August 27, 2024

discovery best practices

Data migration is a crucial process in the realm of eDiscovery platforms. Seamless transitions and operational continuity require knowledge, experience managing workflows, and optimised procedures. Meticulous planning and execution also play a critical role. These factors impact every aspect of data migration – from assessing data integrity to developing robust migration strategies to everything else. Smooth transitions with minimal disruptions and preservation of data fidelity depend on getting all of them right.

The best approaches to data migration leverage industry best practices and advanced tools to streamline the migration process, ensure adherence to timelines and regulatory requirements, and deliver efficient outcomes. Whether transferring within platforms or transferring from one platform to another (such as Disco to RelativityOne), an approach must prioritise accuracy, reliability, and safeguarding data integrity and work product throughout every stage of the migration journey.

A three-phase approach works best:

Phase I: Prerequisites for the Migration

Phase One involves conducting internal and external meetings to coordinate and plan the migration process. In our work, my Elevate colleagues and I circulate a proprietary migration tracker and migration checklist with the customer for either the customer or us to populate. The checklist includes, but is not limited to, document counts, native counts, productions, saved searches, document coding, work product, search term reports, and numerous other facets of eDiscovery platforms.

Once complete, we meticulously review both documents to incorporate necessary feedback and revisions. We also create a workspace template tailored to the customer’s specifications, which can be customised to align with their existing database practices. Another step is discussing and then organising single sign-on login methods for customers who require them (multi-factor authentication is a best practice).

Phase II: Migration Execution

Phase Two is the execution phase. It starts with systematically exporting all data from the previous eDiscovery platform, ensuring the export includes all necessary fields. Many times, one of the first orders of business is to begin exporting all files, but sometimes it is better to start with produced files, given that in some eDiscovery platforms, creating a new full workspace production for export can result in changes to production values. My colleagues and I always export a cross-reference file for field mapping purposes, documenting all restrictions and limitations for reference.

When conducting a migration to RelativityOne, we develop an import profile for standardised data loading. This is beneficial when repeated importing is needed. Next comes integrating production values and images, generating search term reports, aligning fields in layouts, establishing persistent highlighting sets, and preparing pertinent saved searches.

Phase III: Migration Quality Assurance

In the final phase, we conduct comprehensive quality checks across the entire workspace: verifying documents, metadata field values, family relationships, production images, search-term reports (STRs), highlighting, and saved searches, and ensuring consistency with original values. Using a detailed checklist, we meticulously document all checks performed and hand them off to the customer’s team to conduct their quality control to confirm accuracy.

Once quality control checks are confirmed, the source data is securely transferred onto a hard drive and shipped to the client for safekeeping or deleted upon request.

Remember the Power of Three

Getting data migrations right is simultaneously complex and simple. On the one hand, success depends on multiple critical factors, above all, knowledge, experience, workflows, planning, and meticulousness. On the other hand, conceptualising migrations as a series of three phases provides a straightforward and uncomplicated framework to ensure a seamless, complete, and smooth migration.