After a relaxing summer, everyone is getting back to hybrid work and that includes events! Ricoh participated in Canada’s largest regional event, the 2022 ARMA Information Conference in Montreal! The event brought together information management experts from across Canada and around the world to exchange expertise, share knowledge, and network with one another.

Ricoh Canada's Danny Chan, Senior Discovery Specialist, has been recognized and ranked as a recommended expert by Who's Who Legal for eDiscovery in 2021.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on November 2, 2020. Updated and republished on October 18, 2021.

October is Cyber Security Awareness Month. While it's important to take internet safety seriously every day of the year, this month serves an important reminder of the realities of the current online climate. Here are top five stats that help illustrate the importance of securing your accounts in today's digital age.

Join us this Fall! We are happy to announce that our popular Technology in Practice virtual series will be returning this Fall, starting on October 26th.

Business has evolved rapidly in the last few months, and remote working is one of the many changes which seem set to stay. But while we take advantage of new opportunities, so too are cyber-attackers. Our new-found flexibility comes at a cost. Businesses must rapidly adapt to changes to provide the digital infrastructure and processes we now require. And until all the right pieces are in place to ensure cyber resilience, we are at increased risk of attack.

Starting Tuesday, September 28th, the The Law Office Management Association (TLOMA) will host their 2021 Virtual Conference, with Ricoh Canada as a proud Premium Sponsor. 

In a recently published ILTA article, Natasha Doucas, Business Development Executive – Legal Services, and Marta Young, Manager, Review Services, outline the three biggest factors to consider, at the outset of a large litigation, when it comes to outsourcing your review.

The 2021 edition of the Canadian Lawyer Readers' Choice Survey is officially open! The annual survey determines which vendors and service providers are the best at what they do in helping legal professionals. We're pleased to share that Ricoh Canada has been nominated in three categories. 

In a recently published ILTA post, Natasha Doucas, Business Development Executive – Legal Services, takes a deeper look at Relativity Case Dynamics and explains why good organization of case details is critical when building a strong case strategy.

In a recently published Forbes Business Council article, Ricoh North America's President and CEO, Carsten Bruhn, explores the term digital transformation and how it means different things to different people and how the lack of clarity can cause frustration. Carsten breaks down the myths surrounding digital transformation and how it's so much more than just a technology buzzword.

When we first launched our Tuesday Tip series, I wrote the introductory post Boolean Searches 101: How to Locate the Documents You Actually Need. Today, I’m taking it a step further and sharing how connectors and wildcards can be used in text searches to get optimal results for your search queries. These principles apply to all programs including Relativity, Eclipse, eCapture and Nuix.

This article was originally published on Ricoh.ca.

What is your company’s most valuable asset?

Without a doubt, it’s your information. Information management drives your organization forward and distinguishes you from competitors. It encompasses your goals, your products, and your ideas. Information keeps everyone on the same page—at least, in theory.

In today’s Tuesday Tip, I will be addressing the second installment of our two-part series on review analytics. In case you missed it, you can find the first part on Structured Analytics here.

Technology in Practice is back! We are thrilled to announce that our popular and highly-rated educational format will be returning this year, starting on June 23rd, as an ongoing virtual series. 

There’s a lot of promotion around using analytics in eDiscovery. But, what exactly do they do? Today, as part of a two-part series, I’m breaking down the basics of Structured Analytics and how, when applied correctly, they can contribute towards an effective and efficient review. In our next Tuesday Tip, I will share the basics of Conceptual Analytics and how they differ.

Relativity Fest London returns this year, from May 18-19th, as a free, all-virtual event and promises two afternoons of interactive and on-demand content designed to help you polish your skills and stay ahead of community trends.

Using technology to crack passwords is not a new concept. In fact, if you think back to how Alan Turing cracked Enigma during World War II, as shown in The Imitation Game, the same principles exist today.

As a Relativity Master, I spend a lot of time working with customers to find the best solutions for their unique needs. Often, during our discussions, the topic of Active Learning (AL) comes up. But what exactly does ‘using AL’ entail? Over the past few years, I have heard a lot of assumptions about document review technology — particularly, what it can do and cannot do. Today I’m breaking down the top five assumptions about AL.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Key Questions Answered for Data Privacy in a Pandemic

When searching for a needle in a haystack, having a big red sign that points directly to the needle would go a long way. In eDiscovery (and in particular, Relativity), highlighting has become a supercharged tool that allows reviewers to quickly and easily pick out the most important information that should be marked as ‘potentially relevant’ or ‘privileged’. Take it a step further, and you can even set up your highlighting function to automatically pre-determine terms and keywords in just a few clicks.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

500 million LinkedIn users' data is for sale on a hacker site

Ian Sinclair specializes in eDiscovery and has directed all stages of the discovery process, from initiating legal holds and conducting document collections to presiding over the legal review process. In his role as Manager of Review Services at Ricoh eDiscovery, Ian is dedicated to leveraging technology to improve workflows, diminish costs and faithfully recommends new software functionality to his clients.

With the rise of remote work, employees are communicating online in more ways than ever before. This means companies have a lot of places to look for data during a collection.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Tool checks phone numbers from Facebook data breach

Ricoh eDiscovery is proud to be serving as a National Sponsor at this year's CCCA National Conference. This event will feature 12+ workshops on a variety of topics tailored to in-house counsel needs, as well as an opening keynote from Stephen Poloz on Canada’s economic future and a closing plenary on the post-pandemic workplace. Plus, you can get all your continuing professional development hours for the year in this one event, as all conference sessions will be recorded.

