Developing the Perfect Legal Software for Telling Your Winning Story: iCONECT Development LLC

Back in 1999, the internet was in its infancy, legal cases were starting to cross borders (multi-party litigations), and document volumes were increasing based on the emergence of email as a communication medium. This was a perfect storm in which iCONECT was developed.

iCONECT Development, LLC is an industry leader in developing innovative legal review software and services that empower legal teams to complete complex review projects more cost-effectively. As early innovators of eDiscovery review software and with the release of the revolutionary web-based, iCONECT-XERA^® eDiscovery Review Platform, iCONECT continues to raise the bar for advancements in developing intelligent, easy-to-use tools that help hosting providers, law firms, corporations and government agencies worldwide optimize workflows and manage big data more efficiently.

The Initial Role out

iCONECT gave law firms, government agencies, and corporations the ability to “self-host” their own legal cases. Through providing software solution which would house the documents and “built a dictionary of every word in every document” it provides a way for firms to allow multi-party access to documents to search, sort, organize, and print through a web-browser interface.

In 2003, iCONECT was used by NASA for the collaboration of research which resulted in a 72-page document called “Return to Flight”. It was triggered by the Columbia disaster when all shuttle activity was grounded. iCONECT was asked if it could allow “extra-terrestrial access to the documents”. NASA wanted the astronauts on the space-station to assist with the review. Eventually, iCONECT did it and the company considers it to be ‘pretty cool’.

Expansion and Initial Challenges

The familiarity with “find similar” conceptual analytics (like “find more like this” in Amazon and iTunes) has created an entire sector around the use of analytics in eDiscovery. iCONECT is always looking for ways to not only integrate analytics but to make it invisible to the user such that they only need to realize the benefits without concerning themselves with the mechanics of the technology.

Security of the internet and the ability to scale in a cloud environment were concerns throughout the 2000s. Those challenges have been replaced by scalability and granular security. “You just have to meet the challenges head-on. Ignoring them is not an option,” says the company.

The company has a domestic development team in its Canadian office. The sales are managed through 68 data centers worldwide that use iCONECT-XERA to host some of the highest profile cases in the world. Projects with the BP Oil spill (Deepwater Horizon) plaintiff case are using iCONECT-XERA to manage literally billions of documents for hundreds of users.

iCONECT’s technology is the ultimate equalizer. No longer can a large corporation over-burden a small company. iCONECT’s software can search millions of documents in seconds. That means projects can be tackled more efficiently and eventually save a lot of trees.

“There is no better validation than a client reacting positively to a feature we have added to the platform. That motivates us to keep innovating and looking for other cool things we can add to enhance workflows,” says iCONECT.

The Motivational Factors for the Company

The company mainly gives credit to the law firms and corporations who are not satisfied with the software they licensed 5 or more years ago. Many companies have come and gone but iCONECT still remains. These firms are always looking to optimize and for efficiencies in the workplace. They truly are the motivation to always make the company’s platform better.

Innovation and execution are the foundation of what it does. Add to those good people, a solid client feedback-loop and an honest partnership approach to the industry and that is what iCONECT is all about.

The company is popular for its “Support Department”, which regarded as one of the best in the industry, and its continual focus on solving ediscovery problems for the clients. The reason for its consistent growth as an organization is because it is used to thousands of cases over the years, hosted billions of documents for clients and helped clients win cases.

A typical day at iCONECT is 30% planning and 70% execution. It has an advantage by having such a large footprint in the market in that the company’s role is to make what it already has into something that is stronger, smarter and faster.

Everything starts with an idea. It still has the original sketch of the software, done on a scrap of paper in 1999. “Everyone has ideas. The challenge is to execute on them, take risks and deliver. We’ve been doing that for 19 years”, says iCONECT.

Future Plans of iCONECT

People now use technology in their every-day-lives and interaction with technology through familiarization with icons is commonplace. Anyone who creates technology needs to create an interface which is familiar to the user. People are asking for more control over their projects. A ‘Self-Serve’ approach to shopping on the internet is now familiar to the consumer. Hence, iCONECT is looking to apply that to eDiscovery such that legal firms can take a DIY approach, which is considered to be ‘huge’ according to the company.

As the requirements for data archiving, security, governance and document retention become commonplace outside eDiscovery, the firm aims to continue to look for ways to expand the use of its software into new industries including Healthcare and Public Services.

The Leader of iCONECT

Ian Campbell, President, and Chief Executive Officer:

Ian is a global market leader in producing cutting-edge, innovative eDiscovery software products and services for the legal industry. He is responsible for sales operations and business development, product lifecycle development, the Legal Service Provider (LSP) and partner relations. A key priority is cross-marketing the company’s products and services to the legal, medical, government, corporate, and public safety industries.

"Be more productive on every e-discovery review project with the most seamless, multi-lingual tool that enables you to get the job done in half the time. We build innovative legal review software that empowers people.”