The litigation hold process is extensive and detail-oriented, making it difficult to manage under pressure. Unfortunately, integrating applications manually is time-consuming and expensive. It also leads to a lot of human error since there may be tens of thousands of files to sift through.

According to a Salesforce survey published by the CDP Institute, the average enterprise uses 1,061 applications. This can make the legal hold process challenging since law firms and corporate representatives must identify and review data from thousands of locations.

Here, we'll provide a blueprint for scalable, automated legal hold workflows that cover dozens of data sources. Read on to learn how Onna centralizes and enforces holds in real-time so that you can design a legal holds framework that works across dozens of apps.

What Is the Legal Hold Process?

Also called a 'litigation hold,' a legal hold is an order to store and maintain specific electronic information in an unaltered format. It's the first step of the eDiscovery process.

A company's legal team or representatives receive a FOIA request or subpoena order instructing them to offer up data that's relevant to ongoing or upcoming investigations. They need to find this specific information and send it to the entity making the request.

They then send the legal hold notice to employees, who serve as custodians of the information. They keep it safe without changing or destroying it.

The legal hold process is fairly extensive, so creating a good framework for it reduces confusion and streamlines operations. Steps to consider when managing legal holds include:

• Determining what specific data to hold onto
• Figuring out who holds onto that data
• Sending out the hold notice to custodians
• Monitoring custodians
• Releasing the hold to conclude the process

Throughout these steps, legal teams must:

• Find data stored in both network and cloud settings
• Sift through information stored in dozens of different applications
• Normalize data from several sources that have unique tagging requirements
• Contend with duplicate documents and files
• Review complex documents on several different platforms

Optimizing SaaS processes necessitates a well-constructed, perfectly organized method for execution. This means getting all pertinent information in a single place for assessment.

Connectors: The Key to Cross-Platform Legal Management

Connector tools are the cornerstone of legal hold management. Connectors let legal teams link all of their applications together, such as:

• Google Meet
• Gmail
• Teams
• Microsoft 365
• Google Drive
• Cloud storage systems
• Dropbox
• Clio
• Slack

Custom connectors are also available when you tell Onna's experts what you want. We'll design and develop these custom solutions for you. Open API comes in handy when you have unique needs, and your customized tools should be ready within days!

The data from these sources all appear in Onna's all-in-one dashboard. This user-friendly interface is easy to navigate since it consolidates all information within a single location.

From there, those managing legal holds can search by keyword, tag, or recipient. This makes managing data at scale easier because there's no need to toggle 20+ SaaS apps.

Connectors' ability to get all information in one place also makes it easier to share with both internal employees and third parties.

What Happens When a Litigation Hold Is Enabled?

When you use Onna, the data migration process begins whenever a legal hold is issued. The connectors seamlessly put all relevant information into Onna's integrated dashboard and organize it based on keywords. These keywords are easy for the software to identify due to machine learning technologies and newly-deployed AI models.

Onna enhances information governance with consistent policies. It extracts insight from all the sources you've connected to and applies retention policies automatically. Custom retention is also possible, so make sure to configure the scalable software to your needs.

Once all your sources are together, our platform API collects data quickly and securely. We:

• Give advice to legal hold plan developers
• Create custom-tailored solutions to fit client needs
• Make file data migration easy
• Assist with contract discovery
• Archive information in the platform

With automated messages and scalable support, Onna ensures that legal teams and custodians can move seamlessly through any litigation hold framework.

FAQs for Managing Legal Holds

> How does Onna use AI for better tools?

ComplexDiscovery statistics note that over 43% of companies use AI in eDiscovery processes. This figure is only growing, so using a platform that stands out is the only way to stay ahead of your discovery processes.

Luckily, Onna's AI-driven platform stands out with:

• Collections processes
• Data preservation
• Security measures
• Centralized data repositories
• Automatic tagging and filtering
• Data normalizations
• Integrated applications

When you work with us, you know that you're saving time and money on your legal holds. Monitoring data activity is also easy, so you can pinpoint the precise locations of the information you need at any time.

> Who should use Onna's cutting-edge technology?

Onna is designed for anyone working with litigation holds. Corporate legal representatives can use our services to integrate applications that their companies use to store and maintain information.

Law firms and LSPs can assess data on behalf of clients to create a compelling story and present it in court.

Public records holders also benefit from Onna since they have a lot of sensitive files that fall under government-related compliance regulations.

Regardless of the industry in which they operate, those who work with case-relevant documents can pull information for litigation and criminal trials while hiding industry-specific PII like healthcare records.

Invest in Quality Information Governance Software

Designing a legal hold process that works across 20+ SaaS applications can be difficult, but cross-platform legal management simplifies these workflows. Now that you know how Onna works toward optimizing SaaS processes, it's time to learn more about how we help experts manage legal holds.

We're trusted by a wide range of organizations, including widely-known brands like Dropbox and Lyft. From information governance to eDiscovery steps, our team is committed to developing AI-powered tools that improve legal outcomes.

Drop us a line to talk with our team about how we can help you create and execute a well-organized, fully automated litigation hold process today!