Zapproved - Detailed Review
Legal Tools
Zapproved - Product Overview
Zapproved Overview
Zapproved is a leading provider of e-discovery software, specifically designed for corporate legal teams. Here’s a brief overview of its primary function, target audience, and key features:
Primary Function
Zapproved’s main function is to help corporate legal teams manage their litigation response processes efficiently. The company’s Z-Discovery platform streamlines electronic discovery (e-discovery) by handling preservation, collection, and review of legal data, ensuring defensible practices throughout the process.
Target Audience
The primary target audience for Zapproved is in-house legal teams within corporations, including Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies, as well as federal and public agencies, nonprofits, and educational institutions. These teams benefit from Zapproved’s solutions to save time, improve compliance, and reduce risk.
Key Features
- Legal Hold Management: Zapproved allows users to initiate legal holds, track custodian compliance, and generate customizable reports. It also automates the preservation and lifting of custodian data holds in various platforms like Microsoft 365 and Google Vault.
- Data Collection: The platform enables targeted data collections from sources such as Microsoft Exchange and other systems, which can then be uploaded for review.
- Data Review: Zapproved facilitates bringing more of the review process in-house, reducing the need for outside counsel and providing faster insights. This includes processing and reducing large volumes of data into manageable sizes, such as performing optical character recognition (OCR) on tens of thousands of page images.
- Scalability and Performance: Utilizing Amazon Web Services (AWS), particularly AWS Lambda, Zapproved ensures scalable data processing, handling millions of documents and log entries per hour. This scalability helps in managing traffic spikes and providing high application performance.
Overall, Zapproved’s Z-Discovery platform is known for its ease of use, ironclad security, and unrivaled customer support, making it a preferred choice for corporate legal teams managing e-discovery processes.
Zapproved - User Interface and Experience
Ease of Use
Zapproved’s platform is consistently praised for its intuitive nature. Users find the learning curve surprisingly manageable, which allows them to quickly master the tool’s functionality without extensive training. The software is designed to streamline processes, making it easier for users to initiate legal holds, track compliance, generate reports, and manage data preservation and review projects efficiently.
User Interface
The ZDiscovery platform features a clear and organized interface that surfaces the right information at the right time. This includes in-app alerts and reminders that help cut reaction times and streamline actions and next steps. This design helps in demystifying the often complex eDiscovery process, making it more accessible to a wider range of users.
Functionality and Features
The platform offers comprehensive functionality across the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM), including legal hold management, data collection, review, and production. Users can automatically preserve and lift data holds within various data sources like Microsoft 365, Google Vault, and Slack, ensuring seamless data preservation and compliance.
Customer Support
Zapproved’s customer support is highly regarded. The company provides industry-recognized customer success teams that offer expertise, education, and resources to ensure customers are successful. The onboarding process is guided by an Implementation Project Manager who provides best practice recommendations, technical advice for integrations, and weekly progress check-ins.
Overall User Experience
The overall user experience is enhanced by the platform’s flexibility and scalability. Zapproved’s ZDiscovery platform can grow with an organization’s needs, providing more control over data preservation and review projects. This adaptability, combined with strong security measures and excellent customer support, makes the platform highly effective for corporate legal teams.
In summary, Zapproved’s user interface is characterized by its ease of use, intuitive design, and comprehensive functionality, all of which contribute to a positive and efficient user experience.
