George J. Socha, Jr., Esq    651.690.1739    george@sochaconsulting.com
 
 
 
 
2008 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey
Survey Results
 

Back to 2008 Survey | Market Size and Growth | Top-Ranked Services Providers | Top-Ranked Software Providers | Search Provider Rankings | Methodology | Independence & Disclosure | Sample | Purchase | Contact Us

 

The overview results of the 2008 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey Report are available here in summary form. The full report - 360 pages long - is available for purchase.

The public report was in the August issue of Law Technology News and is on LTN's website at Law Technology News.

Survey rankings can be searched at http://www.sochaconsulting.com/topproviders.php

 
Market Size and Growth
 
Our survey covered the 2007 calendar year. Based on our research, we estimate that 2007 commercial electronic discovery revenues were in the range of $2.794 billion - up 43% from 2006:
 
2007 Total Estimated Electronic Discovery Market
Tiers Estimated 2007 Revenues
Tier 1 $1.171 B
Tiers 2 & 3 $893 M
Do-It-Yourself $260 M
Software $470 M
Total $2.794 B
 
As in the past, we used consumer and provider expectations to prepare projections for market growth (or shrinkage) over the next three years - 2008, 2009 and 2010. Judging from those expectations, we anticipate that market growth will continue to be strong with increases of approximately 21% from 2007 to 2008, another 20% from 2008 to 2009, and 15% from 2009 to 2010.
 
Projected Electronic Discovery Market Growth - Based On Consumer Expectations
Year Projected Market Size
2008 $3.381 B
2009 $4.051 B
2010 $4.666 B
 
The chart below shows these estimates and projections, and compares them with estimates and projections from our earlier reports:
2008 Market Projections
(top)
 
Top-Ranked Electronic Discovery Service Providers
 
Overall | By Corporate & Law Firm Rankings | By Stage of Electronic Discovery (EDRM)
 

Once again, we offer lists of leading EDD services and software providers. We stress, however, that anyone who makes buying decisions primarily on these rankings is a fool.

As with any top-X list, it is important to keep these lists in context and use them only as appropriate. You should not choose a provider based solely on these lists, or solely on the basis of any other top-X list. The factors we examined may not apply to your circumstances, and mostly likely will not apply with the specific weightings and ratings we used. In addition, you will have needs and considerations we could not have taken into account.

It also is important to note that our evaluation model relies heavily on information provided through interviews or questionnaires (spreadsheets). We recognize that there are other vendors with the qualifications to rank within the top X, however the data on them was not available to us. Some providers, including prominent ones, did not provide any data and others, including prominent ones, provided only limited information.

 
The Top 25 Electronic Discovery Service Providers - Overall
 

We ranked electronic discovery service providers based on a set of seven criteria:

  • Experience and reputation (10%)
  • Capacity (15%)
  • Types of services (20%)
  • Software usage (3%)
  • Law firm rankings (18%)
  • Corporate rankings (18%)
  • Revenue estimates (16%)

To arrive at our ranking, we gathered information for each of the criteria, rated the information, and weighted the results. Weighting of each of the seven criteria is based on our judgment of relative importance of each factor, with the goal of providing a result that rewards the “well rounded” providers.

We used a blend of criteria because we felt it would provide a more nuanced ranking than could be had using any single criterion, such as revenue.

In the lists below, (L) = the listing at the Socha Consulting vendor page, where you can see information about services offered, geographical coverage, and office locations.

