A Picture May Be Worth A Thousand New Clients

People say a picture is worth a thousand words, but Mountain View, CA-based Stratify Inc. is hoping that a picture may well be worth new clients, too.

To that end, the e-discovery software firm launched its next-generation suite ' Stratify Legal Discovery 5.0 ' at the recent LegalTech 2005 show in New York. (Editor's note: LegalTech is run by ALM, the parent company of Law Journal Newsletters, which publishes e-Discovery Law & Strategy. For more on the show and its variations, go to www.legaltechshow.com.)

The suite's highest-profile enhancement is the Visual Email Analytics feature, which enables users to generate e-mail maps of large, complex document collections. Attorneys can search through records (including attachments) by concept, topic thread or date range. The search results are then translated into a diagram highlighting the relationships and message trail.

“It's true discovery because our clients are finally finding what they're looking for,” David Bayer, Stratify's vice president of marketing and business development, says.

(See, “The Changing Face Of e-Discovery Tools: Concept Folders and e-Mail Mapping,” written by Stratify President and CEO Ramana Venkata, in the February 2005 edition of e-Discovery Law & Strategy.)

Intelligence Background, 'Smart' Technology

Founded in September 1999, Stratify counts AmLaw 100 and Fortune 100 companies among its clients. Its patented technology was originally developed for the U.S. intelligence community. The company receives funding from In-Q-Tel, the venture-capital arm of the CIA, but declined to describe the ways in which its technology is being used.

With most business communication being conducted by e-mail, instant messaging and voice mail, electronic search programs have become a critical tool in corporate litigation.

In addition to Visual Email Analytics, Stratify's new package automatically creates intelligent concept folders specific to a case or matter based on the document content, organizes these concepts hierarchically based on their interrelationships and then sorts the documents into individual folders.

A “smart technology” feature is used to bypass irrelevant or duplicate-document processing. Attorneys can also redact individual words or document areas on any record, as well as search for and globally redact specific words or phrases across an entire document.

While there are other companies that offer “concept search” tools, concept search creates only partial order, notes Ramana Venkata, Stratify's founder and CEO. “Stratify is the only company that creates complete order,” he says. “None of our competitors have a similar e-mail analytics capability in the marketplace.”

Competitors' Views

Not everyone supports Venkata's claim of uniqueness in Stratify's product.

“Attenex customers have been using a visual interface to review and categorize large collections of e-mail and electronic documents since 2001,” says Mike Kinnaman, vice president of marketing for Seattle, WA-based competitor Attenex Corp.

While acknowledging that Stratify's suite looked interesting when he saw it at LegalTech, Brad Harris, director of product management for Portland, OR-based competitor Fios Inc., says: “You have to look beyond the shiny objects and determine whether they add value to the core of what you need to accomplish.” (Editor's note: Fios Inc. is represented on e-Discovery Law & Strategy's Board of Editors.)

Stratify's history as a technology provider to the intelligence community can be seen as a benefit and a burden. While the firm's discovery suite offers a dynamic platform used for a diverse audience and is tailored for the law, it was not designed for that purpose. At Attenex, by contrast, “[the] software was spun out of a law firm and designed for use by attorneys,” Kinnaman says.

A User's Recommendation

Nevertheless, at least some users appear to be pleased.

The program is “a significant step forward in assisting attorneys to find key documents in the vast sea of electronic discovery,” Browning E. Marean, a DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary partner, says.

Marean has recommended Stratify to his own clients because, “Stratify will speed the process of review considerably by allowing rapid focus on the key documents.”

Perhaps that picture may be worth more than words.

Companies mentioned in this article:

Attenex (www.attenex.com)

DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary (www.dlapiper.com)

Fios Inc. (www.fiosinc.com)

Law Journal Newsletters (www.ljnonline.com)

LegalTech (www.legaltechshow.com)

Stratify (www.stratify.com)

People say a picture is worth a thousand words, but Mountain View, CA-based Stratify Inc. is hoping that a picture may well be worth new clients, too.

To that end, the e-discovery software firm launched its next-generation suite ' Stratify Legal Discovery 5.0 ' at the recent LegalTech 2005 show in New York. (Editor's note: LegalTech is run by ALM, the parent company of Law Journal Newsletters, which publishes e-Discovery Law & Strategy. For more on the show and its variations, go to www.legaltechshow.com.)

The suite's highest-profile enhancement is the Visual Email Analytics feature, which enables users to generate e-mail maps of large, complex document collections. Attorneys can search through records (including attachments) by concept, topic thread or date range. The search results are then translated into a diagram highlighting the relationships and message trail.

“It's true discovery because our clients are finally finding what they're looking for,” David Bayer, Stratify's vice president of marketing and business development, says.

(See, “The Changing Face Of e-Discovery Tools: Concept Folders and e-Mail Mapping,” written by Stratify President and CEO Ramana Venkata, in the February 2005 edition of e-Discovery Law & Strategy.)

Intelligence Background, 'Smart' Technology

Founded in September 1999, Stratify counts AmLaw 100 and Fortune 100 companies among its clients. Its patented technology was originally developed for the U.S. intelligence community. The company receives funding from In-Q-Tel, the venture-capital arm of the CIA, but declined to describe the ways in which its technology is being used.

With most business communication being conducted by e-mail, instant messaging and voice mail, electronic search programs have become a critical tool in corporate litigation.

In addition to Visual Email Analytics, Stratify's new package automatically creates intelligent concept folders specific to a case or matter based on the document content, organizes these concepts hierarchically based on their interrelationships and then sorts the documents into individual folders.

A “smart technology” feature is used to bypass irrelevant or duplicate-document processing. Attorneys can also redact individual words or document areas on any record, as well as search for and globally redact specific words or phrases across an entire document.

While there are other companies that offer “concept search” tools, concept search creates only partial order, notes Ramana Venkata, Stratify's founder and CEO. “Stratify is the only company that creates complete order,” he says. “None of our competitors have a similar e-mail analytics capability in the marketplace.”

Competitors' Views

Not everyone supports Venkata's claim of uniqueness in Stratify's product.

“Attenex customers have been using a visual interface to review and categorize large collections of e-mail and electronic documents since 2001,” says Mike Kinnaman, vice president of marketing for Seattle, WA-based competitor Attenex Corp.

While acknowledging that Stratify's suite looked interesting when he saw it at LegalTech, Brad Harris, director of product management for Portland, OR-based competitor Fios Inc., says: “You have to look beyond the shiny objects and determine whether they add value to the core of what you need to accomplish.” (Editor's note: Fios Inc. is represented on e-Discovery Law & Strategy's Board of Editors.)

Stratify's history as a technology provider to the intelligence community can be seen as a benefit and a burden. While the firm's discovery suite offers a dynamic platform used for a diverse audience and is tailored for the law, it was not designed for that purpose. At Attenex, by contrast, “[the] software was spun out of a law firm and designed for use by attorneys,” Kinnaman says.

A User's Recommendation

Nevertheless, at least some users appear to be pleased.

The program is “a significant step forward in assisting attorneys to find key documents in the vast sea of electronic discovery,” Browning E. Marean, a DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary partner, says.

Marean has recommended Stratify to his own clients because, “Stratify will speed the process of review considerably by allowing rapid focus on the key documents.”

Perhaps that picture may be worth more than words.

Companies mentioned in this article:

Attenex (www.attenex.com)

DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary (www.dlapiper.com)

Fios Inc. (www.fiosinc.com)

Law Journal Newsletters (www.ljnonline.com)

LegalTech (www.legaltechshow.com)

Stratify (www.stratify.com)