Symantec Enterprise Vault E-Discovery Connectors

Symantec Enterprise Vault E-Discovery Connectors to Automate Evidence Collection and Transfer

New Symantec Technologies to Extend E-Discovery Support Across the Electronic Discovery Reference Model, and Provide Open Access to Third-Party Applications to Help Ensure Proper Chain of Custody

AUCKLAND - August 13, 2007 - Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced a comprehensive e-Discovery initiative that includes two new e-Discovery Connectors and supporting services for users of Symantec Enterprise Vault™ Discovery Accelerator. These new connectors will provide tight integration with third-party case management, review, analytics, forensics and desktop collection tools. 

Instead of managing e-discovery requests in the traditional ad-hoc, manual way, organisations can now leverage a variety of software applications that work together to support proper chain of custody and standards set by the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM). The Symantec E-Discovery Review Connector and the Symantec E-Discovery Collection Connector will offer a more efficient way to use Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator to manage the e-discovery process so that organisations can maintain an auditable electronic chain of custody. 

The Symantec E-Discovery Connectors will extend the current capabilities of Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator in key areas of the EDRM (www.edrm.net ) which include collection, preservation, processing, review, analysis and production. This model was defined by the EDRM Project Team to address the lack of standards and guidelines in electronic discovery and to provide companies with a framework to develop and implement a formal e-discovery process. Symantec is part of the EDRM Project Team, which consists of 62 organisations representing electronic discovery service providers, software providers, corporations, law firms and professional organisations.

“Customers need to work with a number of different internal departments, law firms and service providers when it comes to collecting, preserving, reviewing, presenting and defending evidence,” said Nick Mehta, vice president, product management, Information Foundation Group, Symantec. “Enterprise Vault’s open approach to e-Discovery enables integration with third-party applications that extend the value of the archive and offer customers their choice of e-Discovery applications. The tight integration between the archive and these applications reduces the potential risks and cost of manually moving records, or worse, not being able to produce all records required by an e-discovery order.”

Symantec E-Discovery Review Connector
The Symantec E-Discovery Review Connector will automate the transfer of data to third-party analytics and review products, reducing the amount of data produced for review while minimising export labour and risk when responding to e-discovery requests. This Connector is already being tapped by a number of partners involved in the Symantec E-Discovery Partner Programme as a way to easily integrate their software with Symantec Enterprise Vault and Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator. Companies such as Attenex Corporation, Clearwell, Kazeon and MetaLINCS are able to use the open API to pull information directly from the archive. 

The Symantec E-Discovery Review Connector will also automate data export into legal load file format, enabling easy transfer of data into document review, production and presentation software from partners such as FTI Consulting and CT Summation. As organisations often work with multiple outside counsel and service providers that use different litigation support and review software tools, the E-Discovery Review Connector will help ensure that data within Enterprise Vault can be moved automatically to all relevant applications while maintaining proper chain of custody.

Symantec E-Discovery Collection Connector
The Symantec E-Discovery Collection Connector will enable data from desktop collections to be ingested into Enterprise Vault using third-party active desktop collection software from partners such as Kazeon and Guidance Software (via the ingestion of Logical Evidence Files or Images from Guidance Software’s EnCase® eDiscovery Suite.) These products can sweep an individual’s computer or laptop for active files that have not been archived and move them into the archive. This allows customers to use Enterprise Vault and Discovery Accelerator as the single centralised location and search interface for the preservation, analysis, review and discovery of all electronic records.

New Symantec Services Improve E-Discovery Processes
As part of this initiative, Symantec also announced several comprehensive e-discovery services that are now available and designed to help customers identify what electronic information exists within their organisation, where it is stored and how quickly it can be retrieved. These include:

§       Historical Vault Services: To assist with the retrieval of information that currently resides on either backup tapes or legacy systems, so that it can be accessed and processed by Enterprise Vault Discovery Accelerator and an extensive list of third-party analytics and review products.

§       Retention Policy Definition Services:  To assist clients in addressing emerging business requirements around electronic information through business and technology consulting services focused on litigation readiness, compliance, information and records management and data storage strategy.

“The rules around preserving and producing content are pretty clear, and so are risks associated with non-compliance,” said Gregg Davis, senior vice president and CIO, Webcor Builders Inc, a major commercial general contractor based in San Mateo, California, with roughly 1250 employees and more than $2.4 billion in open contracts. “Symantec Enterprise Vault and the Discovery Accelerator are a critical part of our e-Discovery strategy, giving us the ability to centralise our messaging into a single, extensible archive that can be leveraged not only by our IT organisation but by our legal team as well. We spend less time managing fire drills and more time serving our customers.”

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