“We are an industry leader in developing innovative legal review software and services that empower legal teams to complete complex review projects more cost effectively” iCONECT Development

“We were most recently honored by CIO Review as one of the Top 20 Most Promising Legal Technology Solution Providers in 2016.”

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 since 1999, and with the release of the revolutionary web-based, iCONECT-XERA eDiscovery Review Platform, the institution 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 company received the inaugural Patrick Young Vendor Leadership Award from the Masters Conference. Its corporate headquarters are based in San Francisco, California, with a satellite office in London, Canada.

Why was the company set up? How did you select the vertical and decide to be a part of the global platform?

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.

Tell us about your first product that was launched?

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

How successful was your first project roll on?

In 2003, iCONECT was used by plaintiff firms in the ENRON investigation. Over 200 law firms accessed a central archive of over 53 million documents and collaborated on the investigation. This would not have been possible if all documents had been printed and sent to each firm. The ability to manage that many documents by many users was unique at the time.

What were the grounds on which you have expanded your company and its offerings over the years?

The continued growth of email communication, the familiarity with “find similar” conceptual analytics (like “find more like this” in Amazon and iTunes), the volume of video and audio evidence and the growth of international projects create client demands that iCONECT continues to meet through its flagship “iCONECT-XERA” document review platform.

What challenges did you face in your initial years? What can your peers learn from it?

Security of the internet and ability to scale in a cloud environment were concerns throughout the 2000’s. Having 16 years of software development knowledge has helped iCONECT tackle these concerns.

If you had to list factors that have been/are the biggest asset to your organization, what would they be and why?

Companies need to continue to innovate. At iCONECT we’re continually understanding issues, anticipating what new issues may appear over the horizon, and then developing solutions which are simple to understand and implement.

How big is your organization today?

We have a domestic development team in our Canadian office. Our sales are managed through 68 data centers worldwide who use iCONECT-XERA to host some of the highest profile cases in the world. Active projects include the BP Oil spill (Deepwater Horizon) plaintiff case, who uses iCONECT-XERA to manage millions of documents for hundreds of users.

What learnings helped you to set this company up?

CEO Ian Campbell’s background in ergonomics keeps the software workflow simple, allowing users to focus on the task at hand as opposed to the tool. 

How do you and your company contribute to the global IT platform and society at large?

Our technology is the ultimate equalizer. No longer can a large corporation over-burden a small company. Our software can search millions of documents in seconds. That means that projects can be tackled more efficiently….and we’re saving a lot trees.

Do you have any new products ready to be/getting ready to be rolled out into the market?

People are asking for more control over their projects. The mid-year launch of our “Self-serve Case Creator” is going to empower users to initiate projects without the need for 3rd party intervention. That’s huge.

Where do you see you and your company a couple of years from now?

We’ll continue to focus on our main-stay legal business while expanding the use of our software into the new industries of Healthcare and Public Services.

Here we come across the chieftain

Ian Campbell is the President and Chief Executive

Officer of iCONECT Development LLC, 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, 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 insurance industries.

"Our award winning proprietary technology empowers Fortune Global 500 corporations across any industry to create a secure central repository enabling worldwide access to organize and analyze billions of confidential documents"