With the ever-growing amounts of data and email in today’s work environments, professionals in both the Legal and Information Technology fields continue to struggle with having full control and a complete understanding of all of their Electronically Stored Information (ESI). Early Data Analysis, also commonly referred to as Data Analytics or Data Analysis (DA), is the science of examining raw data with the purpose of drawing conclusions about that information. Early Data Analysis (EDA) in the field of Information Technology, or Early Case Assessment (ECA) in the Legal field have become extremely important topics of discussion in terms of analyzing and gaining control over growing amounts of data. With a greater understanding of all data, more efficient business decisions can be made up front, thus, saving companies both time and money.

1. September 2012
Sherpa Approach: Saving Time and Money with the Right
Data Analysis Tool
With the ever-growing amounts of data and email in today‟s work environments,
professionals in both the Legal and Information Technology fields continue to struggle with
having full control and a complete understanding of all of their Electronically Stored
Information (ESI). Early Data Analysis, also commonly referred to as Data Analytics or
Data Analysis (DA), is the science of examining raw data with the purpose of drawing
conclusions about that information. Early Data Analysis (EDA) in the field of Information
Technology, or Early Case Assessment (ECA) in the Legal field have become extremely
important topics of discussion in terms of analyzing and gaining control over growing
amounts of data. With a greater understanding of all data, more efficient business
decisions can be made up front, thus, saving companies both time and money.
Early Data [Early] Data Analysis or Data Analytics is an approach that both IT and Legal professionals
have begun to explore and implement into their own processes. EDA software allows IT
Analysis administrators the ability to collect, organize and analyze their data, which will ultimately
lead to a better understanding of current system administration issues. Common ones
include:
 Compliance: It is extremely important to analyze data to make sure it is in
accordance with all guidelines/legislation specified within the appropriate industry.
Failure to comply with these guidelines could mean sizable sanctions by the court
(along with other consequences like loss of reputation).
 Determining age of data: Retention policies are set up to ensure and maintain
compliance. Knowing the specific age of all of your data, combined with knowing
the relevant compliance guidelines within your industry will make setting up
relevant retention policies much easier. As noted above, failure to comply with
these regulations (either keeping data too long which would make it applicable to
pending litigation, or not keeping data as long as required) could mean large
sanctions by the court, in addition to other unintended consequences.
 Identifying items cluttering storage/highlighting redundant file usage:
Another important aspect of electronically stored information is storage. Although
the cost of storage media is relatively inexpensive and reducing by the day,
management of the explosive growth of this data is still a very expensive
proposition. Identifying the data clutter in your organization, including eliminating
duplicate information could go a long way in limiting the resources necessary to
manage it.
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2. Electronic information is very important data to a company; so being able to manage,
collect, and analyze it with ease is critical. Without a Data Analytics/Data Analysis tool,
your company, employees, and even upper management may be missing out on a full,
complete understanding of your ESI. It is Sherpa Software‟s opinion that proactively
reviewing and understanding your ESI before there are issues is a much better solution
than a reactive strategy. This is also the case with Legal departments, as they struggle
with managing the ever-growing e-Discovery process, and is the reason new tools are
being built to help Litigation Support personnel be more proactive.
Early Case A major challenge in the e-Discovery process historically has been in relation to the
tremendous amount of Electronically Stored Information and how to manage, review, and
Assessment
analyze that data. Because email is the main form of corporate communication, the e-
Discovery phase of the litigation process is usually both costly and time intensive because
so much data needs to be reviewed and organized. It has been estimated that one-half of
all information included in legal discovery is found in email systems.
The e-Discovery phase of litigation is the phase where all electronic information that has
been shared by a corporation both internally and externally is processed and reviewed to
pinpoint exchanges that could prove pertinent to the case at hand. Early Case Assessment
is defined as estimating the risk (cost of time and money) to prosecute or defend a legal
case.
When looking at the e-Discovery Reference Model (EDRM), the Early Case Assessment
phase is usually defined as the Identification stage. It is in the Early Case Assessment
phase of the process that Attorneys or IT Managers have the opportunity to minimize the
time and effort of sifting through all Electronically Stored Information. Using a tool that will
assist in identifying information that applies to the court case and eliminating that which
does not apply creates a more efficient process. ECA tools are able to:
 Test Keywords
 Organize Data Sets by Dates, Phrases and Metadata
 Find Emails and the Persons Related to them
EDRM Reference
Graphic
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3. This elimination (or “culling”) process not only saves the company time and money but
helps the Litigation Support team be as knowledgeable as possible about the data that
could be influential to the case. Another reason for implementing an ECA tool is that
understanding the 360º snapshot of your data will help you estimate the cost to process this
data. As many lawyers and e-Discovery software providers charge by the amount of data
being processed, it is in your best interest to have minimal and relevant ESI.
For all of these reasons, Sherpa Software strongly believes that Early Case
Assessment/Early Data Analysis tools aren‟t just a “nice to have” anymore, but more of a
“must have” requirement for any matter involving Electronically Stored Information.
