e-Discovery 

e-Discovery is becoming an increasingly important area for Lawyers and Corporations. In particular, the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) introduced in the USA in December 2006, clarify that document metadata will be part of e-Discovery and must be considered in every case.

In many cases a key factor in winning or losing a case, is the “hidden” data (metadata) revealed within electronic documents This evidence can be particularly compelling as documents are clearly time-stamped, show who edited them, saved them, and emailed them.

With so many electronic documents being examined in litigation, hidden data  has become an increasing business risk – there are costly examples of data leaks where companies such as Merck have exposed themselves to potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of costs in litigation, due to simple mistakes with metadata.

Enterprises and Government agencies that implement reasonable policies around metadata management and retention, and select solutions that automate procedures will lower e-Discovery costs and reduce associated risks.

3BView provides software or service-based (SaaS) solutions which enable automated and policy-based metadata removal, and is therefore transparent to the user. Metadata can be extracted from documents sent by email, or those contained within Content and Document Management Systems (CMS and DMS)

Solution overview:

• Wide service spectrum - supports any email client and email server (Blackberry, PDA, iPhone and Webmail)
• Multiple format support -includes MS Office, OpenDocument Format and PDF
• Automated system with low operational costs - metadata is removed automatically according to centrally set rules. No User training is required, or ongoing technical support which substantially reduces the application lifecycle costs.
• Reduced risk of leakage - no User intervention is required, which ensures a consistent service level, and reduces the risks of inadvertent data leakage .
• Improved User experience – the automated system provides a service that is transparent to the User, and works reliably, out of sight, on the company network. Removing metadata from documents is a processor intensive application for desktop or laptop computers, which can cause users issues, and severely degrade employee productivity. Transferring this processing to the network or a service provider is therefore especially important for organisations that send large quantities of documents via email.
• Ease of Integration – well documented APIs enable ease of integration into Data Loss Prevention (DLP) systems and Document and Content Management Systems.
• Conversion to Secure PDF – option to generate a secured PDF prior to final document distribution