Our success as a company is attributable to innovation, proactivity and problem solving. We are proud to be a company that stands for success but also a company that recognises their USP and builds upon it by acknowledging possibility along with pragmatism.

Technology is our home, however service is our calling. In May 2019, we put actions on our aspirations and opened a dedicated space to facilitate a managed review service which incorporates technological prowess with legal know-how - Anexsys Lens.

Since last year, we have provided dedicated services to a variety of clients from government and public sector bodies in our capacity as a Crown Commercial Services supplier to law firms of various sizes. We provide a managed review service with an edge which means we are not an advocate of the ‘one size fits all’ approach.

Our in-house software development team, forensic team, eD team and legal team have always ensured that our projects are orchestrated with the utmost care and attention to detail therefore, we are pleased to confirm that the current pandemic has not influenced our ethos rather, it has tested our technological resolve. Traditionally, eDiscovery technology is as a SaaS platform and therefore is accessible remotely from any location via internet connection. As a proponent of flexible working and the Flex Appeal movement, Anexsys already provides for our traditional ‘techies’ to work remotely utilising VPN and multi factor authentication (MFA).

Instituting remote review for the traditional document reviewer is something that could be seen as a challenge as successful review projects are based on a close-knit team of reviewers who can rely on a dedicated senior resource for support. The current global crisis has tested our problem-solving skills as a team and has resulted in the development of a secure and defensible mechanism for remote document review which will allow us to continue to provide high quality review services to our clients despite the current circumstances.

In March 2020, in order to ensure continuity of service, we successfully deployed 40 secure Anexsys Lens laptops to our teams. We selected high specification laptops with large screens to provide the best possible review experience and to avoid the need to connect to a large external monitor. All Anexsys Lens laptops have privacy screens installed as standard to ensure that sensitive review material is protected, even within a home working setting.

Quality Control & Communication

We have utilised our review platform’s (Relativity) extensibility capabilities and Anexsys’ in-house development team to build a time recording application integrated within Relativity for use by the review team. This means that we can cross reference the hours worked per individual time entry with actual work completed per day per reviewer. We monitor reviewer performance on an hourly basis through the utilisation of bespoke performance scripts which provide us with real time hourly review statistics and automatically compare same against historic review rate data.

remote review 1

We have created dedicated Slack channels to maintain communication between review managers and review teams. Slack records all case communication in one place and allows review managers to share updates and to respond to common queries in real time.

remote review 2

Privacy Tips

  • Provide reviewers with boot-level encrypted laptops with locked down application availability.
  • Ensure that each laptop is equipped with a privacy screen so that they can be used securely in a shared home environment.
  • Alternatively, home PC equipment can be used via a thin client (AWS Workspaces as an example).
  • Limit access to the review platform to the reviewer’s home IP only and enable Multi-Factor Authentication.
  • Disable USB drives on each laptop and restrict the ability to download and print documents from the review platform.
  • Provide each reviewer with a robust NDA (in addition to that which would currently be in place) and ensure that a comprehensive and prescriptive Remote Working Agreement has been executed by each individual prior to the commencement of remote working.

Now, more than ever, we are reliant on technology to ensure that we continue to deliver as a business. With no indication of how long we will need to work under the current conditions, we must embrace the change and find new and innovative ways to meet the challenges we face, head on.

We’re excited to be able to add secure home working to Anexsys Lens and believe this will open up the talent pool available to our clients.