When undergoing a merger or acquisition (M&A), it is common for the Canadian Competition Bureau to issue a Supplementary Information Request (SIR) if it is perceived there could be a negative effect to the competitive landscape in the area of the combined businesses. For example, the Bureau concluded Metro’s $4.5 billion acquisition of the Jean Coutu Group in 2018 would likely lead to substantially higher prices or decreases in services related to medications and other pharmacy products in eight regions across Quebec. As a result, Metro agreed to sell properties or leases to another party as part of the deal.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

How the pandemic has added to the complexities of litigation

Today is World Backup Day — an annual reminder to backup all your critical data. You likely know how important it is to routinely back up all your devices; it’s a trusty way to mitigate risk, anticipate unexpected events and align your work and your organization’s continuity plan. However, as someone who’s worked with data collection for litigation for over a decade, I can tell you one thing with certainty: not all backups are equally useful.

Gone are the days of relying solely on time-consuming, linear, eyes-on review. Not only does leveraging advanced analytic tools result in impressive time savings, but it can also help you save significantly on review spend. A win-win for both you and/or your clients.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

AI certification initiatives could prove very useful to legal industry, experts say

Tamara Porter, Director of Business Development, eDiscovery, joined our team six years ago and has led our efforts in supporting enterprise in-house legal teams across Western Canada. We recently spoke with Tamara about her rich background in the realm of tech and business development, her plans on how she will continue to support the success of our industry and why, she believes, there is “never a dull moment” in the world of legal tech.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

How Technology Can Help You Find Clarity In Times Of Uncertainty

When investing in a new eDiscovery solution, you might find yourself wondering whether you should engage with a service provider or go directly to a software vendor. The comparison between the two options does not come down to which option is ‘better’. Either option can be ideal given the right circumstances. Instead, ask yourself, “How much support does my team require?”

The thought of performing an entire collection of your (or your client’s) data can be overwhelming — and understandably so. When companies do not have an effective data strategy in place, you can find yourself sifting through years’ worth of information.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Ricoh Canada becomes a RelativityOne Gold Partner

Last week, it was reported that as many as 30,000 governmental and commercial organizations had become compromised in an attack against Microsoft Exchange Server. More recently, this number has doubled to 60,000 known victims globally — many of which appear to be small and medium-sized businesses that depend on the email software. By the time you read this post, it is likely even more organizations will have been affected.

Your M365 migration has been approved! Now you are left wondering: where do I start, what are the risks and how do I minimize disruption to my business?

These are common and legitimate concerns voiced at the beginning of any migration. But, moving to the cloud can be stress-free and seamless if done properly.

Dust off your work boots! We’re going berry picking.

Ricoh Canada is the first Canada-based eDiscovery provider to obtain this exclusive partnership

Today, women represent nearly half of the Canadian labour force — an increase of over 25 per cent from the late 70s. Despite some incredible progress, there is still a disproportionate representation of women across technology-based industries. For example, Canada has the fifth largest workforce in Artificial Intelligence (AI), but women make up less than 25 per cent of those employed in the sector.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Legal tech to the rescue

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Zoom-bombing Ontario courts rare but troubling, says task force chair

Redaction of privileged content or personal information is commonplace before documents are produced to an external party. Manual redaction has predominated throughout my 10 years in eDiscovery, but, as of late, automatic redaction tools are gaining ground. Yet, in my experience with the current tools, automatic redaction should be relied upon in limited (or specialized) circumstances and, often, require extensive eyes-on quality control.

It’s a good day. The commute from your kitchen to your home office was seamless — no stepping on Legos for you. Your morning cup of coffee was brewed just how you like it. AND you’ve just found out that you’ve been given the green light to migrate your infrastructure to Microsoft Office 365™! But wait — now you need to move all your data to M365…

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Justice system needs more resources after pandemic pushed operations online: report

We recently spoke with Chris Jurkiewicz, Co-Founder and V.P. of Client Services of Venio Systems. From his two decades of eDiscovery experience, Chris provided us with great insights on how cloud-based, self-service eDiscovery has aided in the new work-from-home demands, a teaser of what’s to come with VenioOne OnDemand’s new update and the advice he would give to someone looking to find their passion in the world of legal tech.

One of the earliest steps after identifying a potential matter is collecting any data that may be relevant to the case, whether or not a legal hold has been placed. There are three options to choose from when it comes to data collection: self, assisted and full forensic.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Zero-copy integration and new data governance standard to be developed

Join us for our upcoming Ricoh TechTalks Winter Webinar to benchmark your organization’s approach to eDiscovery and information management against peers and industry standards.

We are excited to announce the launch of Client Dashboard by Ricoh Canada. This application provides RelativityOne by Ricoh users insights into their case sizes, status, configured users and trends within their workspaces — all from one convenient dashboard.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature will be enabled by default and arrive in ‘early spring’ on iOS

Andrew Monkhouse, Managing Partner and Founder of Monkhouse Law, recently shared the story of how his law office became recognized as one of the fastest growing firms in Canada. This achievement, he says, would not have been possible without their successful digital transformation efforts.

Read his article below, originally published in The Lawyer Daily, to learn how Ricoh Canada supported Monkhouse Law in becoming an "almost paperless office" and how we were able to alleviate the firm's mundane, printing-based tasks so the team of seven could focus on what was most important: their clients.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

SolarWinds: The more we learn, the worse it looks

Employees are often considered the weakest link in the security chain. For this reason, many organizations focus their efforts on educating, training and implementing protocols for their own staff when evaluating data privacy plans. While internal threats are certainly a tangible concern, this internal-focused approach fails to recognize another leading cybersecurity threat: vendors.

As the Director of Client Services at Ricoh eDiscovery, I consult with clients on the best method to manage their litigation databases. While each firm differs in how they operate (and with which tools), there is always one question that comes up: is it better to use a desktop or cloud solution?

This blog is the first in a two-part series about Ransomware and how you may be able to protect your organization — big or small — against the same. Part one of this series will define ransomware and how it works. Part two of this series will provide tips on how you can protect your business against ransomware.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Managing Change and Preparing for New Technology

Chris Plauschinn began his career in the technology realm with Commonwealth Legal before it was acquired by Ricoh in 2014. Now the Director of Cloud and Infrastructure Solutions, Chris oversees both the public and private cloud infrastructure that powers the software solutions offered by Ricoh Canada.

