How to Win Your Next Case with Collaboration Technology

Our Challenge
Our firm - Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone - is National Discovery Counsel for a major international manufacturing company with 52 counsel that require access to a secure central repository. We also need to collaborate regularly with other discovery counsel, case litigators, and the office of general counsel.
We also identified a need to reduce the number of e-mails our team was exchanging with our clients. We weren't willing to devote an entire server to third party dial-in access plus the costs of the underlying software, so we looked at iCONECTnxt.
One of the nicest things about iCONECTnxt is that clients can get access to their information from any PC or laptop. Whether it's from a hotel or library, they can see all of their key information without any special programs required.
The Solution: Web-Enabled Communication and Collaboration
iCONECTnxt's web capability makes accessing and sharing case information as easy as connecting to a website. We simply provide our website address as well as a username and password to users. Security features allow us to control the access we give to each user.
Our staff really likes that we can use iCONECTnxt to store documents, transcripts, images, calendars, and case evidence in one place - and all accessible over the web!
The "e-room" features allow us to post information and collaborate with our clients and other counsel in real-time, and set up a deposition calendar and coordinate key tasks.
Reduced Litigation Costs by Integrating with Industry Standard Software
iCONECTnxt integrates seamlessly with CaseMap, Sanction, and TrialDirector so our staff and outside counsel can continue to use the presentation and case management tools they are familiar with while taking advantage of iCONECTnxt's powerful database and collaboration features.
Our firm often exports data into CaseMap allowing us to quickly create graphic time lines and illustrated scenarios of the facts that were first gleaned from online document reviews using iCONECTnxt.
Native File Review
The increase in e-discovery over the last few years has applied more pressure to our review teams. However, iCONECTnxt has allowed us to streamline our review process so we can still meet our deadlines. For example, iCONECTnxt's native file viewing functionality allows us to review native files without installing the native program (iCONECTnxt creates an image of the native file "on-the-fly" and displays it in its iVIEW image viewer). This flexibility means we aren't stuck when we come across an unusual file type for which we don't have the native program. And native files display faster since iCONECTnxt does not have to launch the native program.
We also save time with bulk-review options (to quickly designate large sets of near-duplicate documents), review templates (to instantly configure our display to suit our review tasks), and automatic foldering by review designation.
Image Viewing
The image viewer in iCONECTnxt is fully integrated with the document information. We simply click a link in the document to view the original image. The document and image windows can be viewed side-by-side for easy referencing. The image viewer includes an annotation tool bar (similar to what you find in basic graphics programs), so adding and editing annotations is a breeze.
Distribution of Case Documents and Offline Viewing
An alternate method for sharing case information with co-counsel, opposing counsel, or experts (instead of providing access to your database) is to download case information into a portable file using iCONECTsololite (another of
iCONECTnxt's vast library of tools).
Overall Thoughts
To keep up with the ever-changing world of litigation, we need a product that will continue to stay on the cutting edge of litigation software. iCONECTnxt is that product. We have seen for ourselves why iCONECTnxt is the number one tool for document review