Zapproved - Key Features and Functionality
Zapproved Overview
Zapproved, a leading provider of eDiscovery solutions, offers a suite of tools that significantly streamline and enhance the legal discovery process, particularly for corporate legal teams. Here are the main features and functionalities of Zapproved, along with how AI is integrated into the product:Legal Hold Management
Zapproved’s ZDiscovery platform includes a comprehensive legal hold management system. This feature allows users to create, manage, and track legal holds directly from the platform. The integration with other tools, such as Onna, enables the automatic preservation of data from various sources, including Slack, which reduces the time and costs associated with preserving unstructured data.Data Processing and Review
The ZDiscovery platform is equipped with scalable data processing capabilities, powered by AWS Lambda. This allows for the rapid processing of millions of legal documents per hour, including optical character recognition (OCR) for image processing. For instance, what used to take hours to process a 454-page PDF now takes only 20 seconds.Preservation in-Place and Data Collection
Zapproved’s platform supports preservation in-place functionality, allowing users to preserve data without moving it from its original location. This feature, combined with data collection capabilities, ensures that all relevant data is securely preserved and ready for review.Document Review and Production
The platform facilitates efficient document review and production processes. Users can review and produce data, and the system supports various stages of the eDiscovery lifecycle, including early case assessment, litigation, subpoena response, and third-party information requests.Integration with Other Tools
Zapproved integrates seamlessly with other legal tools and platforms. For example, the integration with TeamConnect allows legal teams to access, view, and manage hold information directly within TeamConnect, streamlining the legal hold process and reducing human errors.Automation and Security
Using AWS Lambda, Zapproved automates various processes, including continuous monitoring security solutions and managing firewall rules. This automation enhances security and reduces the workload on IT departments. Additionally, AWS CloudTrail is used to manage other security-related processes.Scalability and Cost Efficiency
Running on the AWS Cloud, Zapproved’s platform provides scalability and flexibility, allowing it to absorb traffic spikes and support rapid growth without the need for substantial upfront hardware investments. This setup also significantly reduces costs; for example, processing PDFs costs a fraction of a penny per page compared to traditional on-premises environments.User Experience and Support
ZDiscovery is known for its ease of use and is consistently ranked as one of the easiest in-house eDiscovery software to use. Zapproved offers industry-recognized customer success teams that provide expertise, education, and resources to ensure customers are successful. The onboarding process is guided by an Implementation Project Manager who offers best practice recommendations, technical advice, and customized implementation plans.AI Integration
While Zapproved’s platform is highly advanced and efficient, the integration of AI is primarily through the use of AWS services like AWS Lambda for automating and processing large volumes of data. However, there is no explicit mention of AI-driven features within the Zapproved platform itself, unlike some other legal tools that incorporate AI for research, drafting, and summarizing documents. Zapproved - Performance and Accuracy
Evaluation of AI-Driven Legal Tools
To evaluate the performance and accuracy of Zapproved or similar AI-driven legal tools, it’s important to consider several key aspects, even though specific data on Zapproved itself may not be readily available from the provided sources.
Accuracy and Hallucinations
AI-driven legal research tools often face issues with accuracy and hallucinations. For instance, a study by Stanford University found that AI legal research tools can hallucinate in a significant percentage of queries. While Paxton AI reported a 93.82% average accuracy in their benchmarking study using Stanford’s legal hallucination benchmarks, other tools have shown varying levels of accuracy. For example, Lexis AI was accurate in 65% of queries, whereas Thomson Reuters’s Ask Practical Law AI responded accurately only 18% of the time.
Limitations in Complex Tasks
AI tools generally excel at straightforward legal tasks but struggle with interpreting complex laws, providing strategic advice, and anticipating potential disputes. They rely on standardized templates that may not account for the specific needs or circumstances of individual users, which can lead to critical gaps in governance, dispute resolution mechanisms, and enforceability issues.
Information Accuracy and Verification
A significant concern with AI tools is their capacity to generate false responses or hallucinations. It is crucial to independently verify any content generated by these tools to ensure accuracy. The case of Roberto Mata v Avianca highlights the risks of relying solely on AI-generated content, where a lawyer was fined for submitting misleading information based on non-existent cases suggested by ChatGPT.
Data Protection and Confidentiality
AI tools can pose risks related to confidentiality and data protection. Users should avoid inputting sensitive or confidential information into these tools, as this data could potentially be exposed or shared with third parties. It is important to limit inputs to non-sensitive and publicly available information and to opt-out of data retention measures where possible.
Conclusion
While Zapproved itself is not specifically mentioned in the available sources, the general performance and accuracy of AI-driven legal tools can be summarized as follows:
- Accuracy: AI tools can achieve varying levels of accuracy, with some tools performing better than others. However, hallucinations remain a significant issue.