Also known as a litigation hold, a legal hold is a preservation order that ensures records are protected and left untouched should a litigation or investigation arise — a critical step in the eDiscovery process.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Digital privacy law is being updated for the first time in decades, and it's imperative we get it right

Join us for our Ricoh TechTalks Winter Webinar to benchmark your organization’s approach to eDiscovery and information management against peers and industry standards.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on December 12, 2019. Updated and republished on January 11, 2021.

Bad data is typically categorized as erroneous, duplicative, personal or sensitive in nature, but there's more to it than that. Bad data can also be defined as anything that is stored in an outdated or non-functional legacy software, kept for the purposes of record keeping. Whether it’s the nature of its contents or how it’s being stored, most organizations are increasingly faced with managing the complexities of bad data. What’s worse, the practice of retaining dirty data can cost organizations billions of dollars each year if they are in violation of information and data management policies and procedures. 

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Cybersecurity 2020 Year In Review — And A Look Into 2021

Emoji, as we know them today, emerged more than twenty years ago and have proliferated greatly in type and use. Today it is unusual to receive a communication without them. What began as a way to add emotional nuance to “flat text” communications has become the content itself. Entire sentences are “written” using strings of emoji like hieroglyphics that replace text entirely. Emoji are language.

In this week's special edition of the Friday Top Five, we're looking back at the biggest industry news stories from 2020.

By 2025, it is reasonable to assume that the digital tools emerging in legal practice will have advanced to the point there all legal services involving the standard application of legal knowledge will be delivered by technology.” — Cambridge Strategy Group

 

Since 2000, The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) has governed the collection of Canadians’ consumer personal information. If a company knowingly violates the legislation, it can face fines of up to $100,000 per violation. Though the Act has successfully held hundreds of organizations responsible for data breaches and illegal disclosures over the past two decades, it now faces criticism for not providing enough discouragement to disclosure in today’s digital age.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

New OBA podcast to focus on what makes a diverse, healthy and productive workplace

We recently spoke with Andrea Williams, V.P. of Technology & Emerging Solutions at Ricoh eDiscovery, about the early days of eDiscovery, the exciting changes ahead and why she believes it is essential to try new things.

What data is your organization holding on to, where is it being stored and who has access? Those were the key questions the panel of legal tech pros investigated in our recent sponsored webinar with the Canadian Legal Innovation Forum on Managing Data and Organizational Risk. 

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

2020 Canadian Lawyer Readers' Choice Awards

Don’t see yourself as 'the woman' in the room. See yourself as a person that brings tremendous value and input to the table."

— Christine Thompson, Director of Business Process Improvement & PMO, Ricoh Canada

Ricoh Canada has received recognition in two categories, including Legal Process Outsourcing/ Managed Document Review.   

Like all industries, the legal market will be facing a new set of challenges and emerging trends in the coming year. If properly managed and implemented, these challenges can present opportunities to remain competitive and current in the face of change. What do you need to prioritize now for a successful future?

We are excited to share that Natasha Doucas, Business Development Executive at Ricoh eDiscovery, has become a board member for the newly established Vancouver branch of the Association of Certified e-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS).

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Rich Hale of ActiveNav: 5 Things You Need To Know To Optimize Your Company’s Approach to Data Privacy and Cybersecurity

How can you address what you don’t know you have?

No, this isn’t a trick question. The answer is simply that you cannot. In order to know and effectively address what data your organization has, you have to take a few steps back and define, create, and implement an overall data strategy.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Companies could face hefty fines under new Canadian privacy law

Managing organizations' data in a complex business and regulatory context presents many risks. Meeting compliance and regulatory requirements, increased cyber security risk and reputational risk are all key drivers. Lawyers play a central role in creating frameworks managing emerging risks attached to data.

While innovation and law firms don’t traditionally go together — this is changing. The current landscape requires us to constantly redefine what it means to be resourceful and innovative. 

Whether you're given a client’s computer to obtain forensic images or to collect records, it can be difficult to find the correct user data without getting mixed up in all the system files, programs and other data that isn't of value for your legal review. In today’s Tuesday Tip, I'm sharing the easiest way to find this user data, plus a few unusual places to look that also contain useful information.

The scope of eDiscovery has expanded beyond its traditional focus on litigation. Defining, mapping and applying advanced eDiscovery processes requires better collaboration, creativity and flexibility. Marrying technology with advanced processes also plays a key role. 

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Lawyers producing podcast for more easily accessible CPD training

Relativity, a leader in the Gartner's Magic Quadrant for eDiscovery Software and AI technology like Active Learning™, is a full-featured eDiscovery platform with diverse coding options, flexible workflow capabilities, a complete suite of text and visual data analysis. Their eDiscovery platform is used by more than 13,000 organizations around the world to manage large volumes of data and quickly identify key issues during litigation, internal investigations and compliance operations with their SaaS platform RelativityOne and Relativity Trace.

Over the past several weeks, we've been sharing a number of stats and facts about our team of over 250 eDiscovery review lawyers on LinkedIn and Twitter. 

Here are six facts about our team that you may not already know:

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

How the fastest-growing female-led law firm in B.C. is shaking up family law

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Mall real estate company collected 5 million images of shoppers, say privacy watchdogs

Imagine this scenario:

While working from home, you receive a call. The person on the other end says they’re calling from IT. It’s come to their attention that the recent firewall upgrade is blocking employees from accessing the network through the VPN. To resolve the issue, they’re going to have to reset everyone’s user profiles. 

