Guidance Software, a provider of digital investigative solutions, has released a new unified e-discovery software platform that provides legal and information technology teams with an in-house electronic discovery system that enables better case decisions, faster, while reducing risk and lowering costs. Guidance Software’s EnCase eDiscovery Version 4 provides a single, unified solution that addresses all of the stages of the electronic discovery process that companies want to bring in-house.

EnCase eDiscovery enables enterprises to understand what their data universe looks like, who has what data and how much they have—all available early, before collection and processing of data occurs. Users can quickly identify relevant data sources, get metrics on total data versus potentially relevant data, and understand how much data could be eliminated, which provides a solid understanding of the case’s potential costs, keywords and custodians. With this unique capability, corporate attorneys can test search criteria before electronically stored information is collected, and customers can determine how to negotiate search terms, date and time criteria and file types before the meet-and-confer with opposing counsel. Through this optimized process, enterprises gain clear advantages with assessment before collection.

EnCase eDiscovery enables organizations to understand case facts rapidly, better prepare for meet and confer conferences, negotiate keywords with opponents, and perform first-pass review in-house to reduce data sets prior to outside attorney review, thereby increasing speed and reducing cost. Lowered Risk

EnCase eDiscovery lowers risk in three ways. First, it eliminates the need to deploy multiple products just to address e-discovery. Second, it bridges the gap between legal and IT through a common shared data repository and purpose-built interfaces for legal and IT, thereby ensuring better information flow within an organization, and making it easier to have a defensible, repeatable, e-discovery process.

Third, eighty percent of the risk in the e-discovery process is in legal hold, collection and preservation. Part of the unified EnCase eDiscovery system is a legal hold capability that ensures legal obligations are met with better management, tracking and enforcement of legal holds. EnCase eDiscovery also eliminates the need for licensing and management of a separate legal hold point solution. EnCase eDiscovery quickly and easily collects and preserves content across the network—from live email servers, desktops, laptops, file servers, and more—without any disruption to employee day-to-day operations.