Ontrack Inview: not just for litigators

Ontrack Inview has its roots in litigation support. Even before litigation starts, the parties need to have an idea of the number of documents that may be relevant for the disclosure process, the proportion that are in an electronic format, where they are stored and how they can be retrieved. With the increasingly large amount of information stored electronically, this exercise can quickly become unmanageable without external support.

Ontrack Inview is highly effective in assisting early case assessments and in helping to scope out disclosure exercises. The use of e-mail visualisation tools, topic groups and data dictionaries helps reviewers analyse communication patterns and document content (see box "High-tech tools"). Ontrack Inview's technology also provides review teams with a framework in which keyword lists can be tested and refined.

When it comes to the actual disclosure process, Ontrack Inview can use retained metadata to produce thorough and accurate disclosure lists almost instantly, avoiding the costs involved in manually inputting such data. In addition to the core functionality that one would expect from any review tool (searching, categorising, redacting and annotating), Ontrack Inview has many other features that provide review teams with a complete system from which they can efficiently run their review (see box "High-tech tools").

At the end of the review, the documents can be provided to other parties in mutually agreed formats, such as pdfs, which Ontrack Inview can generate. A full record is stored of all the documents that have been disclosed, so it is very straightforward to view, at any time, exactly what has been provided to the other parties.

Ontrack Inview has also been used by antitrust practitioners dealing with cartel investigations launched by the European Commission, the US Department of Justice and national competition authorities. In such cases, the overriding requirement is to find evidence quickly, and Ontrack Inview provides high-speed performance with only simple start-up requirements. It can also manage multi-language documents and provide multilingual support.

In addition, Ontrack Inview is ideally suited in the regulatory context, whether in an internal investigation, evaluating a response in the wake of a dawn raid, responding to requests from regulators or effectively dealing with receipt of documents from regulators. It enables review teams to assess their position quickly, which is vital in the race for immunity and leniency.

Accountants, architects, scientists, engineers, private investigators and judges have also benefited from using Ontrack Inview. As familiarity with issues surrounding electronically stored information grows, it is expected that more and more teams who routinely review documents will seek advanced solutions to increase their efficiency.

Ontrack Inview uses technology that ensures fast response rates, regardless of whether the reviewer simply wants to open a new document, turn a page, or run a highly complex search. As it is accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, large teams of reviewers can work collaboratively from multiple locations and time zones.

In addition, multiple reviewers can be given different access rights and distinct roles in the review process. These roles typically range from review managers, whose responsibilities would include allocating work out to reviewers, to reviewers pro-actively searching to identify quickly key documents and groups of documents, through to individuals carrying out one-by-one, in-depth document reviews. As the charging structure for Ontrack Inview is based on the amount of data in the database, not on the number of reviewers, this also encourages collaborative working.

A more efficient document review process will be of financial benefit to all parties. Whereas, at one time, investment in technology was something that needed to be sold to a client, nowadays that investment is something that they crave to reduce legal fees. And many law firms are finding that the more productive they are, the more successful they are. Familiarity with Ontrack Inview can therefore be a highly attractive marketing tool for law firms.