It hurts to say it... My wife was right!

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard my wife say “pull over and ask for directions” or “it wouldn’t kill you to look at a map once in a while”. I hate to say it but she is right (don’t tell my wife I said that). Or at least she is right when it comes to data discovery.

Correctly mapping the data that exists in your organization is a great step towards a pro-active eDiscovery plan. You can’t know how to get the data in a timely manner if you don’t know where it exists and you can’t stop and ask anyone for directions once that legal request comes in. Proactively planning by creating a map that shows where the data exists, what type of data it is, and how you can access that data will go a long way in shortening the time to your final destination of providing the data requested.

According to an article in the August 2008 issue of Inside Counsel, creating an effective data map starts with a meeting with IT. They might already have a map for storage purposes and it can be expanded to contain the additional information needed for eDiscovery. It is also recommended to meet with the owners of the data. They will be able to tell you what type of data is contained in their system and of what value it is to the organization.

Creating a data map can be a big task for a large organization. One solution is to reduce the number of places that you might need to go to retrieve data. One way to do that is through an effective archiving solution. By storing multiple data types (email, files, SharePoint, IM, etc) in a single repository you reduce the number of data stores you need to visit to discover data. This greatly simplifies the legal hold process and reduces the time to fulfill requests.

After you have an effective data map in place it is also important to practice. Create a legal request for yourself and see how long it takes to produce results. It will ensure that the data map that you have created is useful and accurate. It will also keep your wife from saying “can’t you find out where you are going before you start driving?” or “Two words: Google Maps”.

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eDiscovery, Email Archiving, Data Mapping