There’s plenty of evidence that life in the cloud is easier—from behind-the-scenes, frequent upgrades to built-in security and simpler infrastructure management, SaaS computing and e-discovery is increasingly becoming more desirable for modern organizations.
Still, a net-positive outcome doesn’t mean change is any less intimidating. In fact, it’s the perceived burden of that change that holds many teams back from taking their first steps into the future of legal work.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Business transformations are never simple—and making the move to the cloud is certainly a transformation. The right planning and preparation, however, can make the process not just surmountable, but beneficial in its own right.
When Compliance Discovery Solutions decided to make the move to RelativityOne, they put a solid training plan together for their team to help make sure the transition was as smooth as possible—not just for their clients, but for their own staff as well. This approach yielded 20 certified staff and a whole lot of confidence from the get-go in offering SaaS e-discovery to their customers.
Curious about how this plan came to be for their team, we sat down with Compliance Director of e-Discovery Technology Anthony David to get his insights. He had a lot of good takeaways to share for teams considering a transformation of their own.
Sam: What motivated your organization to invest in SaaS e-discovery?
Anthony: Well, the sheer volume of client data and the increasing need to ramp up quickly was becoming a challenge. It was clear we needed a stable environment where we could scale up as needed—from 1 terabyte to 40 terabytes without negativity impacting our client’s experience or putting a burden on our internal resources, like infrastructure or team support. Freeing up those resources allows our compliance, technical, and project management teams to focus on driving even more innovation and creative solutions moving forward.
Obviously, providing service excellence for our clients is key and being able to implement innovative solutions quickly leads to continued customer success. That is huge for us. Innovation drives so much of our core business to the point clients expect it—and at times they expect those innovations to be available faster as their work becomes more complex.
In a nutshell, we moved to the cloud for three reasons: stability, scalability, and the integration of innovative solutions.
How do you find that working in the cloud is different than working on-premises? How is it the same?
Having access to system improvements and new features very quickly has been a game changer for our teams, who no longer need to plan out beta testing initiatives months in advance. With Relativity’s support staff ready to help with technical needs, our team can focus more on boosting the client experience, which has always been a key component of our strategy.
The similarities that still exist between the cloud and on-premises has allowed for our team to approach it with confidence which is also exhibited by our clients. For example, having a familiar platform to work in has allowed for an easy transition all around.
How would your clients answer the previous question?
Clients recognize having timely updates and improved features within their Relativity experience enables them to streamline their workflows and meet critical deadlines. Having early access to the latest innovations is also a huge asset to our clients, which allows them to have the technical edge in a competitive industry. Again, the familiarity of the Relativity platform between on-prem and the cloud has saved valuable time during the transition. So, the day-to-day experience has pretty much been the same between our on-prem and SaaS for our clients—which is exactly what we would prefer. Outside of the enhancements, that is.
What did your team to do prepare for your move to the cloud?
At the time, our support team was faced with an extremely fast moving and voluminous second request with the need to be able scale very quickly. We relied heavily on Relativity’s support team to assist us during this time. Continued training—and yes, quite frankly, a great deal of handholding—was needed to meet our clients’ expectations and meet these critical goals on that project specifically. The support provided by Relativity was an integral part of the transition which allowed our team to focus on the client needs at hand. We were paired with an amazing transition specialist who guided us through the process.
What areas of expertise does your team want to focus on more, now that you’re working in RelativityOne?
Implementing our customized protocols and workflows into the RelativityOne cloud was very important to us. That and specific attention to the processing and production pieces. Again, access to new features and timely updates gave us an upper hand on innovating for our clients, but the ability to process large amounts of data quickly also gave our services a boost. Of course, our team also appreciates the level of support and security that is included with the cloud, so it was also an opportunity to expand our own knowledge of those concepts.
Your team has shown great commitment to getting certified in RelativityOne. Why has that been an important priority for you?
Correct. I believe at this point we have 20 certified RelativityOne staff members. Management was mindful of how stressful the learning curve could be for some, as we wanted to provide a seamless service experience for our clients even as we were making this big shift. The importance of proactively training the team to ensure they could perform with confidence was not lost on us. It was an opportunity to bring the team together as a collective group and also encourage professional development at the individual level across departments. By having a robust team of RelativityOne Certified Pros, we are better equipped to provide our clients with knowledgeable and confident guidance.
What has the study process for these certification exams looked like for your team?
It was truly a team effort and quite frankly, fun. We created study teams who collaborated nationwide. One set of RelativityOne study flash cards were handed down from group to group until the cards looked worn and weathered. Our team members enjoyed randomly testing each other throughout the day to keep the learning process engaging. It was key to our team to treat it as a collaborative learning experience rather than a traditional take on test preparation. Our goal to certify as many as possible in preparation for the second request I mentioned earlier, as well new matters, was a huge success and truly bonded our teams together as we made this transition.