According to our survey results, the top five market leaders in 2007 were, in alphabetical order:

 

Top 5 Electronic Discovery Service Providers
Based on 7 Criteria Sets
Alphabetical Order

Autonomy ZANTAZ
(L)
Fios, Inc.
(L)
FTI Consulting
(L)
Kroll Ontrack
(L)
LexisNexis
(L)
 
The next five after that were, in alphabetical order:
 

Top 6-10 Electronic Discovery Service Providers
Based on 7 Criteria Sets
Alphabetical Order

Includes Ties

Encore Discovery Solutions
(L)
Epiq Systems, Inc.
(L)
Huron Consulting Group
(L)
KPMG LLP
(L)
Renew Data Corp.
(L)
 
Ranking 11-15 were, in alphabetical order:
 

Top 11-15 Electronic Discovery Service Providers
Based on 7 Criteria Sets
Alphabetical Order

Includes Ties

Electronic Evidence Discovery, Inc.
(L)
Ernst & Young
(L)
Merrill Corporation
(L)
ONSITE3
(L)
Stratify, Inc.
(L)
 
Ranking 16-25 were, in alphabetical order:
 

Top 16-25 Electronic Discovery Service Providers
Based on 7 Criteria Sets
Alphabetical Order

Includes Ties

CaseCentral, Inc.
(L)
Computer Forensic Services
(L)
Daticon
(L)
Discovery Mining Inc.
(L)
eMag Solutions
(L)
Guidance Software, Inc.
(L)
IE Discovery, Inc.
(L)
Pitney Bowes Legal Solutions
(L)
SPi
(L)
TechLaw Solutions
(L)
 
(top) (Top-Ranked Electronic Discovery Service Providers)
 
The Top Electronic Discovery Service Providers - By Experience, Capacity, Corprate & Law Firm Ranking
 
Following are service provider rankings by top-level category for four of the sets of criteria we used - experience, capacity, corporate and law firm rankings:
 
1-5 =   6-10 =   11-20 =   (L) = Listing at Socha Consulting vendor page
 
Provider
Experience
Capacity
Corporate Rankings
Law Firm Rankings
ALC Legal Technologies
(L)
AlphaLit, a Division of Alpha Systems
(L)
Anacomp, Inc.
(L)
Autonomy ZANTAZ
(L)
CaseCentral, Inc.
(L)
Catalyst Repository Systems, Inc.
(L)
Computer Forensic Services
(L)
Daticon
(L)
Discovery Mining Inc.
(L)
DTI Global (Document Technologies, Inc.)
(L)
Electronic Evidence Discovery, Inc.
(L)
eMag Solutions
(L)
Encore Discovery Solutions
(L)
Epiq Systems, Inc.
(L)
Equivalent Data
(L)
Ernst & Young
(L)
Fios, Inc.
(L)
Focus Solutions
(L)
FTI Consulting
(L)
Guidance Software, Inc.
(L)
Huron Consulting Group
(L)
IE Discovery, Inc.
(L)
Integreon Managed Solutions, Inc.
(L)
Ivize
(L)
Kiersted/Systems, Inc.
(L)
KPMG LLP
(L)
Kroll Ontrack
(L)
LDiscovery
(L)
LexisNexis
(L)
LuciData, Inc.
(L)
Merrill Corporation
(L)
Océ Business Services
(L)
ONSITE3
(L)
Pitney Bowes Legal Solutions
(L)
Renew Data Corp.
(L)
SPi
(L)
Stratify, Inc.
(L)
Symantec Corporation
(L)
TechLaw Solutions
(L)
TRILANTIC
(L)
Xact Data Discovery
(L)
 
(top) (Top-Ranked Electronic Discovery Service Providers)
 
The Top Electronic Discovery Service Providers - By Stage of Electronic Discovery (EDRM)
 
Once again, we have ranked service providers based on the Electronic Discovery Reference Model stages:
 
1-5 =   6-10 =   (L) = Listing at Socha Consulting vendor page
 
Provider
Autonomy ZANTAZ
(L)
CaseCentral, Inc.
(L)
Computer Forensic Services
(L)
Daticon
(L)
Discovery Mining Inc.
(L)
Electronic Evidence Discovery, Inc.
(L)
Encore Discovery Solutions
(L)
Epiq Systems, Inc.
(L)
Fios, Inc.
(L)
FTI Consulting
(L)
Guidance Software, Inc.
(L)
H5 Technologies
(L)
Huron Consulting Group
(L)
IE Discovery, Inc.
(L)
Ivize
(L)
KPMG LLP
(L)
Kroll Ontrack
(L)
LexisNexis
(L)
ONSITE3
(L)
Pitney Bowes Legal Solutions
(L)
Renew Data Corp.
(L)
Stratify, Inc.
(L)
SuperiorGlacier
(L)
TechLaw Solutions
(L)
(top) (Top-Ranked Electronic Discovery Service Providers)
 