- Complex Tasks: AI tools are limited in handling complex legal tasks and require human oversight to ensure accuracy and relevance.
- Verification: Independent verification of AI-generated content is essential to avoid errors and ensure legal compliance.
- Data Protection: Users must be cautious about inputting sensitive information to protect confidentiality and comply with privacy laws.
Given the lack of specific information on Zapproved, these general observations provide a framework for evaluating the performance and accuracy of similar AI-driven legal tools.
Zapproved - Pricing and Plans
The Pricing Structure for Zapproved’s ZDiscovery Platform
The pricing structure for Zapproved’s ZDiscovery platform is designed to accommodate the various needs of corporate legal teams, with different tiers and features to suit different requirements.ZDiscovery Hold Preserve
This tier is focused on legal hold management and data preservation.Features:
- Comprehensive legal hold management
- In-place data preservation
- Matters dashboard for full visibility
- Create, send, modify, and track legal holds
- Integrations with HRIS, matter management, and other enterprise applications
- Customized reporting
- Automated, defensible audit trail
- ZDiscovery Tasks project management tool
- Common integrations included
Support:
- Data migration included
- 24/7 access to online support
- Comprehensive implementation
- Optional add-on: Employee change monitoring and matter task management with Automated Custodian Workflows.
ZDiscovery Hold, Preserve Collect, Review
This tier adds data collection and document review capabilities to the legal hold and preservation features.Features:
- All features from the Hold Preserve tier
- Data collection tools
- Document review tools
- Data collections directly from sources like Office 365, Google Vault, and Slack
Support:
- Same support features as the Hold Preserve tier, including data migration, 24/7 online support, and comprehensive implementation.
Customized Solutions
For more specific needs, Zapproved offers customized solutions.Professional Services:
- Advanced Implementation Services: Includes best practice recommendations, technical advice for integrations, a customized implementation project plan, and weekly progress check-ins.
- Advanced Data Migrations: Expert data migration from various legacy systems.
Pricing
While the exact pricing is not listed on the website, it is mentioned that you need to request a quote to get the specific pricing details.Starting Point:
- The starting price for ZDiscovery is around $4,500 per year, but this can vary based on the specific needs and add-ons.
Additional Costs and Fees
- There are no maintenance costs or service fees. The ZDiscovery environment and integrations established during implementation are maintained and updated by Zapproved at no extra cost.
- No extra fees for customer support or training.
- No additional fees to add users, including outside counsel.
Zapproved - Integration and Compatibility
Integration with TeamConnect
Overview
Zapproved’s Legal Hold Pro system can be integrated with Mitratech’s TeamConnect, a Matter Management System (MMS). This integration allows legal teams to access legal hold information directly from the TeamConnect interface, enabling intuitive case tracking without the need to switch between systems.Benefits
Users can create legal holds directly from TeamConnect, ensuring time efficiency and minimizing human errors. Additionally, comprehensive reports on matter status and hold information can be generated without switching platforms.Compatibility with Microsoft and Google Platforms
Data Preservation
Zapproved’s platform is compatible with several popular business tools. It can automatically preserve and lift custodian data holds in Microsoft 365 and Google Vault, among other platforms.Streamlined Processes
This ensures that data preservation and collection processes are streamlined and efficient. The software also supports targeted collections from Microsoft Exchange and other sources, which can then be uploaded for review.Integration with Exterro’s Legal GRC Platform
Comprehensive Management
Following its acquisition by Exterro, Zapproved’s e-discovery software is now part of a comprehensive Legal Governance, Risk and Compliance (Legal GRC) platform.Unified Platform
This integration enables organizations to manage e-discovery, privacy, legal operations, digital investigations, cybersecurity response, and information governance all within a single unified platform. This convergence enhances the ability to identify, understand, and manage data in a contextual and defensible manner.User-Friendly and Accessible
Ease of Use
Zapproved’s software is known for its ease of use, making it accessible across various devices and platforms.Efficiency for Legal Teams
The platform is consistently ranked as one of the easiest to use in the e-discovery category, which helps in reducing the learning curve for legal teams. The user-friendly interface ensures that teams can efficiently manage legal holds, data preservation, collection, and review processes without significant technical hurdles.Conclusion
In summary, Zapproved integrates well with various legal management systems, cloud-based applications, and other business tools, ensuring a seamless and efficient experience for corporate legal teams. Its compatibility across different platforms enhances its utility and makes it a valuable tool in the legal technology landscape. Zapproved - Customer Support and Resources
Zapproved Overview
Zapproved, a leading provider of ediscovery solutions for corporate legal teams, offers a comprehensive suite of customer support options and additional resources to ensure users can effectively manage their legal holds and ediscovery processes.
