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Planning for VoIP E-Discovery

E-Discovery has been growing concern for the IT organization. E-discovery is now a concern for the communications manager as well. In my previous blog, "VoIP, E-Discovery and the Law", I discussed what e-discovery is for voice communications, and the ramifications that ensue when the enterprise does not adequately prepare for the possibility of providing electronically stored records, including voicemail and voice recordings, to satisfy a court.

E-Discovery has been growing concern for the IT organization. E-discovery is now a concern for the communications manager as well. In my previous blog, "VoIP, E-Discovery and the Law", I discussed what e-discovery is for voice communications, and the ramifications that ensue when the enterprise does not adequately prepare for the possibility of providing electronically stored records, including voicemail and voice recordings, to satisfy a court.Digital information of all types can serve in court as evidence. This can include text, images, calendar files, databases, spreadsheets, audio files, animation, Web sites, and computer programs. Storing information in a digital format makes it well suited to investigation. Digital information can be electronically searched with ease, whereas paper documents usually need to be processed manually. Digital data is difficult or impossible to completely destroy, particularly if it gets into a network.

The suggestions made in this blog do not constitute a legal opinion. I am not a lawyer, but the technologies and planning recommended should be considered by the IT and communications management and discussed with the legal counsel within the enterprise.

Scanning voice recordings is difficult and time consuming. The first suggestion is that the enterprise should procure speech-to-text conversion software. Text-scanning programs are common and accurate tools for locating pertinent information. The text scanning process is not fast but it is faster than speech scanning. The speech-to-text software, however, is not perfect. Some inaccuracies will creep into the conversion process, thereby reducing the scanning accuracy. This can result in people having to listen to the voice recordings, a slow and labor intensive process.

A second technology for scanning speech is called phoneme software. This software interprets the scanned speech for keywords. This is a much faster process, scanning 60 minutes of speech in about 1 minute. The accuracy of this form of scanning depends on the recorded sound quality. Poor sound quality equals poor scanning results. Sound compression may be considered to save storage space. If the sound files are compressed, then the sound quality may be reduced. . Always ensure that the best sound recording is performed.

Before selecting one of the above technologies, the enterprise has to make many determinations and decisions:

1. What information can the IP Telephony/VoIP produce for e-discovery requirements? Make this part of the IP Telephony RFP. 2. Will voice conversations, for example in a call center, help desk or for executives, be recorded and stored in a database for retrieval? 3. Are the voicemails and voice conversations stored on read-only media to demonstrate they are the original recordings? 4. How are voicemails deleted? Who is authorized to perform the deletions? Are they placed on a backup server that may store them for long periods of time? 5. Will stored voicemails and voice conversations be part of a periodic purge policy and how is the policy justified? 6. Will all of the text and speech storage be combined on a common or separate server? Which is more advantageous for complying with court requirements? 7. What are the disaster/recovery plans and procedures for the stored text and voice? Are they the same? 8. Will there be any distinctions between speech and text storage rules and procedures? This is more of a legal rather than technical question. 9. The documentation policies for the enterprise need to be updated to include the voice storage and aging requirements. 10. How rapidly can the voice retrieval process be implemented? Can it be done on the existing systems or is outside support required? Remember that the courts see delayed or incomplete delivery as an impediment to the legal processes.

The above determinations and decisions have to be made by a team. The team should include the CIO, telecom manager, lawyers, finance staff and other lines of business that may be candidates for investigation.

Even if the enterprise does what it thinks best to comply with e-discovery requirments as currently determined, the enterprise may still have some issues with the court. The more you save and store, and the easier the information is to retrieve, the better the chance you will comply with the court requirements. More court decisions in the future will continue to influence the e-discovery process, so do not assume that once implemented, the e-discovery process is finished.

The cost of all of this information storage must be weighed against the cost of not doing the best implementation. This is both a legal and financial issue that is best determined at the CXO level of the enterprise, not just the technologists managing information and communications technologies.