Organizations face increasing complexity when it comes to managing legal and business processes — one key challenge being eDiscovery. The scope for eDiscovery has expanded beyond its traditional focus on litigation.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Law firms still aren’t budgeting for technology

Once you've preserved, collected and reviewed your documents, you've reached the final, and crucial, stage of production. Ensure a successful process from start to finish by asking yourself the following five questions to help build a proper plan from the onset.

Leveraging technology, legal expertise and enhanced processes to deliver better litigation results is critical and complex.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Canada has ‘clearly fallen behind’ other countries in privacy law, says privacy commissioner

It is undeniable that legal tech plays an essential role in supporting the advancements of our industry resulting in automated processes and cost-containment. Even amidst a pandemic, Ryerson University recently launched a new incubator program designed to help legal tech startups get to the next stage. As the number of solutions continue to grow (the legal AI landscape increased by 65 per cent in 2018 alone), it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of which to invest in. 

When I started the Canadian Legal Innovation Forum in 2018, the core premise was to map Canada’s legal innovation landscape and its role in driving results: for lawyers, the businesses they work alongside and society as a whole.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Data’s power to transform legal work

We recently spoke with Sean Lynch, Director of Legal and Compliance Solutions, about his role in leading Ricoh Canada’s customer success and emerging technology solutions. With a decade of litigation and eDiscovery expertise, including extensive document review experience, Sean shares his insights on the current eDiscovery landscape, his clients’ biggest challenges and what he’s most looking forward to in the future of legal tech.

Building a data strategy enables legal to better leverage existing resources, integrate data analytics, and enable a deeper understanding of the data sources to assess and valuate the scope while mitigating costs and risks at the early stages of a matter.

As a follow up to its first Canadian Legal Innovation Forum Webinar series, ADB Insights is producing a second series of online webinars focused on the business of law starting in October, 2020.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

The price of stolen remote login passwords is dropping. That's a bad sign.

By now, we all know not to click on links from unknown senders, but what about from people we do know? Today I’d like to focus on the concerning surge in ransomware attacks — particularly those triggered by opening email attachments. Whether the sender is well known or even internal from your own organization, there are several reasons why sending files via email should be a practice of the past. In this blog I’ll be sharing a recent case study, why ransomware attacks are on the rise in 2020 and how you can avoid falling victim to these schemes.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Canada's 1st female chief justice recalls 'wonderful moments' with Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Choosing the right approach is critical when it comes to accomplishing a successful data migration. At this year's Relativity Fest, an entire session was dedicated to navigating the complexities and challenges that often come with migrating data — especially when working with large, active cases that have tight timelines.

If you have never worked with a third-party document review provider, you likely have a lot of questions. How is data transferred? How long does it take? And, perhaps most importantly, will you still have control of the project?

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Canadian law firms team up to file class-action suit against Google

You've probably been asked at some point, "What time zone should we use?" Maybe this was a question that came up for processing or perhaps it was when you were setting up your review case. Either way, why was it asked and how should you answer?

For decades, firms have had to purchase the infrastructure and licenses for software to review their data and invested in robust software to process it. Smaller firms who were unable to purchase processing software would opt to outsource services such as the processing of electronic documents, unitizing and coding of documents. 

On-Demand eDiscovery is changing that.

Five great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Friday Top Nine is now the Friday Top Five! We're excited to announce that we're streamlining our weekly industry news blog in an effort to deliver you a well-curated list of industry articles to help keep you informed — all in under five minutes.

The 9/11 Playbook for Protecting Privacy

We're excited to share that we will be serving as a Gold Sponsor at this year's Relativity Fest. While this year's annual conference has been brought online, the experience of the jam-packed, three-day event will be as engaging and interactive as you'd expect from previous years. Best of all, it's free to attend!

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

CyberNews hijacked 28,000 unsecured printers to raise awareness of printer security issues

Moving to the cloud can be daunting but that should not stop you from considering this transition. It is no longer a dilemma of whether you should go to the cloud or not, rather it is a must as on-premise solutions may no longer be a viable option in today’s competitive landscape. Start treating cloud computing as a key enabler for your digital transformation initiatives to stay competitive.

What happens when a legal event arises in your organization?

Last week, Andrea Williams, our VP of Technology and Emerging Solutions, was a guest on the Project Privacy Podcast, hosted by ActiveNav (formerly Active Navigation). During the 25-minute episode, she discusses why understanding and managing data from the onset is essential for streamlined eDiscovery — both for legal and IT teams.  

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Why Centralized e-Discovery Is the Best Investment

Each time I move, I end up with a few boxes of miscellaneous “stuff” that never gets unpacked. In fact, I’m not altogether sure I know what’s in them. I'm certain it's mostly junk, but I don’t dare throw it away. What if there’s something really special or valuable buried in the obsolete stuff? And so, I lug them from place to place “just in case.”

Last week we announced that Ricoh Canada Inc. has become a RelativityOne Approved Data Migration Partner — a fantastic validation that our team is able to assist any client who is ready to embrace RelativityOne, regardless of the current state of their data.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

CRA resumes online services after cyberattacks, adds new security feature

Ricoh Canada is one of only seven service providers worldwide demonstrating expertise migrating data to RelativityOne.

Mississauga, ON, August 20, 2020 — Ricoh Canada Inc. is pleased to announce it has become a RelativityOne Approved Data Migration Partner. This partnership recognizes Ricoh for its ability to support RelativityOne standard practices for data migration. At present, Ricoh Canada is one of only seven companies to hold this level of partnership.

It’s Friday afternoon at 3 p.m., and you’re sitting in a meeting with four other employees in your department. Each colleague is giving a short update on their respective projects. “Couldn’t this have been done via email?” you think to yourself. Or better yet, could this meeting have taken place online?

Given our heavily technical world, most litigation cases result in an eDiscovery case. This means gathering any electronically stored information and extracting metadata (data about data) to gain insight and search documents. The traditional method of legal discoveries was to have a room filled with boxes of paper, in which people would review each single sheet and document and create a catalogue of any potentially relevant documents. As you can imagine, this was extremely time consuming and rather labour intensive. 