Customer Support
Zapproved is known for its industry-recognized Customer Success teams, which provide expertise, education, and resources to help customers achieve success. Here are some key aspects of their customer support:
Expertise and Education
The Customer Success teams offer the necessary guidance and educational resources to help users get the most out of the ZDiscovery platform.
Responsive Support
Customers have praised Zapproved for its knowledgeable, professional, friendly, and responsive support. This ensures that any issues or questions are addressed promptly and effectively.
Additional Resources
Zapproved provides several resources to help users optimize their use of the ZDiscovery platform:
Interactive Tours and Demos
Users can take self-guided tours or book demos to get a hands-on feel for the software, helping them understand how to streamline their legal holds and ediscovery processes.
Reporting and Audit Trails
The platform includes powerful reporting options and audit trails, which are highly valued by users for their detail and ease of use. These tools help in tracking milestones, managing custodian compliance, and generating defensible reports.
Integration with Existing Systems
ZDiscovery integrates with various existing legal tech ecosystems, such as HRIS, Matter Management Systems, and other enterprise applications. This ensures a seamless workflow and reduces the need for IT intervention.
Community Reviews and Feedback
Zapproved encourages feedback and has a section for customer reviews on platforms like G2, providing insights from other users and helping potential customers make informed decisions.
Educational Content
Zapproved also offers various educational resources to help corporate legal teams advance their strategies and manage ediscovery more effectively:
Blog Posts and Articles
The website features articles on best practices for ediscovery, information governance, and strategies to advance in-house legal departments. These resources help teams stay updated on the latest trends and best practices.
Guides and FAQs
There are detailed FAQs and guides available that address common questions and provide step-by-step instructions on using the ZDiscovery platform, particularly for legal hold management and other ediscovery processes.
By providing these comprehensive support options and resources, Zapproved ensures that its users can efficiently manage their legal holds and ediscovery tasks, saving time, improving compliance, and reducing risks.
Zapproved - Pros and Cons
Advantages of Zapproved in the Legal Tools AI-driven Product Category
Zapproved, particularly through its Z-Discovery platform, offers several significant advantages for legal teams:Efficiency and Scalability
- Zapproved leverages AWS Lambda to process millions of documents every hour, significantly reducing the time it takes to handle large volumes of data. For example, processing a 454-page PDF now takes just 20 seconds, down from hours with their previous solution.
- The platform supports rapid growth by absorbing traffic spikes and providing scalability and flexibility through AWS services.
Time and Cost Savings
- Zapproved’s automation and legal hold management tools reduce the time spent on issuing, tracking, and managing legal holds by up to 80%. This includes a 95% reduction in custodian time to review and acknowledge holds.
- The cost of processing documents is drastically reduced, from 10 cents per page in traditional environments to a fraction of a penny per page using AWS Lambda.
Compliance and Defensibility
- ZDiscovery Hold helps in-house teams improve compliance and reduce the time spent managing legal holds. It generates defensible audit trails and reports, ensuring that preservation practices are compliant and defensible.
Speed to Market
- Customers can deploy Zapproved applications in less than one week, compared to several months previously, thanks to the speed and flexibility of the AWS Cloud.
Comprehensive Suite of Tools
- The Z-Discovery suite includes Digital Discovery Pro, Legal Hold Pro, and Data Collect Pro, providing a comprehensive set of tools for managing litigation response processes.
