Let’s eliminate the confusion by understanding the difference between archiving and eDiscovery. Both are tied together, but serve two (2) distinct functions. The everyday operations performed with software processes that maintain historical email correspondence is that component referred to as archiving.  eDiscovery enters the business picure as an official legal or regulatory compliance request. eDiscovery requests ask for specific documentation which may be attached to an email or may contain relevant verbiage within the body of an email.

Let’s focus on those companies that perform eDiscovery. These companies are very different and unrelated to companies that provide archiving software solutions. You will find in your research that archiving software is referred to as “eDiscovery software”. The interchangeability of terms is semantical, at best.

The e-discovery 2.0 blog provides Gartner’s published eDiscovery MarketScope for 2009. Written by Debra Logan, John Bace, and Whit Andrews, it may very well be THE “buyers guide” available for companies interested in using electronic discovery technology to lower costs.

The eDiscovery MarketScope analyzes about 20 software companies focused on electronic data discovery. Based on extensive interviews with end customers and data from the companies themselves, Gartner rates the companies using criteria similar to those used in its famous Magic Quadrant reports. It also identifies market trends, and makes predictions for 2009 and beyond.

This report is required reading for anyone considering an investment in eDiscovery, known as archiving software.

Gartner’s investigation found that many of its corporate clients are saving large amounts of money by using eDiscovery software to reduce the amount spent on lawyers and legal service providers. It reports that customers typically recover their investment from buying eDiscovery software within 3-6 months of implementation.

Gartner addresses what is probably the most common question I get asked by corporate counsels and litigation support managers – namely, “Isn’t there a single product I can buy that will do end-to-end eDiscovery, covering all aspects of the EDRM?” The answer, of course, is “no” and Gartner goes further by predicting that the answer will remain “no” until at least 2011. For the immediate future, companies will need to buy “best of breed” archiving products from different vendors for the various stages of the EDRM model. This ensures they integrate smoothly.