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The 2008 Survey examines the state of electronic discovery in 2007. It also compares this year's results with results from the preceding four years, and makes projections for 2008 through 2010. The main sections of the report cover:

• Market size & shares
• Market leaders:
  • Top electronic discovery service providers:
    • Overall
    • By selected evaluation criteria:
      • Experience
      • Capacity
      • Corporation rankings
      • Law firm rankings
    • By electronic discovery stages (edrm.net):
      • Identification
      • Preservation
      • Collection
      • Processing
      • Review
      • Analysis
      • Production
  • Top electronic discovery software providers:
    • Overall
    • By selected evaluation criteria:
      • Corporation rankings
      • Law firm rankings
    • By electronic discovery stages (edrm.net):
      • Identification
      • Preservation
      • Collection
      • Processing
      • Review
      • Analysis
      • Production
• Consumer & provider perspectives
• Expenditures/revenue, 2007 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

360 pages long, the 2008 Survey contains 97 tables and 263 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 or about 155 organizations that provided or consumed electronic discovery services or software - 107 providers, 29 law firms and 19 corporations. We initially contacted nearly 1,300 individuals about participation in the Survey. Ultimately, we gathered information from the organizations through direct confidential interviews and three indepth 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 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. Law firm participation included 16 of the AmLaw 100, 9 of them from the top 50, and 2 of those from the top 10. 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.

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To go to a PDF file containing the 2008 Survey report table of contents, table of tables and table of figures, click here.

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Conducting the Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey takes about 9 months, starting in October with refinements to the model we use and ending with publication of the subscriber, participant and public reports in June.

We do not identify individuals or organizations participating in the Survey. We also do not identify subscribers.

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The 2008 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 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery surveys are supported solely by purchases of copies of the report we publish. We do not charge any one to participate in the survey. We do not take payments to place organizations in any of the rankings we publish.

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To learn more about previous surveys, go to the 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004 survey pages or look at the original 2003 survey public report.

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We provide survey results in three ways:

• A public report;
• A participant's copy, which is somewhat more detailed; and
• A much more detailed subscriber report, which sells for $5,000.

We do not provide free or discounted copies of the subscriber report to participants. Were we to do so, we would not be able to conduct the survey at all. The survey takes about nine months and many hundreds of hours to prepare.

The subscriber report is for internal usage only and is not for redistribution.

Tom Gelbmann
Gelbmann & Associates

290 Grandview Avenue West
Roseville MN 55113
Tel 651.483.0022
Cell 651.260.5477
Fax 651.483.5938
tom@gelbmann.biz
http://www.gelbmann.biz

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