The 2020 edition of the Canadian Lawyer's Readers' Choice Survey is officially open! The annual survey determines which vendors and service providers are the best at what they do in helping legal professionals. We're pleased to share that Ricoh Canada has been nominated in four categories. 

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Canadian Lawyer invites readers to complete the annual Readers’ Choice Survey

ActiveNav develops industry leading file analysis software that enables the discovery, transformation and ongoing control of unstructured data. Its products play a fundamental role in information governance strategies by facilitating cost savings, risk remediation and improving efficiency through information audit, clean up and defensible deletion, intelligent file migration, records capture, eDiscovery collection and ongoing policy monitoring.

I’ll be the first to attest that there is a lot going on under the hood of RelativityOne. As a Relativity Master, I’ve memorized every tab and pull-down option and know exactly where to go to use the program to its full potential. I have all the bells and whistles turned on and because I live and breathe Relativity every day. That being said, I sympathize with new users who can sometimes feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the program.

We’re pleased to announce Silvia DeBastos as the Customer Success Manager for Ricoh eDiscovery. In this newly-developed role, Silvia — who first joined our team in 2016 — acts as a bridge between the Sales and Fulfillment teams.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Central Health apologizes to 240 patients after employee accesses private records

Data analytic solutions allow law firms and legal departments to make better overall business decisions. Whether they are used for contract analysis, to help better manage internal and external risks, enhance compliance processes, improve resource allocation or gain a strategic advantage in the competitive legal marketplace, the limits of using data are endless.

During last week's Canadian Legal Innovation Forum webinar on Using Data to Make Better Decisions, four panelists, including our own Jessica Lockett, shared how their organizations are actively utilizing these solutions to help save on time, costs and improve accuracy.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

68 per cent of Canadians say proper tech makes home setups more productive than offices: study.

For clients who may be new to electronic review, sending PDFs or printing emails, one at a time, might seem like the easiest way to share content. Unfortunately, this slows down the entire review process, resulting in unnecessary time and money spent.

While we always recommend working with emails via MSG or within a mail store (such as a PST file), sometimes processing PDF and printed documents cannot be avoided during a review. If you find yourself in this situation, remember the importance of establishing proper document collection protocols from the start. Today I'm sharing the top seven questions to ask yourself to avoid redundancy and frustration in these situations, based on a decade of experience in the industry.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Biden, Obama, tech moguls' Twitter accounts hacked in apparent bitcoin scam

Ricoh has been proud to serve as an exclusive sponsor for Canadian Legal Innovation Forum's Webinar Series 2020. Over the past two months, the series' webinars have covered a variety of subjects focused on innovation in the legal technology and information management sectors in Canada. Today we're sharing the details of our third and final virtual event. 

With its up-to-the-minute updates, Twitter is thought to be the most news-friendly social media platform. And, with 145 million daily users from all over the world, it's become an essential communication tool amongst many industries. 

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Microsoft Teams’ new Together Mode is designed for pandemic-era meetings

Via The Verge

Microsoft is introducing some big updates to Teams including a "Together Mode" that's designed to create a virtual live avatar of yourself to help you better engage with meetings. Microsoft is using AI to segment your face and shoulders and place you and your co-workers together in a virtual space. The space could be a meeting room-like environment, coffee shop or other places you'd normally have face-to-face meetings. Microsoft is also adding in video filters and live reactions. Read about all the updates on The Verge.

We've launched a new series called 5 Questions with... where we interview people who are working in the legal technology and information management industry to learn more about their personal contributions, biggest challenges and ideas for the future.

Andrew Bowyer is the founder of ADB Insights — a Vancouver-based media and consulting company. ADB Insights convenes forums, workshops and digitally-based platforms focused on change in the professional services sector, including the Canadian Legal Innovation Forum which Ricoh is a proud sponsor of. 

WhatsApp, iMessage, Skype, Snapchat and DMs. There’s even a Messenger Kids app for children by Facebook. The list goes on and on when it comes to ways to communicate with your friends, family and work associates.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Double-double tracking: How Tim Hortons knows where you sleep, work and vacation

Via Financial Post

For more than a year, Tim Hortons has been tracking the movements of customers in exacting detail through its mobile ordering app. James McLeod, reporter for the Financial Post, published his findings on the app's collection of personal his information. According to the data, Tim Hortons had recorded his longitude and latitude coordinates more than 2,700 times in less than five months, and not just when he was using the app.

"From my home to my office to a Blue Jays game at Rogers Centre, even all the way to Morocco, where I travelled on vacation last June, the company’s app silently logged my coordinates and relayed them back to its corporate servers." 

Read the full story here.

With an increasing demand for data, both in-house and external advisors are feeling the pressure to step up their investigation strategies and procedures to stay compliant with various data governance, corporate and legal protocols.

How can you protect what you don't know you have?

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Trial by Zoom: Ready or not, court proceedings are going virtual

Via itbusiness.ca

How is the background? Is the lighting okay? What about the angles?

A recent itbusiness.ca article says asking these questions has become a reality for many lawyers who are participating in virtual proceedings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom has become a go-to platform for many in the family and criminal legal sectors. Click here to learn about the benefits and challenges being posed by the digital shift.

While many businesses are starting to slowly re-open, for most lawyers and law firms it has been “business as usual” with a (home office) twist. By now, you are getting into the groove of virtual meetings, an increasingly paperless practice, and being flexible in the face of the unprecedented personal constraints not only yourself but on your colleagues and clients.

