The speed of change is increasing in the legal industry. With more tech-savvy individuals in leadership positions and changing law firm business models, many organizations are becoming hungrier for the ever-evolving technology that will put them ahead of the curve.
Still, while the velocity of innovation in the legal space may be changing, thousands of professionals and their clients depend on smooth, reliable processes to protect their interests—and their companies. As developers, our team often wonders: how can we stay true to our tech roots and deliver frequent improvements, without complicating our legal customers’ everyday workflows with surprise updates?
The first hurdle to making tech improvements easier on case teams is the hassle of upgrading. Fortunately, one of the many benefits of cloud technologies is behind-the-scenes roll-outs—instant access to new features can drastically improve workflows, saving time and money without requiring manual updates.
The next challenge is arming teams with the information they need to actually take advantage of those changes. That’s what we’ve been working on this month. Here’s a look at what’s come to fruition in Relativity so far this year, and how it’s becoming easier to stay abreast of changes as they happen.
Big Fish, Small Fish
Although each has an important reason to be included in a release, some enhancements have a larger impact on your average day than others.
For example, earlier this year, the active learning workflow arrived for Relativity Assisted Review. Active learning allows reviewers in a technology-assisted review project to see responsive documents first, getting teams closer to the truth in real time by accessing prioritized review queues that are continuously updated as the project progresses.
Other changes have a less dramatic impact on how you work, but still provide added value. Features like transcript support in Case Dynamics aren’t strategy-altering improvements, but bit by bit, they allow you to get more out of Relativity.
Some features might seem small but play a part in a larger product story. For example, the option to expose Excel comments in the viewer was just one step toward deeper document intelligence features, which provide reviewers with the option to expose hidden content during review—because you don’t want to miss a thing.
Staying at the Front of the Pack
The data challenges of yesterday and today will not be the same tomorrow. With data volumes growing and becoming more complex, your team, technology, and techniques need to grow and scale with time.
Last year we released email thread visualization, and we’ve continued to evolve the product by expanding support for foreign language headers. How much faster is it to see the entire store of an email conversation in an organized, hierarchical web instead of a static list? Even the most complex threads of data from around the world—with CCs, BCCs, forwards, and all their attachments and replies—can be neatly organized with email thread visualization, so your team can see what’s missing and understand the story of a conversation.
Because the threat of cyber attack is ever more real and black hat strategies are always evolving, case teams who work with mission-critical information for their organization and their clients also rely on the latest security measures to stay ahead of the bad guys. Secret store, for example, was added this month, and encrypts and protects user data by storing it all in a secure location.
Perhaps most exciting, though, is the fact that users are designing, building, and integrating applications on Relativity every day to extend its capabilities. The average American consumer sees 4,000 to 10,000 messages every day; it’s not easy to stand out amidst that kind of noise. Some of the most forward-thinking companies are building proprietary technology that solves real problems for their prospects and helps their services stand out. These pursuits help service providers and law firms differentiate their offering in a crowded marketplace.
Many builders are ready and willing to share their inventions with the world. More than 70 such inventions are in the App Hub for anyone to explore—and if that’s not enough, custom development partners can help you design and build even more solutions to meet the specific needs of your team.
The Insight to Level Up
Change is exciting. But the bottom line is that none of these improvements mean anything until they’re in the hands of the people doing the work and making an impact on the legal world. That’s why we recently implemented a What’s New page that lays out the details of each release as it happens: so you can get the insight you need to learn about and adopt new features and workflow options in real time.
We know your strategies are constantly changing and improving based on what you learn in the trenches every day. The addition of 30+ chief innovation officers to the roster of Am Law 200 firms is proof that legal teams want to make the passion for innovation a bigger wave.
As we build the roadmap and implement enhancements to RelativityOne, supporting that evolution is our top priority. We’re always looking for feedback on how Relativity can make your life—or at least your work—easier on the Relativity Community site, so join the party and make your needs known. Your impact on the roadmap is real: for instance, earlier this year, we delivered the ability to convert MSG files to MHT during processing, which originated as an idea on the Community to make it easier and more secure to view emails in Relativity.
Check out the latest for RelativityOne on the What’s New page, and keep your eye out for more in the coming months.
