Socha Consulting LLC > 2006 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey

The 2006 Survey examines the state of electronic discovery in 2005. It also compares this year's results with results from the preceding three years, and makes projections for 2006 through 2008. The main sections of the report cover:

Market size & shares
Market leaders:
- The top 20 electronic discovery service providers - Overall
- The top 20 electronic discovery service providers - By selected evaluation criteria:
  - Experience
  - Capacity
  - Law firm ranking
- The top 10 electronic discovery service providers - By electronic discovery stage (edrm.net)
  - Identification
  - Preservation
  - Collection
  - Processing
  - Review
  - Analysis
  - Production
- The top 10 electronic discovery software providers
Consumer & provider perspectives
Provider revenue, 2005 and anticipated
Demand for electronic discovery services & software
Provider capacity
Types of cases with electronic discovery
Types of data handled
Who buys electronic discovery services
Who buys electronic discovery software
Who influences the decision of which providers to use
Who controls the consumer-provider relationship
Preferred provider relationships
Fee structures
Software: what consumers are using
Methodology
Demographics

294 pages long, the 2005 Survey contains 42 tables and 278 charts to support and expand on the text of the report. Accompanying the report are a set of appendices containing complete copies of the law firm consumer, corporate consumer and provider spreadsheets sent out to potential participants.

To provide the basis for our analysis, we worked with data from 91 organizations that provided or consumed electronic discovery services or software. We initially contacted nearly 700 individuals about participation in the survey. Ultimately, we gathered information from 91 people through direct confidential interviews and three in-depth spreadsheets - one for law firms, a second for corporations, and a third for services and software providers. As in years past, the consumers represented a cross-section of Am Law 200 law firms as well as some of the largest companies in the country and the providers came from a robust cross section of the industry. In addition to gathering information from these primary sources, we also collected an array of secondary source information from variety of business and information resources.

To go to a PDF file containing the 2006 Survey report table of contents, table of tables and table of figures, click here.

Conducting the 2006 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey took 10 months, starting in October with refinements to the model we use and ending with publication of the subscriber reports in July.

How we gathered information for our survey:

Contacting potential participants - We started by contacting as many potential participants as we could. We sent individual email invitations to nearly 700 individuals, including representatives of every major electronic discovery services or software provider we could identify. We also posted an open invitation on the Litigation Support Mailing List (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/litsupport) as well as on this website.
Telephone interviews - We interviewed or received completed confidential spreadsheets from people at 91 organizations

How we evaluated the data we gathered:

For each law firm, corporate or provider participant in our Survey, we prepared a spreadsheet containing information from and about the participant's organization.
For providers we evaluated but who did not elect to participate in the survey but whom we considered, gathered and evaluated as much information as we reasonably could.
For each subject area we considered, we prepared a spreadsheet that contained, as its starting point, copies of the counterpart worksheets from each law firm, corporation or provider spreadsheet. We used those spreadsheets to develop many of figures contained in our report.
We aggregated information from those spreadsheets into higher-level spreadsheets. As part of the aggregation, we weighted and rated each line of information. As part of the rating process, we considered information obtained from sources other than interviews.
Working with these spreadsheets, we prepared our analyses and ultimately our reports.

Confidentiality

We do not identify what people or what organizations participate in the Survey. We also do not identify who subscribes to the Survey.

The 2006 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey is an independent survey conducted by two independent consultants, George Socha and Tom Gelbmann.

We are not affiliated with any provider or consumer of electronic discovery services or software. Although we always are open to suggestions about how to improve our survey, we do not allow any provider or consumer to participate in the construction of the model we use to gather and evaluate information about the electronic discovery market. We do not allow any provider or consumer to assist in gathering data, other than as interviewees or by completing spreadsheet files sent to them at their request. We also do not allow any provider or consumer to assist in evaluating the data we obtain or in preparing any of our reports.

The discounted purchase price is $3,000. The Survey report is available as a PDF file.

To purchase a copy of the full survey or to find out more about the survey, please send an email message to 2006survey@sochaconsulting.com or call 651.690.1739 (George) or 651.483.0022 (Tom).