Top-Ranked Electronic Discovery Software Providers
 
Overall | By Corporate & Law Firm Rankings | By Stage of Electronic Discovery (EDRM)
 

Once again, we offer lists of leading EDD services and software providers. We stress, however, that anyone who makes buying decisions primarily on these rankings is a fool.

As with any top-X list, it is important to keep these lists in context and use them only as appropriate. You should not choose a provider based solely on these lists, or solely on the basis of any other top-X list. The factors we examined may not apply to your circumstances, and mostly likely will not apply with the specific weightings and ratings we used. In addition, you will have needs and considerations we could not have taken into account.

It also is important to note that our evaluation model relies heavily on information provided through interviews or questionnaires (spreadsheets). We recognize that there are other vendors with the qualifications to rank within the top X, however the data on them was not available to us. Some providers, including prominent ones, did not provide any data and others, including prominent ones, provided only limited information.

 
The Top 20 Electronic Discovery Software Providers - Overall
 

We ranked electronic discovery software providers based on a set of seven criteria similar to the ones we used for service providers:

  • Experience and reputation (10%)
  • Nature & scope of software offered (3%)
  • Capacity (5%)
  • How extensively consumers used the software offered (30%)
  • Law firm rankings (18%)
  • Corporate rankings (18%)
  • Revenue estimates (16%)

To arrive at our ranking, we gathered information for each of the criteria, rated the information, and weighted the results. Weighting of each of the seven criteria is based on our judgment of relative importance of each factor, with the goal of providing a result that rewards the “well rounded” providers.

We used a blend of criteria because we felt it would provide a more nuanced ranking than could be had using any single criterion, such as revenue.

In the lists below, (L) = the listing at the Socha Consulting vendor page, where you can see information about services offered, geographical coverage, and office locations.

According to our survey results, the top five market leaders in 2007 were, in alphabetical order:

 

Top 5 Electronic Discovery Software Providers
Based on 7 Criteria Sets
Alphabetical Order

Autonomy ZANTAZ
(L)
Clearwell Systems
(L)
FTI Consulting
(L)
Guidance Software, Inc.
(L)
LexisNexis
(L)
 
The next five after that were, in alphabetical order:
 

Top 6-10 Electronic Discovery Software Providers
Based on 7 Criteria Sets
Alphabetical Order

Includes Ties

Attenex Corporation
(L)
CT Summation, Inc.
(L)
Epiq Systems, Inc.
(L)
iCONECT Development, LLC
(L)
Symantec Corporation
(L)
 
10-15 were, in alphabetical order:
 

Top 11-15 Electronic Discovery Software Providers
Based on 7 Criteria Sets
Alphabetical Order

Includes Ties

AccessData Corporation
(L)
Equivio
(L)
i365 MetaLINCS E-Discovery Solutions
(L)
Kazeon Systems, Inc.
(L)
Kroll Ontrack
(L)
 
(top) (Top-Ranked Electronic Discovery Software Providers)
 
The Top Electronic Discovery Software Providers - By Corporate & Law Firm Ranking
 
We are disclosing software provider rankings by top-level category for three of the sets of criteria we used - corporate rankings, law firm rankings and software usage:
 
1-5 = Top 5   6-10 = 6 to 10   11-20 = 11-20   (L) = Listing at Socha Consulting vendor page
 
Provider
Corporate Rankings
Law Firm Rankings
Software Usage
AccessData Corporation
(L)
Attenex Corporation
(L)
Autonomy ZANTAZ
(L)
AXS-One Inc.
(L)
Clearwell Systems