George J. Socha, Jr., Esq.


2008 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey

Top-Ranked Electronic Discovery Service Providers - Overall

The overview results of the 2008 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey Report are available here in summary form. The full report - 360 pages long - is available for purchase.

The public report was in the August issue of Law Technology News and is on LTN's website at Law Technology News.

Survey rankings can be searched at http://www.sochaconsulting.com/topproviders.php

The Warning

Once again, we offer lists of leading EDD services and software providers. We stress, however, that anyone who makes buying decisions primarily on these rankings is a fool.

As with any top-X list, it is important to keep these lists in context and use them only as appropriate. You should not choose a provider based solely on these lists, or solely on the basis of any other top-X list. The factors we examined may not apply to your circumstances, and mostly likely will not apply with the specific weightings and ratings we used. In addition, you will have needs and considerations we could not have taken into account.

It also is important to note that our evaluation model relies heavily on information provided through interviews or questionnaires (spreadsheets). We recognize that there are other vendors with the qualifications to rank within the top X, however the data on them was not available to us. Some providers, including prominent ones, did not provide any data and others, including prominent ones, provided only limited information.

The Approach

We ranked electronic discovery service providers based on a set of seven criteria:

  • Experience and reputation (10%)
  • Capacity (15%)
  • Types of services (20%)
  • Software usage (3%)
  • Law firm rankings (18%)
  • Corporate rankings (18%)
  • Revenue estimates (16%)

To arrive at our ranking, we gathered information for each of the criteria, rated the information, and weighted the results. Weighting of each of the seven criteria is based on our judgment of relative importance of each factor, with the goal of providing a result that rewards the “well rounded” providers.

We used a blend of criteria because we felt it would provide a more nuanced ranking than could be had using any single criterion, such as revenue.

In the lists below, = the listing at the Socha Consulting vendor page, where you can see information about services offered, geographical coverage, and office locations.

The Rankings

According to our survey results, the top market leaders in 2007 were:

Top 5 Electronic Discovery Service Providers
Based on 7 Criteria Sets - Alphabetical Order

Provider Name Provider Details
Autonomy ZANTAZ
Fios, Inc.
FTI Consulting
Kroll Ontrack
LexisNexis

Top 6-10 Electronic Discovery Service Providers
Based on 7 Criteria Sets - Alphabetical Order

Provider Name Provider Details
Encore Discovery Solutions
Epiq Systems, Inc.
Huron Consulting Group
KPMG LLP
Renew Data Corp.

Top 11-15 Electronic Discovery Service Providers
Based on 7 Criteria Sets - Alphabetical Order

Provider Name Provider Details
Electronic Evidence Discovery, Inc.
Ernst & Young
Merrill Corporation
ONSITE3
Stratify, Inc.

Top 16-25 Electronic Discovery Service Providers
Based on 7 Criteria Sets - Alphabetical Order

Provider Name Provider Details
CaseCentral, Inc.
Computer Forensic Services
Daticon
Discovery Mining Inc.
eMag Solutions
Guidance Software, Inc.
IE Discovery, Inc.
Pitney Bowes Legal Solutions
SPi
TechLaw Solutions