Disadvantages of Zapproved
While Zapproved offers many benefits, there are some considerations to keep in mind:Dependency on Cloud Services
- Zapproved’s reliance on AWS services means that any issues with AWS can impact the performance and availability of Zapproved’s tools.
Security and Data Privacy
- As with any cloud-based solution, there are concerns about data privacy and security. Zapproved must ensure that its use of AWS services complies with stringent security standards to protect sensitive legal data.
Potential for Technical Issues
- While AWS Lambda significantly enhances processing speed, there could be technical issues if not properly managed. For instance, managing firewall rules and other processes through AWS Lambda requires careful configuration to avoid any disruptions.
Learning Curve
- Although Zapproved’s tools are designed to be user-friendly, there may still be a learning curve for new users, especially in integrating these tools with existing workflows.
Zapproved - Comparison with Competitors
Zapproved’s Unique Features
- Scalable Data Processing: Zapproved, leveraging AWS Lambda and other AWS services, can process millions of legal documents every hour. For instance, it can complete the processing of a 454-page PDF in 20 seconds, a task that previously took hours.
- Comprehensive eDiscovery Suite: Zapproved’s Z-Discovery platform includes tools like Digital Discovery Pro, Legal Hold Pro, and Data Collect Pro, providing full lifecycle support for legal matters from data preservation and collection to review and production.
- Automated Security and API Management: Zapproved uses AWS Lambda for continuous monitoring, managing firewall rules, and integrating with Amazon API Gateway for API management.
- Cost Efficiency: The use of AWS services significantly reduces costs for Zapproved, with the cost of processing PDFs dropping from 10 cents per page to a fraction of a penny per page.
Competitors and Alternatives
Logikcull
- Logikcull offers basic legal hold functionality, preservation in-place, and data downloads from cloud-based applications. It also provides review and production capabilities but lacks the comprehensive legal hold management and defensible preservation solutions that Zapproved offers.
- Logikcull is more suited for smaller companies with higher litigation volumes, whereas Zapproved is preferred by medium and large organizations with in-house legal teams.
Relativity
- Relativity provides electronic discovery (e-discovery) and legal search software solutions. Its platform manages large volumes of data but may not offer the same level of scalability and cost efficiency as Zapproved’s AWS-based solution.
- Relativity is known for its extensive features in document review and analysis but can be more complex to use compared to Zapproved’s user-friendly interface.
Onit
- Onit offers enterprise software and AI platforms for legal and business operations. While it includes enterprise legal management and contract management, it does not specialize in e-discovery to the same extent as Zapproved.
- Onit’s platform is broader, covering more aspects of legal operations, but may not provide the same depth in e-discovery as Zapproved.
Everlaw
- Everlaw provides e-discovery software with tools for document review, early case assessment, and trial preparation. It uses analytics and machine learning to assist legal teams, similar to Zapproved. However, Everlaw’s focus is more on the analytical side, whereas Zapproved excels in both data processing speed and comprehensive e-discovery lifecycle support.
- Everlaw serves law firms, corporations, and government agencies, making it a versatile option, but it may not offer the same level of integration with cloud services like AWS as Zapproved does.
CS Disco
- CS Disco is another comprehensive e-discovery solution known for its lightning-fast legal data processing. It offers visual analytics and cross-border support, which are similar to Zapproved’s capabilities. However, CS Disco’s strength lies more in its visual analytics and international case support, whereas Zapproved’s advantage is in its scalable and cost-efficient AWS-based infrastructure.
Conclusion
Zapproved stands out for its ability to process vast amounts of legal data quickly and efficiently, its comprehensive e-discovery suite, and its integration with AWS services for enhanced scalability and cost efficiency. While competitors like Logikcull, Relativity, Onit, Everlaw, and CS Disco offer strong features in e-discovery and legal analytics, Zapproved’s unique combination of speed, scalability, and cost savings makes it a preferred choice for many corporate legal teams. Zapproved - Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some frequently asked questions about Zapproved, along with detailed responses:
What is Zapproved and what services does it offer?
