Innovative Development: Customer-focused eDiscovery Services

Steven Rodi, Managing Member

“We view every opportunity to improve our process, not necessarily as a rejection of the previous process but a refinement to make it better,” says Steven Rodi, Managing member at Innovative Development [ID]. He explains how Innovative Development evolved from a technology-consulting company in the pharma-space when one of their clients asked ID to provide eDiscovery services for them. It was in the year 2007, Mark Lewish and Steven Rodi brought their eDiscovery and legal expertise to build the client’s eDiscovery processes utilizing the EDRM process model. The firm worked with the client’s IT and legal resources to implement informance governance, identification, processing, preservation, and collection processes. ID helped the client meet court-mandated deadlines and substantially reduce litigation costs. ID has been supporting this client’s eDiscovery needs continuously for ten years.

In 2007 Marc Portner joined the firm as a principal consultant. He had extensive experience developing corporate eDiscovery processes supporting the Life sciences industry. “I knew that Innovative Development had a unique model and I was brought in to help expand the customer-oriented approach at other clients,” says Marc Portner. “I had always worked on the corporate (client) side of the relationship so I had experienced good and bad service from vendors. When I joined ID, I was given the chance to help create an eDiscovery service model that focused on the clients and what they needed,” he explained.

Corporations lacking eDiscovery expertise internally leverage resources from third-party service vendors. Brian Phillip, principal consultant, says that these associations are many times short-term commitments. He adds that third-party eDiscovery vendors often supply low-level resources failing to make a significant change to existing eDiscovery processes and simply providing a service which does not enhance the client’s eDiscovery capabilities. Conversely, with ID’s customer-focused approach, the firm offers a unique experience to their clients—bringing additional value by improving the client’s ability to integrate and absorb eDiscovery best practices into everyday operations. Brian says, “Our eDiscovery solutions are not only designed to address an individual issue but we bring a holistic approach to it.

This is enhanced by working on-site to provide our services locally, working at client sites, thereby facilitating smooth integration of Legal, IT, and business operations with eDiscovery best practices.”

Innovative Development's focus is to provide each client with an individual, unbiased view of eDiscovery solutions and products

ID’s customer-oriented approach is highlighted by the emphasis the firm gives to understanding their client’s environments. ID comes in as advisors on different legal and business processes and supporting technologies. Helping businesses evaluate potential products and technology that businesses look to leverage in order to adapt comfortably to the constant advancements in the corporate legal landscape. The firm advises clients on making decisions and on selecting the right “tools” for their specific environment. The client’s perspective is prioritized in order to build the capabilities they need. Steven says the firm supports many technologies and platforms but has decided not to resell any products as it interferes with their ability to provide each client with an individual, unbiased product evaluation. He sums up the statement by saying, “We want them to buy the right tool for them and not the tool we sell.”

Marc Portner, Principal Consultant

The EDRM process model forms the basis for those services developed by ID for their clients, however, ID focuses on developing processes-specific to their client’s needs. All processes developed for clients incorporate the concepts of reliable, repeatable and defensible processes while providing the ability for data reuse in future matters. This “cross-matter” capability builds knowledge over time on how to process information efficiently, allowing ID to refine their different business processes. The company assist clients on integrating technology, eDiscovery processing including Early Case Assessment, optimization of hosting platforms, data review and production portions of eDiscovery into their business processes while identifying the costs associated with it.

“ID’s focus continues to be on corporate clients and independent law firms in the U.S. and UK,” explains Richard Slawter, Customer Account Manager. He says, “One of ID’s main objective is to bridge the gap between business processes, technology, client’s current state of affairs and their future targets.” In less than a decade after their shift towards legal technology, ID’s dedicated customer-oriented approach and their focus on continuous improvement have helped them expand internationally. With experience working in the U.S. and UK, ID is aware of the differences in the legal systems, eDiscovery laws, and related processes between the US and EU countries. This experience and capability to work on both sides of the Atlantic set Innovative Development apart from many of its competitors.