solutions – the people managing the data are what truly makes a managed services solution successful. Clients opting for Managed Services benefit from a full team support, including Project Managers overseeing the service product if desired. This added support structure can position any sized firm to remain competitive and knowledgeable of their eDiscovery support provider. 

eDiscovery costs can quickly add up, and lawsuits and litigation are rarely simple. With custodians, witnesses, opposing counsel, court deadlines, depositions, and motions, the burden on legal teams to understand how and why they are being billed by the eDiscovery vendor has become equally complex. At IST Management, we prioritize transparency in our service offerings, demonstrating the quality of our partnership and working with clients to find which option is the best for them.