Selecting Service Providers and Building a True Partnership

A recent hot topic, and the subject of many articles, has been law firms and corporations deciding whether to insource, outsource or create a hybrid model for handling discovery services. For those that decide that outsourcing is the appropriate model for them, selecting the right service provider or providers to assist with handling discovery is not as easy as one would think. Different service providers have different strengths and it seems as if every service provider has a different way to price its work or is using different terminology to define various services. For law firms and corporations that do not do this every day, this can be confusing and frustrating.

Typical questions from people selecting service providers include the following: You told me that you could meet these processing and production specifications, but now you can’t? I thought these services were included. What did I actually pay for? Why did you tell me the project would cost X, but the invoices are much more than X?