Situation

Our client assisted their end client in a Supreme Court dispute relating to a construction project. As is commonly the case with construction matters, the end client had recorded much of the project information and communications within a custom database called Aconex. The Aconex databases are designed for the project's front-end and do not provide a functional, efficient space for the legal team to conduct a discovery review. Further, there are limited capabilities in exporting the documents out of Aconex, and the standard format needs to be legible. The legal team needed a solution that allowed them to undertake an efficient and accurate review of that data.

Solution

Our technical team has had extensive experience with construction databases, particularly Aconex. We worked with the end client to engage with Aconex directly and ensure an accurate and appropriate export was obtained. We also advised the client and end client that the Aconex data will likely expand in size and document count once extracted and that this would need to be factored into their time and fee estimates.

Once a copy of the Aconex output had been obtained, we could use our custom workflows and scripts to extract the documents, recreate the Aconex folder structure and document relationships, and prepare the documents for upload to the review platform.

As there were only several hundred gigabytes of Aconex data, this workflow could be deployed and completed within a week from receipt of the data, ensuring the legal team could begin their review in the workspace as soon as possible.

Impact

Our work in extracting and re-creating the Aconex data structure within the review workspace allowed our client to:

• Increase the accuracy of their review as all data was appropriately indexed, made searchable and could be reviewed with the assistance of various eDiscovery tools and programs not otherwise available in Aconex

• Reduce the fees associated with the conversion of the data with a solution powered by technical workflows as opposed to manual processes

• Rely on the conversion process as being accurate due to the application of those custom scripts and other quality assurance methodologies that saw the database recreated accurately

• Reduce the time and fees associated with the actual review process as the legal team was able to apply their normal review workflows powered by the various eDiscovery solutions.