Zapproved is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider that specializes in creating cloud-based applications for the legal industry, particularly focusing on electronic discovery (eDiscovery) and legal data management. The company’s Z-Discovery platform includes tools such as Digital Discovery Pro, Legal Hold Pro, and Data Collect Pro, which help customers streamline their litigation response processes, manage legal holds, preserve and collect data, and review documents efficiently.
How does Zapproved use AWS to enhance its services?
Zapproved leverages Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build and run its Z-Discovery platform. Specifically, it uses AWS Lambda for tasks like optical character recognition (OCR) image processing, managing firewall rules, and processing tens of millions of log entries per hour. Other AWS services utilized include Amazon Kinesis Firehose, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, and Amazon IAM. This integration allows Zapproved to process millions of documents quickly, support rapid growth, and provide scalable and flexible solutions.
What are the key features of the Z-Discovery platform?
The Z-Discovery platform offers several key features:
- Legal Hold Management: Initiate legal holds, track custodian compliance, and generate customizable reports.
- Data Preservation: Automatically preserve and lift custodian data holds in various platforms like Microsoft 365 and Google Vault.
- Data Collection: Conduct targeted collections from sources such as Microsoft Exchange.
- Data Review: Bring more review processes in-house to reduce legal spend and gain faster insights.
- Advanced Search and Filtering: Tools to manage large volumes of data and identify relevant information.
- Collaboration: Features that facilitate seamless interaction among legal teams.
How does Zapproved improve efficiency and reduce costs for its users?
Zapproved significantly improves efficiency by using AWS Lambda to process documents quickly. For example, processing a 454-page PDF now takes only 20 seconds, compared to hours previously. This speed, combined with the scalability of AWS, allows Zapproved to support rapid growth and handle large volumes of data without substantial upfront hardware investments. Additionally, the cost of processing PDFs is reduced to a fraction of a penny per page, compared to 10 cents per page in traditional on-premises environments.
What kind of support does Zapproved offer to its customers?
Zapproved provides comprehensive support services to its customers. These services are outlined in their support policy, which includes continuous monitoring and security solutions managed through AWS. Customers can access support through the Zapproved website, and the company may modify its support services as needed, with changes posted on the support website.
How does Zapproved ensure compliance and security for its users?
Zapproved ensures compliance and security through several measures:
- Defensible eDiscovery Practices: The platform is designed to maintain defensible eDiscovery practices.
- Secure Data Handling: Data is handled in a secure, reliable, and efficient manner.
- Audit Trails: Features like audit trails for legal hold acknowledgments help in maintaining compliance.
- Ironclad Security: The Z-Discovery platform is backed by strong security measures, ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of the data.
What is the impact of Zapproved’s acquisition by Exterro?
Zapproved was acquired by Exterro, a legal GRC platform provider, in January 2023. This acquisition combines Zapproved’s industry-leading customer service with Exterro’s award-winning legal GRC platform, enabling organizations to better manage eDiscovery, privacy, legal operations, digital investigations, cybersecurity response, and information governance. This integration is expected to enhance the capabilities and services offered to customers.
How does Zapproved facilitate collaboration among legal teams?
Zapproved’s platform includes collaboration features that facilitate seamless interaction among legal teams. These features enable users to manage large volumes of data, identify relevant information, and maintain a structured workflow throughout the eDiscovery process. This helps in improving productivity and efficiency within legal teams.
What kind of data processing capabilities does Zapproved offer?
Zapproved’s data processing capabilities are powered by Nuix, a gold standard in data processing. This allows legal teams to reduce the size of their data sets, making it easier to manage and review large volumes of data. The platform supports processing, culling, and reviewing data efficiently.
How can users get started with Zapproved’s services?
Users can get started with Zapproved’s services by accessing the platform through the Zapproved website. The company offers a self-guided introduction to the platform, and customers can deploy Zapproved applications in less than one week, thanks to the speed and flexibility of the AWS Cloud.