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Partnering Up to Up-level Your e-Discovery

James Zinn

Getting support from true subject matter experts can help new and even veteran legal teams make the most of their work. That’s why a core tenet of the Relativity community is and will always be a robust partner network—one that’s always ready to support users of every type in accomplishing everything they want to do in a single platform. Our partners can be key to leveling up an organization’s legal processes and getting more value out of their data.

It starts with the familiar story of e-discovery: sometimes sources of data are clear, data volumes are manageable, and data types are familiar, helping you find the answer with relative ease. Other times, the search for truth is messy. In these cases, success will be hard-earned. But you don’t have to tackle it alone.

The Relativity partner network includes some of the most impactful members of our community: with boots on the ground, they offer a key ingredient to growth and an agile ability to satisfy the needs of the diverse teams who use Relativity every day. Employing more than 1,300 Relativity Certified Administrators around the world, these groups have a wealth of experience managing projects of all kinds—and helping their customers do more with the platform.

Of course, it doesn’t end there. The market has evolved over the years, and two key trends have come into play that are changing the way individuals approach e-discovery:

  1. The expectations of users are changing.
  2. The move to the cloud is happening.

Changing Expectations

Out of the box, RelativityOne provides a complete set of flexible capabilities in a secure cloud platform to tackle every phase of any e-discovery project. With it, you’ll have the tools to tackle any challenge, whether it's litigation, information governance, a government request, or an internal investigation.

But sometimes, you want to work faster, do more, or take advantage of the insights available through deeper analysis. That takes expertise—something software alone can’t provide. For many organizations like yours, partnering with a solution provider provides fresh insights that are hard to come by on your own. Spanning 37 countries around the world, our 109 partners fill this gap.

At Relativity Fest 2018, we heard plenty of sentiments from Relativity users echoing this desire for fresh perspective and advanced expertise:

“I want my vendors to give me value-added insight, and I want them to give me information to make me smarter and help my workflows.”

“Innovation is important. We are always looking toward our partners to see what else we could put into Relativity.”

Karl Hennessee—senior vice president of litigation, investigations, and regulatory affairs at Airbus—also espoused the evolving value that solution providers bring to our space:

“I don't think you can pick winners today based on their size or scale, but on soft factors like their abilities to extend the reach of their tech beyond e-discovery, their willingness to test new innovations with customers before launching them into the market, and their desire to move faster.”

That’s exactly what our most forward-thinking partners are doing. Their expertise and services include:

  • Creation of intellectual property on top of the platform. Relativity partners and customers have created applications that do everything from addressing highly specific workflows to slashing image data by 95 percent for their clients.
  • Deepening vertical specialization. These groups have the hands-on experience to create industry and client-specific workflows, package their expertise, and develop bespoke solutions to meet customers’ unique needs—all of which help them stand out in a crowded marketplace.
  • Supporting adjacent markets. There’s much more to legal work than e-discovery. Organizations in markets beyond this space need the same data-centered software and people-centric support to tackle their challenges, including compliance, contracts, mergers and acquisitions, patent work, and surveillance. Our partners are here to help.
  • Early expertise on new technologies. When new features and workflows become available in technology like Relativity, you might look to our partners as the experts to help you understand how to best leverage them to meet your specific business needs. It’s a smart approach: they’re producing thought leadership and real-world outcomes that drive emerging technology forward in the marketplace.

Because your expectations are much different now than they were when we started the Relativity Partner Program in 2010, we want to make sure we recognize partners who are most responsive to changing market expectations and requirements.

A Shift to the Cloud

Meanwhile, the move the cloud is well under way. Corporations aren’t the only ones on this path: almost 75 percent of law firms are planning or implementing a formal cloud strategy. Of those, 33 percent are at the planning stage, reaching to form a cloud strategy; 39 percent have a formal strategy and are actively pursuing cloud-based computing resources.

RelativityOne has hit the market in response to demand for SaaS solutions that offer robust support for legal work without sacrificing flexibility. Partners who leverage RelativityOne will be best positioned to meet these expectations, and we have updated our partner program to recognize and reward partners who do so.

Understanding the Refreshed Relativity Partner Program

Given that so many organizations are already investing in the cloud and asking for ways to maximize those investments, partners who succeed in the new program are those who differentiate themselves by showcasing their deep experience in the software, their investment in training and certifications for their teams, their ability to build customer loyalty, and the unique solutions that make them stand out in the market.

Expanding the RelativityOne Certified Partner Program

 

 

We created the RelativityOne Certified Partner (ROCP) program with the launch of RelativityOne. With adoption of RelativityOne accelerating, fresh updates to this program are warranted. Therefore, we are expanding the program to include three levels of partners:

  • RelativityOne Certified Partner
  • RelativityOne Silver Partner
  • RelativityOne Gold Partner

Each level requires different experience with the software, investment in trained staff, and, at higher levels, attributes such as intellectual property built on our platform and customer loyalty. In this way, the new program recognizes partners’ investments in the evolving services their customers now demand.

For legal teams—within and beyond e-discovery—we hope these updates create a more transparent environment in which they can select the provider who will best support their goals for better, more impactful e-discovery. (To help you select the right provider based on those needs, we have updated the Partners page of our website to filter on different attributes.)

For more information on the program, visit this page.

Improving How We Highlight Partners’ Third-party Certifications

We recognize that you take seriously the privacy of your employees, contractors, and customers, as well as the importance of protecting the confidentiality of their data—and so do our partners.

Many partners have invested significantly in their information security programs and have obtained third-party certifications or attestations of compliance against industry-recognized security standards. To better acknowledge these efforts, we have improved how we highlight the third-party security and quality certifications awarded to our partners on our partner locator page and individual partner pages.

Recognizing a New Type of Partner: The RelativityOne Services Partner

 

 

Corporations, government agencies, and law firms using RelativityOne often benefit from the insights of a solution provider to maximize the value of their subscription and achieve their biggest goals with the platform. For example, new RelativityOne customers may seek assistance with massive data migrations or integrating RelativityOne into new or existing business processes.

Some organizations have preferred IT or management consulting providers who they would like to support their implementation of RelativityOne. To meet these needs, we are recognizing a new category of Relativity partners that will be referred to as RelativityOne Services Partners.

What’s Next?

As the business world moves to SaaS, we believe it’s important to remember that the “service” doesn’t end with the “software” itself. Our team provides the hands-on, secure technical support our customers have come to expect from us as their software provider. Our partners, on the other hand, offer added expertise, consulting, and solutions to help you go beyond everyday workflows in Relativity and achieve significant outside-the-box value that will up-level your legal work within and beyond e-discovery.

No matter how you use Relativity, participating in the community by engaging a solution provider can help you open doors to do more with the platform and for your business. Our partner program was created—and continues to evolve—to enable those conversations. We can’t wait to see what your teams come up with next.

James Zinn is director of business transformation services at Relativity, where he helps customers stay ahead of the curve in legal technology and e-discovery. He has more than 20 years of experience in the intersection of legal processes, technology, and professional services.

 

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James Zinn is director of business transformation services at Relativity, where he helps customers stay ahead of the curve in legal technology and e-discovery. He has more than 20 years of experience in the intersection of legal processes, technology, and professional services.

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