[Case Study: Discovery Management]

Global Fortune 100 Risk Mitigation and Discovery Management

The challenge: As a Global Fortune 100 company, this client is the third largest company in its industry. Its size, profitability, and global presence make it a target for frequent litigation and matters that require investigation and treatment. Without a common program for managing records and information, and without a systematic discovery management process, this company faced unnecessary risk.

As part of a major initiative across all of the operating business units, Access Sciences consultants served as expert program guides and facilitators across three project teams on a cross-functionally comprehensive information management improvement initiative. Starting with diverse legacy program components from five (5) separate operating business units, Access Sciences consultants led multi-disciplinary teams charged to design, develop and implement a risk-based enterprise records and information management program, including enabling elements such as:

• Policies, procedures and work processes with play scripts and work flow diagrams for all program elements
• Enterprise taxonomy / classification hierarchy, metadata model and indexing guidelines, and
• Guidelines and processes to manage e-records including unstructured data (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.) and structured data (records content in business applications, e.g., ERP).
• ERM and ECM system requirements definition, evaluation and assessment, and pilot activities.

This highly successful U.S. program became the basis for a global enterprise records management program, and for regionally-tailored implementation initiatives. Access Sciences developed and delivered training (in multiple languages) and designed work group file plans for implementation managers in the various sectors around the world. 

Today, Access Sciences consultants serve on the global team to review, approve, implement, and manage change requests to the global taxonomy and retention schedule. The consulting team continues to lead file plan development and roll-out projects for several parts of the business, and is preparing to assist with refining the configuration of and deploying the enterprise records management system. Concurrently, several outsourcing teams provide ongoing operational support for the legal department and for physical record operations.

Additionally, Access Sciences led the process development team that defined the discovery management process for the company. Access Sciences routinely works across various technology platforms and instances to respond to discovery requests for physical and electronic information on behalf of this client. This practical, hands-on discovery management work helps our legal business consulting team appreciate the value of providing our clients with well-designed discovery management processes and up-to-date discovery management technology.

The outcome: This client is leading their industry by managing information risk in two key ways: by managing their records and information efficiently, and by executing well-designed response programs for discovery, issuing and managing hold orders, and responding to potential crises.   The investment this company made in managing their information and discovery was well-calculated, significant, and had reaped them generous tangible rewards.