Load files are specifically formatted files that contain links to native documents, images and the OCR/Full Text of a document. As the name suggests, they are used to "load" documents processed in an eDiscovery tool to get the data into a review-able format.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Privacy and Morality: Data’s Double-Edged Sword

Via Security Boulevard

Concerns about the ethics behind data collection and use have become a hot topic over the past few weeks. In an open letter from their CEO, IBM has declared they will no longer be using or researching facial recognition technology for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with their values. Their stance behind moral data tracking, however, isn't as black and white as it may appear. In a recent Security Boulevard's article, Mark Rasch explores the notion of "mass surveillance" and questions the validity of privacy in public places and whether we can achieve "ethics by design."

Ricoh is proud to be serving as an exclusive sponsor for the Canadian Legal Innovation Forum's new series of online webinars. The webinars, which kicked off earlier this month, cover a variety of subjects focused on innovation. 

As In-House Counsel transitions from legacy to digital setups, they’re often faced with several pain points ⁠— one of which being an effective way to manage and analyze contracts. There are huge advantages to moving from manual review to using a tool that instantly analyzes, flags and manages contracts of every type however, getting executive buy-in to onboard these robust tools remains a major hurdle.

While legal teams understand the benefits of investing in an agile tool that can automate the contract process from start to finish, other stakeholders may not always be on the same page.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Supreme Court chief justice says he's 'optimistic' about launch of virtual hearings

Via CBC

According to CBC, Chief Justice Richard Wagner is feeling optimistic about Tuesday’s launch of virtual hearings at the Supreme Court of Canada. He reportedly told the news network, “Although this pandemic was terrible, and is still terrible for every Canadian, we have to see some positive aspect to it and … one positive aspect to it is the chance, or the opportunity, to use more technology for the justice system in Canada.” Furthermore, he added that there is “no plan B” and the virtual meeting must work going forward. The Supreme Court hearings will take place through Zoom and will be live-streamed on the court’s website — a first in the Supreme Court’s history. Read the full story here.

As a vendor in the eDiscovery and Data Management space, we are always conscious of the need to be “flexible”. Often times we hear our clients say, “yes, we want to try new technologies, but the new technologies have to serve multiple needs.”

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

How COVID-19 helped push Ontario's low-tech justice system into the 21st century

Via CBC

Early yesterday morning CBC reported Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey was announcing sweeping new technological changes to the province's justice system. Ontario's courts, which are set to reopen on July 6th, will be fitted with Plexiglas barriers, physical distancing markers and hand-sanitizing stations. Downey stated about 300 Ontario courtrooms have already been outfitted to hold virtual trials, where a judge would be in the room and lawyers and witnesses could join in remotely. Currently, Ontario's courts still rely primarily on paper records and fax machines to share information, but, according to Downey, in the coming months court files will be digitized. Learn the full details of the changes to come on CBC.

As we announced last week, Ricoh is proud to be serving as an exclusive sponsor for the Canadian Legal Innovation Forum's upcoming series of online webinars. The webinars, which will be kicking off this month, will cover a variety of subjects focused on innovation. 

Today we're excited to share further details on the first of our three webinars. 

Every company with an online presence is a technology company doing something else at the same time. In the digital age, shifting your company’s mindset to “technology first” is crucial — and, in some cases, can be a sink-or-swim process.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Tidy up your company’s data Marie Kondo-style

Via Harvard Business Review

Organizing “stuff” has always been a challenge which may explain why Marie Kondo has become a household name in the art of cleaning up and organizing one’s personal effects. Over the years, most large enterprises have accumulated several petabytes of dark data — web logs, old emails and out-of-date customer profiles all collected in the regular course of business that will probably never be used again — with each petabyte being equivalent to 20 million completely filled four-drawer filing cabinets. 

Does the data you keep "spark joy"? Learn how to apply Marie Kondo's principles to your company's database in Harvard Business Review's recent article. 

We are excited to announce our continued partnership with ADB Insights as they launch a multi-part series of online webinars — an extension to its Canadian Legal Innovation Forum series.

The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked many organizations. Between uprooting our office environments and working from home to juggling the challenges of procurement, services and fulfillment, the current crisis has brought force majeure clauses, termination clauses, and business interruption insurance policies to the forefront.

The necessary rapid response to a global pandemic has, at times, pushed organizations to their IT limits while the need for even greater connectivity and scale continues to rise. It's become clearer than ever that easy, secure and flexible cloud access is no longer a nice-to-have but a necessary component to enable remote workers and allow companies to thrive.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Facebook fined $9 million over Canadian privacy concerns Social Sharing

Via CBC

Facebook has been ordered to pay a $9-million penalty after making "false or misleading claims about the privacy of Canadians' personal information," according to a news release from the Competition Bureau. Based on a investigation into the social media company's practices between 2012 and 2018, the Bureau said they found Facebook falsely represented how much information users could control — including the personal information of users' friends who had installed "certain third-party applications." Read all the details of the breaking story on CBC.

It is more important than ever that employees understand the significance of information security and the part they can play in reducing the risks to sensitive data.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Lockdown accelerates push into digital workflows for professional services

Via Financial Times

China and Singapore are leading the way by adopting digital workflows in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The lockdown, combined with urgent business requirements following the coronavirus outbreak, led Chinese regulators to relax requirements for processes such as opening a bank account. Now, facial recognition, biometric technology and eSignatures are allowing business to resume transactions which traditionally required in-person appointments and paper signatures. Learn how digital workflows are helping industries from finance to the courts in the Financial Times' recent article. 

Force majeure, failure to perform and termination clauses are at the top of every corporation’s mind. Understanding risk around contracts, today and post-pandemic, is crucial to help determine liabilities and the impact on your business.

Cyber attacks are on the rise. In 2017, 1 in 5 law firms experienced a cyber attack or data breach. In addition to hurting your business' reputation, being hacked is expensive — in fact, the average breach costs $3.5 million. 

