When investing in technology, cost is one of the biggest drivers in choosing the right partner. However, it is important for decision-makers to understand the business impacts of technology purchases prior to committing to a multi-year contract; legal teams should systematically dissect the total cost and efficiency gains of available market alternatives. 

Buyers must consider the cost implications of on-premise solutions compared to cloud-based solutions. The unspoken burdens that arise after committing to an on-premise solution can put a large dent in your wallet. There are a number of hidden costs and fees associated with on-premise solutions that are not present at the forefront when purchasing the technology.

Here are four cost implications of on-premise solutions compared to cloud-based solutions.

Legal Technology Hardware Considerations

On-premise solution buyers spend significant money on servers, systems, and maintenance. When legal teams consider an on-premise option, it is important to consider all the costs of installing, managing, and maintaining hardware behind a firewall. Buyers will also want to factor ancillary costs to run on-premise eDiscovery hardware. 

Legal Software Elements

It is important that buyers do not underestimate the costs of supporting software necessary to run separate, on-premise eDiscovery tools. Many eDiscovery software tools are on-premise and single-purpose. Legal teams can buy separate products for legal hold, collection, early case assessment, review, and analytics. Most of these vendors then charge additional fees for analytics and machine learning software. Buyers that go in this direction will encounter a morass of licensing fees.

Resource Burdens in Legal Infrastructure

Buyers often overlook resource burdens; it’s important to delve into the staffing requirements for managing, maintaining, and using the technology before making a purchase. On-premise eDiscovery hardware and software requires IT resources for management, security, maintenance, and update activities. So buyers need to calculate these personnel costs into their total cost estimates. 

Efficiency in Legal Operations

Lastly, buyers also need to evaluate efficiency gains that will accrue to the organization, departments, and users. eDiscovery data sets are massive and deadlines to produce results are extremely tight. Organizations want a solution that provides infrastructure speed, software usability, and mobile workforce access. When litigation support lacks the compute power for rapid data loading, processing, indexing, and publishing, big delays happen – and we all know that can cause serious problems. Server capacity, time efficiency, quality control measures, and many other factors are heavily affected by the buyer’s choice of eDiscovery solutions.  

Conclusion 

Investing in legal technology isn’t a matter to be taken lightly. As outlined, there are four cost implications of on-premise solutions compared to cloud-based solutions that buyers must consider before taking the plunge. Our free buyer’s guide will inform you on all the factors that contribute to the total cost of ownership for eDiscovery.

 

Buyer’s Guide