Report Attender Report Attender is Sherpa Software‟s Data Analysis tool and is your one stop shop for both
Early Data Analysis (for IT professionals) and for the Litigation Support personnel looking to
perform Early Case Assessment. This Data Analysis tool analyzes the content of key data
stores, quickly answering questions regarding the age, size and substance of email
messages and other files. Report Attender enables IT, compliance managers and
corporate counsel to make informed decisions throughout the Early Data Analysis or Early
Case Assessment phase of their projects. In Early Case Assessment projects, informed
decisions can result in deciding whether to proceed to a lengthier – and more expensive –
e-Discovery process. As for Early Data Analysis, decisions can range from which software
needs exist after analyzing corporate data, to what kind of retention policy to set up based
upon the data and/or problems collected or identified.
This stand-alone application is able to gather and distill important details to identify the
items that are stored in your network shares and email servers. Report Attender can
effectively analyze data from: PST Files, Exchange Mailboxes, Exchange 2010 Online
Archives, and files on local or network directories. Summary reports, drill down views,
vibrant charts, and custom options (see screenshots shown below) provided by Report
Attender assist you in making informed decisions about your data; whether that is
administration, litigation, compliance or anything else. Custom options are made through
an intuitive wizard, and include: creating custom categories, user-assigned extensions,
„unknown‟ file identification, easily filtering table and view data, and combining statistics or
viewing them independently. Report Attender also has numerous reporting features that
include:
 Summary and detailed reports
 Full color charts and detailed tables
 Views of data by type, date, store, duplicates and more
 Address and domain breakdown by 'Sender', 'On Behalf Of', 'To', 'CC' and 'BCC'
 Options to Export reports to PDF and CSV
 Drill-down details to analyze sub-sets
 And inventory of all items
Report Attender features a non-intrusive, small footprint, local installation. Installed and
running in minutes, it can be installed on desktop or server, with no agents to distribute and
no specific internet access required. Report Attender supports Exchange 2003 and above,
and also works with ASCII and Unicode PST‟s.
NOTE: If you happen to be looking for a practical, reliable, affordable, and fully featured e-Discovery software 3|Page
product that does NOT charge by the amount of data being processed, Sherpa Software‟s Discovery Attender
for Exchange may be the tool you are looking for.

4. Inside the
Report
Attender
console
Screenshot showing a snapshot of all customer data/files, including Application Data,
Email Files, Media, System and Messages Only
Screenshot showing a snapshot of each Individual User, their specific Message Volume,
and specific Attachment Volume
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5. Conclusion In today‟s legal field, millions of lawsuits are filed against both small businesses and
large enterprises alike. Some large corporations in the United States have reported
being sued in Federal Court two to five times daily. While these may be extreme
cases, the fact remains that every corporation is likely at some point to face litigation.
Litigation costs can be crippling to a large company and can be downright devastating
to a small business. At the same time, IT professionals, because of the growing
amounts of ESI, continue to struggle with getting a full understanding of their data in
order to make more informed business decisions.
Sherpa Software‟s Approach to Early Case Assessment/Early Data Analysis tools is
that whether you use tools like Sherpa Software‟s Report Attender or one of the other
ones in the market, they are a “must have” requirement. Taking proactive measure to
better analyze and understand data versus a reactive approach to a problem will
prove to be more efficient and more cost effective for your business, now and in the
future.
Whether you are an IT or legal professional looking to better analyze your ESI,
Sherpa Software‟s Report Attender makes a strong case as a complete Data Analysis
tool for both groups. For more information about Report Attender, please visit
http://www.sherpasoftware.com/microsoft-exchange-products/report-attender.shtml or
email information@sherpasoftware.com.
About Sherpa For over 10 years Sherpa Software has provided IT Professionals with award-winning
information management software specifically designed to address email
Software
management, archiving, e-discovery, PST management and compliance requirements
for Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange environments. Based in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, Sherpa‟s solutions are practical, reliable and affordable and have been
installed at thousands of organizations worldwide. Their products offer flexible
architectures that streamline administrative processes without requiring any additional
hardware or add-on components. Sherpa Software is an IBM Premier Business
Partner and a Microsoft Certified Partner.
For more information about Sherpa Software, visit www.sherpasoftware.com.
456 Washington Avenue
Bridgeville, PA 15017
www.SherpaSoftware.com
1.800.255.5155
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6. About the Author Ned joined the Sherpa Software team in November 2010. As the Sales & Marketing
Associate, Ned is responsible for marketing, sales, channel and technical support
aspects. He oversees all day-to-day tasks concerning software support renewals for the
channel sales team while also acting as a liaison between the Channel and Marketing
Departments. With the marketing team, Ned’s main focus is content creation. Each
month, he writes numerous blog posts, company positioning pieces and his fan favorite
“Off the Topic” articles, which are sent to almost 30,000 newsletter subscribers. As for
Ned’s technical support responsibilities, you can find Ned chatting with and helping
customers via our “Live Chat” function. Overall, Ned accomplishes a wide range of
business-critical functions for the team at Sherpa Software.
Ned graduated from Duquesne University in 2010, where he received a Bachelor’s of Science in Business
Administration, specializing in Entrepreneurship and new business creation with a minor in Spanish.
Ned is an avid sports enthusiast. In his time at Duquesne, he was heavily involved with the Men’s Club Volleyball
Team, not only as an active team member and player but also as President and Captain. Ned still enjoys playing in
competitive volleyball tournaments during his summers, along with other activities like basketball, hockey, boxing,
and running. He also loves other languages, cultures and its people – particularly Spanish. Ned spent time in Spain
where he was immersed in the language and culture while also taking classes at the Universidad Pontificia de
Salamanca (Salamanca, Spain). He hopes to visit Spain again in the future.
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