In 2014, we had an idea. Relativity Fest was growing fast—it would be our first year surpassing 1,000 attendees. The community had great things to say about Fest, from the content we delivered to the opportunity to travel to Chicago and meet their peers.
Then it occurred to us that we could do something bigger—something that really put the spotlight on our customers. After all, Relativity Fest is about celebrating you, not us.
Thus, as a last-minute idea that turned out to have a big payoff, the Innovation Awards were born.
To celebrate the fact that voting is now open for this year’s Community Choice award, let’s take a look back at how far we’ve come.
A History of the Innovation Awards
That first year, we had two categories: Best Innovation: Law Firm or Corporation and Best Innovation: Service Provider. We wanted to give a shout-out to customers who were putting in the work to deliver unique, innovative solutions for their clients via Relativity’s open platform.
In 2015, we introduced the Community Choice category—because, though our campaigning around the awards in the early years was a bit rough, it was clear that the broader community was excited about the concept. They loved the apps they saw among finalists and deserved a chance to participate, too.
2017 saw our very first corporate submission: Automated DAT Converstion Tool by Fidelity National Financial.
By this time, it was clear that our finalists and winners took a lot of pride in the recognition they received. We were thrilled to see folks from all over the community sharing press releases, storming social media, and flooding our voting survey to take part in the event.
To keep pace with their excitement, in 2018, we introduced the individual categories (more to come on those in tomorrow’s blog post) and leveled up the sophistication with which we opened, deliberated over, and presented the Innovation Awards.
From a slapdash slide deck and modest recognition ceremony in 2014, to the full-blown awards show of 2018 (big thanks to Relativity’s events and creative teams for making it a roaring success, last year and into the future), the Innovation Awards have celebrated some incredible ingenuity over the years. We’ve handed out trophies for solutions in client and matter management, FOIA requests, mobile e-discovery, and more.
Why Tell the Platform Story?
Since the beginning, Relativity was built as an open platform that anyone can build on. This was an important priority for us for several reasons, but it comes down to a simple fact: our customers are in the field every day, and they’re the ones whose insight can add real value to Relativity. Why not empower them to do it?
Open APIs and detailed developer documentation are available to all Relativity users. We have a dedicated developer experience team, and our partner marketing team supports those service providers who use purpose-built applications to boost their offering. The App Hub provides a place for other users to access game-changing applications, and year-round educational opportunities are available to teach anyone how to start building.
Simply put, it’s an area we invest a lot into. But our customers invest even more, and thanks to them, Relativity has been brought into new segments, new niches, and new workflows.
This Year’s Line-up
Each year, the tech submissions for the Innovation Awards get more impressive. 2019 is no different: we’ve got a stellar field of applicants, and it may be the most impressive group yet.
As the community has leveled up, we’ve had to keep pace with a more sophisticated judging process. This year, that featured some fancy algorithmic magic based on a judging panel consisting of both Relativians and industry experts, scoring for qualities like “most impactful to customer’s business” and “wow factor,” and voting from Relativity Certified Administrators.
With the help of our judges and RCA community, we have narrowed the submissions to three finalists in each category.
Best Solution: Law Firm or Corporation
- Gateway by Gilbert + Tobin
Gateway enables a Google-like searching architecture from directly within Relativity. This allows even the most novice of users to quickly and easily search within a workspace. The application saves clients numerous hours that would otherwise be spent on support efforts.
- LitSmart AutoTasker by Kilpatrick Townsend
LitSmart AutoTasker automates post data load steps, including index builds, STRs, and field updates. Profiles can be created on a case-by-case basis, ensuring that each workflow’s needs are met. By streamlining this process, teams save hours of manual time and reduce risk of error.
- Pipeline by GravityStack
With over $350 trillion worth of contract issues worldwide having interest rates tied to LIBOR, the global benchmark used by banks, GravityStack deployed Pipeline to quickly identify all references to LIBOR in a repository and automatically generate new amendments with customized metadata.
Best Solution: Service Provider
- Instance Management Tool by EY
Instance Management Tool (IMT) provides internal EY members the ability to not only perform system admin functions such as enabling/disabling users, password resets, resource monitoring, etc., but it also created a central location for all workspace statistics. The result enables users to track workspace growth and calculate billing information while maintaining historical statistics.
- GoX by iCourts
Wanting to take review, coding, and analysis workflows beyond sitting at a computer for lawyers and legal practitioners, iCourts developed GoX: an iPad application that allows users to review, code, highlight, and redact on the go! Reviewers can access their workspaces and documents anytime, anywhere all while having any work product synced back to their Relativity instance.
- MachOne by JND
MachOne by JND offers users a way to quickly code and review documents directly in the document list, without having to open the coding pane. This eliminates time between coding decisions, doc-to-doc latency, and provides case teams with new coding and document review workflows.
But wait, there’s more: all submissions are eligible to win the coveted Community Choice category, which is open for voting until 11:59 p.m. Central time on October 21. Check them out at the community pavilion at Relativity Fest.
- AcquiRE by Clayton Utz, for managing land acquisition projects
- Adapting E-Discovery Tool to Reunite Separated Families by Paul, Weiss, for helping their team handle immigration and family reunification cases
- Advanced Hyperlink Generator by Fried Frank, for simplifying how they manage pleading files
- Contxt by RVM, for better review of mobile data
- Convert by CDS, for converting unique data types to make review and disclosure easier
- Data Visualization Utility by Control Risks, for improving how users interact with and learn from data sources
- DSAR/PII Toolkit by Simmons & Simmons, for managing data subject access requests
- Forensic View by Accuracy, for performing digital investigations
- Index Health Check by Control Risks, for more proactive index health management
- KIMIT by Fronteo, for using AI on small data sets
- Layout2Go by Bowman and Brooke, for preparing for depositions
- PizzaApp by Sandline Discovery, for motivating review teams with customizable pizza incentives
- Search Automation by Troutman Sanders, for streamlining manual tasks like building searches for production QC workflows
- Skribe by KPMG, for creating self-service, custom reports
- Skyport by Sky Discovery, for simplifying Australian court Practice Note formatting
Make sure you take part in this year’s awards by casting your vote. Visit this page to read full descriptions and see screenshots of all of our participants, and don’t miss the awards ceremony that will close out Relativity Fest on October 23.