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Choosing Remote Working Technology For Your Law Firm In 2020: A How-To Guide

Via Above the Law

While working remotely over the past month, you've likely come across some of your firm's technology deficiencies. If you're considering investing in new software and hardware, be sure to take a look at the 2020 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide. Published and updated annually by the American Bar Association, it includes top remote working recommendations, the latest in cloud computing and collaboration software as well as time and billing apps. Because most lawyers are working remotely and courts are closed (except for essential matters),  Above the Law reports that this year's edition deems scanners as a "must have." To read their full summary, click here. 

During this uncertain time, it can be difficult finding the support you need while working remotely. Fortunately, the Relativity community is providing excellent resources to help our team and clients feel connected in the interim. 

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

How will courts function after COVID-19?

Via Canadian Lawyer

Since the shutdown of Ontario courts, the criminal justice system has been dealing with only urgent bail hearings and guilty plea proceedings. Emergency procedures are set to expire at the end of May, however some argue that we should not be returning to the "archaic and outdated business model" that was the norm in the justice system prior to COVID-19. In his recent article in Canadian Lawyer, Michael Spratt presents his ideas on why eliminating paper, permitting remote appearances and becoming less reliant on jails could be the key to giving our courts a much-needed reconfiguration. 

Proven technology supported by a knowledgeable team is the best way to implement an effective content cleanup process in your organization. Our File Analysis and Migration Solution takes the guesswork out of creating a plan to ensure your business can overcome its primary file analysis concerns.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

How lawyers are choosing tech tools in the COVID-19 era

Via  Law Times

From Zoom to DocuSign, lawyers are on the search for innovative tools that will maximize the efficiency of their new work-from-home setup. According to Law Times, the Ontario Bar Association's recent law practice management meeting generated so much excitement about the available legal tech tools, the team decided to launch a two-part series. The first session will focus on "Virtual verification of client identity: What tools are you using?" and the second will cover "What digital programs are people currently using?" Learn the full story, plus details on how some Ontario lawyers are perceiving the mainstream tools, here. 

“Help! I received 1 TB of data from my client and I don’t know what’s in there and what’s relevant!”

Many Canadian leaders are faced with obstacles on their path to success. For our Director of Human Resources, this holds especially true. Marwa Jazi was just 12 years old when civil war broke out in her hometown in Lebanon. For most of her formative years, there were many times when she was stuck indoors, fearing bombings, and living with limited access to water and electricity. This, however, did not stop Marwa from earning a university degree nor embracing change. She recently reflected on her story of perseverance from her childhood to building a career at Ricoh Canada with Women of Influence.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Microsoft's video chat technology is changing how this hospital fights coronavirus

Via CNET

Over the past couple months, hospitals — like so many of us — have turned to technology to bridge the in-person communication lost due to the threat from the coronavirus. St. Luke's University Health Network in Pennsylvania has brought 100 devices into the ICU for patients to use Microsoft's Teams video chat software to communicate with doctors. Visit CNET to read the full story and view a collaborative video on how different organizations are benefiting from the Microsoft program.

Shed light on your dark data and mitigate critical business risks by understanding its composition and securing sensitive and private data.

Firms frequently look for solutions to address one or two pain points within a specific department, but achieving the real potential of digital transformation requires an enterprise-level strategy. 

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Ricoh Europe provides face shield solution for nurses in battle to tackle COVID-19

Via Ricoh Europe

We could all use some good news. Ricoh 3D has ramped up its support to tackle the COVID-19 crisis by using its innovative technology to produce 40,000 face shields a week for NHS workers, designed to improve comfort and offer a re-usable solution to cut long-term costs. Just 24 hours after receiving the design file, the Ricoh team had the head support 3D-printed and remaining components sourced and assembled using the power of their supplier network. Having refined the design to enhance comfort and reduce contamination, the face shield has now been approved for production. Read all the details of this story here.

As a way to help our community connect with one another and continue to grow during a period when everyone may need it most, Ricoh Canada has planned a webinar series which will be running two days a week for the entire month of April. Each Tuesday and Thursday our team will be tackling topics to help organizations adapt to the way they communicate, access and secure business critical information to support an unprecedented amount of remote work. 

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Embracing the potential of tech in legal, compliance

Via Compliance Week

By now, it's clear the business landscape for all sectors is changing rapidly. While digitizing different business functions is a known way to increase efficiency, many industries have been slow to adopt — especially in-house legal teams who are known for being prone to caution. Read Compliance Week's recent article to learn why now is the best time to take advantage of new technologies, smart data analytics and innovative partnerships with third-party suppliers in order to focus on strategic risk priorities versus your simple but resource-hungry tasks. 

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

How COVID-19 is already transforming legal profession

Via Business in Vancouver

The COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting many industries — the legal profession included. Seemingly overnight, many lawyers are needing to collaborate with their colleagues and firms like never before in order to support their clients. Jack Newton, CEO of Clio civil litigation software, argues the transformation is, "forcing many lawyers to try things that they may have never tried or would have only tried many years in the future." Read Business In Vancouver's recent article to learn all the details.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Can the legal sector work from home and still function?

Via Artificial Lawyer

A lot of teams (including our own) have taken to working from home in light of the novel COVID-19 pandemic. On Monday, Artificial Lawyer explored the question that's been on many peoples' minds: do we really need  to be in an office? The legal sector has a unique set of challenges when it comes to working remotely including professional secrecy, data security and accessing materials. Click here to learn the different opinions their team had on the matter. 

Danny Chan and Joe Evangelista, both Senior Case Managers at Ricoh, are leading our Relativity-accredited team of specialists to new grounds. In a new piece for their Community site, Relativity met with our two Masters to learn about their journeys, how it's impacted their relationship with clients and their advice for anyone in pursuit of a Relativity Certification.

Last week, Fernando Garcia, VP Legal and General Counsel for Cargojet, wrote an opinion piece for Canadian Lawyer Magazine. His article, Controlling costs is part of lawyers' mandate, spoke to the duty of in-house and external counsel to keep costs down.

Like many others around the globe, our team has taken to working from home in light of the novel COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this new work routine, our commitment to our clients has not changed.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Working remotely due to COVID-19? Here are some security tips.

