Frequently Asked Questions
- Q: Are you leaving it up to the custodian to choose what to collect?
- A: No. The legal team decides what to collect and from whom and then the custodian is asked to augment that collection with what they designate as relevant data. We offer the option because the employee/custodian usually knows best where they keep their data, but ultimately it’s up to the legal team to drive the process.
- Q: How are collections approached when the custodian is hostile or you have a reason to believe that they will not be compliant with your instructions?
- A: A corporate IT person can send the collection request email to herself, then access the machine remotely and conduct the collection. Another way is to have the user/custodian go through the process but not identify any data. In this scenario the communication is that legal is doing the collection and the custodian is not provided much information. So, if you don't trust a custodian but legal is always sending something we recommend the second option, or you can have IT manage the collection.
- Q: For a big corporation, for example a big bank, with a complex environment, multiple exchange servers etc., how do you talk to the client to be let in?
- A: We have been successful in this before through a combination of BIA and law firms selling the product to clients. Many of them actually love that we don’t have to come onsite. We just say, here’s this app we use (one of the tools in our toolkit), and now we can have them use it.
- Q: If you choose to collect email, does the tool collect the .PST or files within, such as an attachment to an email?
- A: When you choose to collect email it will collect .PST files, plus all of the live email from the server including attachments and all associated metadata.
- Q: Let’s say we use email to put our .PST files somewhere, can we collect specific emails or do we have to collect all of it?
- A: DiscoveryBOT™ collects the entire .PST, but once it collects it, you can then filter the data to the individual email using the application.
- Q: Does the collection tool automatically populate what the custodian has access to when collecting?
- A: Yes. The custodian is able to walk through the collection wizard and access and select from any area they normally have access to during the collection process.
- Q: Is there a way to get a list of the things the custodian didn’t collect?
- A: Our Data Profiler™ tool allows you to create a scan request which gives you a snapshot of everything before you collect. This is a free tool. You can then of course go back and collect this data separately with a collection request.
- Q: To where is the data sent that DiscoveryBOT™ collects?
- A: BIA has a secure storage and data center that the collections stream (get uploaded) to in an encrypted form. All collected data is encrypted and streamed to our servers and then reports are generated. We’ve found that we usually collect from 3-8GB per custodian. Because of this the upload happens pretty fast on standard high-speed lines.
- Q: Clients want to be targeted in collections, so they get custodians to move things into folders – but that can change metadata, do you have any suggestions for how to preserve that metadata?
- A: This is one of the problems we try to solve, as we have had clients that wanted to have their custodians drag and drop into folders. You, the legal team, set the parameters within the application for what you want collected, and include an option to allow the custodian to augment the collection through selection. The collection tool DiscoveryBOT(tm), then walks the custodian through and they can “check box” to include what they want the lawyers to collect. This way the custodians can identify what is to be collected and not worry about changing any of the metadata.
- Q: We de-dupe globally and need a field that has each custodian individually who has the file listed, do you have that?
- A: Yes, absolutely. We give you a 'custodian append' list which lists all custodians who also had that file.
- Q: How much processing power is used to running DiscoveryBOT and how much bandwidth is typically used for uploading the data?
- A: DiscoveryBOT is a small program that utilizes minimum processing power to perform its collections. With respect to network bandwidth, DiscoveryBOT will use as much bandwidth as possible but will not hog bandwidth such that the Operating System will not be able to manage it. That is, DiscoveryBOT will interact with the local operating system in a compliant manner so that bandwidth usage will be well managed.
- Q: Can the upload be scheduled to run at a certain time?
- A: The custodian is in complete control of when they want to run the process. The best way to schedule this is to have the custodian begin the DiscoveryBOT program about 10 minutes before the time you want to begin the collection and upload process.
- Q: Does DiscoveryBOT know which files/folders have already been collected such that same data will not be collected again during a refresh collection?
- A: Yes - DiscoveryBOT in tandem with TotalDiscovery.com knows what data has been collected. In order to ensure that only the delta is re-collected, the appropriate parameters can be set to ensure that only new data is collected (e.g., by using a date limiter).
- Q: What file formats can be searched?
- A: More than 300 file formats can be searched on both the full text and the metadata. Any file formats that cannot be searched, are added to a detailed exception report.
- Q: What rights are needed for the selected files/folders to be collected?
- A: DiscoveryBOT inherits the same rights as the logged-in user/custodian. To that end, it requires only read-only rights to perform collections. The program cannot do anything more than the user can do. That is intended for security and defensibility reasons.
- Q: How well does TotalDiscovery.com work for reviewing data exported from Outlook PST files (including email, contacts, calendar items)?
A: Our extraction process identifies and extracts every item in a .PST file. Once extracted, all child items (attached documents, archives, and their contents) are extracted recursively. In addition to delivering native .msg files (and their native attachments), all available metadata is extracted and delivered in a load file. Control numbers and family attachment ranges keep parent emails grouped with their attachments. We have ~140 available metadata fields, some of which apply an elective process to combine similar data and determine the best possible value to present for review under a single field.
During processing, all content, attachments and metadata are fully indexed for searching. During search and filter, if any single part of an email hits on terms, the entire family set will be identified and grouped for delivery. We provide reports which tell you how many hits you received versus how many hits with family members.
