EDiscovery Photo: Shutterstock

Deploying an e-discovery platform for anything other than a large investigation or litigation can be seen by some like buying a Mercedes to go to the supermarket: Sure, you got to where you needed to, but did you need to use an expensive tool to do so?

It's a question that directed the design of a new fixed-price e-discovery platform called Zenith,  by management provider Inventus . 

"We wanted to address what seemed to be a delineation of a simple-to-use, less high-price, self-service access to an e-discovery platform and what one would get if it were paying for a premium service," said Inventus CEO Paul Mankoo.  

What it is: Zenith is an e-discovery platform that allows for "drag-and-drop discovery", which Mankoo described as a self-service allowing one to drag files from a desktop or server into Zenith and examine the resulting e-discovery analysis in the platform's dashboard.

If the data or investigation becomes too unwieldy, Zenith users can contact Inventus' project management team to help manage the project. Zenith clients can also request to move their project to a non-Zenith platform and continue to use Inventus' assistance throughout the discovery matter.

Target Audience: Although Zenith is geared toward streamlining small discovery matters, the product's target audience isn't small law firms or corporate legal departments, Mankoo noted.

"[It's] not targeted necessarily at your smaller or mid-tier law firms or smaller companies," he explained. "It's more targeted on the companies and law firms that are of a size where they do experience these large projects but don't have a solution for the smaller day-to-day matters they experience."

Mankoo said Zenith is intended for projects like internal investigations, data subject access request and other matters that could lead to significant risk if not managed properly but "maybe don't have a ton of data initially or are considered low volume in terms of dollar and cents."

The competition: The e-discovery market is rife with companies that describe their platforms as easy to use and ready out of the box, like DISCO and Everlaw, Mankoo acknowledged. But Mankoo said Zenith differs because users also have access to Inventus's experience streamlining and managing complex discovery projects as well. 

"The difference is you are getting the accessibility, availability and lower price point you expect from a software company," he explained.

To be sure, there are other long-established companies that offer e-discovery consulting services, such as FTI Technology. But Mankoo argued that with these companies, e-discovery technology and consulting services are usually purchased separately instead of paired together like Zenith. 

"[The other platforms] give you a slimmed down version of that platform, if you want the full functionally you have to enter into a new contract, and that's more akin to standard e-discovery."