Via Silicon Republic

Facebook, Google, Twitter and Amazon are just a few of the companies that have implemented work from home as the novel coronavirus outbreak continues to spread. If you find yourself having to work remotely in light of the pandemic (or you already work from home anyway), it's worth learning how you can keep your business secure. From VPNs to security updates, Silicon Republic has listed the top cybersecurity risks. 

We all love finding the perfect product or service — the one that keeps us coming back again and again, knowing it will be the same as the time before. For example, when you order a no foam, triple latte or double-double from your favourite coffee shop, you know exactly what you’re getting. It’s not going to change, and you won’t be disappointed. If it wasn’t consistent, you’d likely become annoyed and find a different place. The same concept can be applied to eDiscovery operations.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Why scammers make spelling and grammar mistakes

Via Joseph Steinberg

"Errors" in phishing emails are not mistakes; they are intentionally included by design. Joseph Steinberg,  a recognized Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies Advisor, published the four surprising reasons why typos actually help scammers on his blog. Whether it's because misspelled words have a greater likelihood of getting through spam folders or are more believable to readers, who likely have a subconscious affinity for emails with minor errors, the truth is that these mistakes work. Read all the details here. 

More than 26 million custom emoji have been created in Slack and the use of emoji in Teams is universal, revolutionizing the way we communicate. Some employees have entire conversations with emoji, and it takes just one emoji to change the meaning of the message.

Ricoh eDiscovery is proud to be serving as the Platinum Sponsor of this week's Canadian Legal Innovation Forum in Toronto. Now in it's second year, the ADB Insights event will serve as a great opportunity to network with professional peers and experience a full day of educational content accredited by the Law Society of Ontario. 

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

This Technique Uses AI to Fool Other AIs

Via Wired

Last week we discussed that fact that although artificial intelligence is making huge strides in understanding language, it still suffers from an alarming kind of algorithmic myopia. For example, a sentence that seems straightforward to us may have a strange ability to deceive an AI algorithm. That means there can be problem when text-mining AI programs are used to judge job applicants, assess medical claims or process legal documents. Learn how one algorithm is working to combat AI confusion without changing the meaning of a piece of text here. 

When it comes to legacies, eDiscovery software isn't something to pass down.

No lawyer likes being challenged by opposing counsel on the efficacy and accuracy of a production. For significant litigation matters, few issues give rise to greater cost concerns than that of an incomplete or over-production of documents. The eDiscovery process is one that should be controlled by the best and most-proportionate combination of expertise, process, and technology. While law firms often possess both expertise and process know-how, they may be lacking in a key area: technology.

Whether you know it as a production protocol, discovery plan or exchange guideline, establishing a formal method of exchanging documents is essential when it comes to a seamless case production. For the sake of continuity, we’ll refer to them as “production protocols” in this blog.

During Legalweek 2020, Judge Andrew Peck was asked about his take on technology in the legal world. In the Q&A interview published by Law.com, the retired federal judge gave his thoughts on eyes-on review, unarchived data and how there is still work to be done in order to integrate technology into the law.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

More women must enter male-dominated legal tech to guard against AI bias

Via Global Legal Post

At last month's Global Legal Forum in London, keynote speaker Christina Blacklaws presented the idea that more women need to pursue careers in legal tech to ensure bias doesn't get "hardwired" into AI-assisted decision making. According to Blacklaws, the industry's innovations are currently being weighed down by a systemic bias. Read the full article to learn why, if more women don't come on board, the future of AI in legal tech could be in danger. 

Happy Friday and Valentine's Day! Here are nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Stay safe online this Valentine's Day

Via CSO

Love is in the air today and online scammers are on the prowl to take advantage of the romantics. While this CSO article was originally published in 2018, its message still holds true: not every web user has their heart in the right place. From navigating dating sights to understanding which e-cards are okay to open, this article breaks down how the darker side of the web can fool people on Valentine's Day.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Controversial AI app could 'end privacy'

Via CBC

A powerful new facial recognition app can identify a person's name, phone number and even their address by comparing their photo to a database of billions of images scraped from the internet. While the Clearview app isn't available for public use, it's already being used by more than 600 law enforcement agencies. Could this end privacy as we know it? Learn all the details on CBC. 

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Do you care about privacy as much as your customers do?

Via Harvard Business Review

Until recently, there has been little compelling reason for companies to embed privacy considerations deeply into their larger business strategies — but that's about to change. As end-users become more aware of the risks tied to their personal data, they're more likely to push for stricter security regulations. A recent article from the Harvard Business Review explains why the security landscape is expected to change rapidly and chaotically over the next several years and why now is the time to think long-term. 

When striking a deal with a new partner, companies are (or should be) adamant about reviewing all considerations relating to data collection. Why then, as individuals, do we breeze through the “terms and conditions” agreement when signing up for a new product or service?

The legal industry's most-anticipated event is just one week away. Each year, thousands of legal professionals gather in New York City to network with their peers, dive deeper into their professional development and explore topics and strategies tailored specifically to their role. Legalweek is the best place to find the tools you need to get legal business done.

Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.

Regulation Trends to Follow in 2020

Via Heretik

2019 brought us a number of new regulations and laws that brought major implications to consumers and businesses across the globe. According to Heretik, there are plenty of more to come in the New Year. From the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to Brexit, this blog breaks down the biggest, most recent changes plus new regulation trends to keep an eye out for in 2020. 

Let me preface this by saying I am not a general technology expert. I went to law school, not MIT. I don’t know how to code, program, design an app or build a website. I contact my IT guy with near-religious regularity.

That said, as a Review Manager at Ricoh eDiscovery, I continually see the benefits of leveraging the latest legal technology to better serve clients. Our document reviews now almost exclusively utilize Relativity Active Learning, which harnesses artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics to streamline the review process.