FTI Consulting’s Technology Segment Enhances Connect and Universal Messaging Platform Solutions to Address Functional Gaps in Emerging Data Source Discovery

Updates to Firm’s Proprietary Platforms Expand Data Access, Insight and Context in Legal, Regulatory and Investigatory Matters

FTI Consulting, Inc. announced extensive updates to its Technology segment’s Connect and Universal Messaging Platform solutions. Connect is a proprietary platform built by FTI Technology’s emerging data sources experts to drive faster access to insights and support rapid integration into cloud data sources, including Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack and Box. The Universal Messaging Platform allows FTI Technology’s e-discovery and investigations experts to deliver efficient workstreams that identify, preserve, collect, process, review and produce information from more than 15 cloud-based emerging data sources.

As emerging data sources grow in volume, variety and velocity, they are introducing an increasing range of challenges in e-discovery and investigations. An average of 400 data sources are in play at any given organization, and IDG Research found that more than 20% are juggling data from 1,000 or more sources. The research also found that at the current trajectory of data growth, the majority of data within an enterprise (and by extension, in scope for litigation and investigations) will be from cloud-based, emerging data sources by 2023. This is prompting the need for significant changes in best practices, workflows and technology capabilities across discovery, investigations, risk and compliance.

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“The new data landscape is now coming to bear on e-discovery and investigations, and legal, compliance and IT teams are reaching a turning point where they must reorient away from traditional approaches and workflows,” said Tim Anderson, a Senior Managing Director within FTI Technology. “There are many issues at hand, but at the most fundamental level, teams must acknowledge that current frameworks were designed for static data and that many of the sources now generating the largest volumes of electronic information were not in existence a few years ago. Our Connect and Universal Messaging Platform were developed to address this paradigm — to fill critical gaps in e-discovery and investigations workflows involving emerging data sources and enable teams to efficiently enrich and visualize large sets of diverse data for rapid, meaningful insights.”

FTI Technology Connect

Connect is built based upon FTI Technology’s Connector Framework of standard components that enable a single, intuitive interface for managing data integrations and exporting the data to simplify downstream, forensic production. Key features and capabilities, which are designed to align with evolving data structures rather than force them into legacy workflows, include:

• Pre-built source connectors for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Box and Amazon S3 to integrate with leading e-discovery and investigations platforms and other cloud endpoints.
• Data source discovery to rapidly identify and document cloud source endpoints and API versions.
• Secure authentication functions.
• Standard data models that reduce data source complexity through mapping common elements across collaboration and chat platforms, document libraries and archiving platforms.
• Standardized data format outputs.
• Complete audit and tracking capabilities to ensure a secure and defensible approach to forensic preservation, collection, enrichment and export.
• Configuration options that adjust to new data sources via a modular suite of building block components.
• Targeted data collections that can handle and navigate varied data representations to provide a consistent interface and output.

Universal Messaging Platform

FTI Technology’s Universal Messaging Platform extends the functionality of Connect into adaptive downstream e-discovery and investigations workflows that allow legal teams to explore, enrich and dynamically review a wide range of data sources in context. It is comprised of a custom-built technology stack that combines platform-specific functionality, industry-leading tools and proprietary technology. Features and capabilities in the latest release include:

• Support for a growing list of more than 15 emerging data sources, including Microsoft 365/Teams, Salesforce and Slack, with built-in functionality to adapt to new data sources as they are introduced.
• When utilized alongside Connect, can ingest data directly from the source, allowing for time savings and a cleaner and more workable dataset for enrichment and downstream workflows.
• Innovative density analysis and segmentation of short-form messages to determine logical, matter-specific conversation breaks for chat threads involving key custodians and/or keywords, providing relevant context and optimizing documents for downstream review.
• Messaging processing across common elements such as sender, recipient(s), timestamp and content, for conversion into standard formats for review and production.
• Intuitive dashboard with aggregate metrics across individuals, channels, time and other information and metadata to create and document clear segmentation in preparation for review.
• Artificial intelligence and novel data models to support compliance monitoring, sentiment analysis and internal investigations workflows across emerging data sources.

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Daryl Teshima, a Senior Managing Director within FTI Technology, added, “Current processes for extracting and reviewing information from emerging data sources and translating dozens of different file formats into a single review platform are cumbersome, costly and at times, risky. Data is often muddled in the translation process, and critical insights can be lost if messages and documents aren’t accurately rendered. Our Connect and Universal Messaging Platform solutions were built to address the nuances and complexities involved in collecting data from cloud-based sources, directly at the source. This approach, combined with our team’s unique e-discovery, investigations and technical expertise, allows us to help clients reconstruct short-form messages and dynamic documents in a way that delivers fast access to insight and derives a comprehensive view of key information unlike any other workflow or solution available today.”

FTI Technology’s team will be offering demos of Connect and Universal Messaging Platform features during in-person meetings at Legalweek New York, March 8-11. On March 9, Mr. Anderson will speak on the panel hosted by Smarsh, “Hybrid Work and the Discovery of Collaborative, Social, and Mobile Content,” and the panel hosted by Onna, “The Great Resignation: What Does This Mean for Your Data?”. On March 10, Mr. Teshima will speak on the panel hosted by Reveal, “Building the Legal Consultancy of the Future with AI,” and FTI Technology Senior Managing Director Wafik Guirgis will speak on a panel hosted by Mitratech, “Keeping Your Legal Department Current, Relevant and Impactful.”

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