Before 2024, 80% of clients used DataParser to capture data sources like Microsoft Teams, Viva Engage and SharePoint to ingest into their archive of choice for compliance and eDiscovery. More recently, we’ve seen the tide reverse as most clients now leave their Microsoft content on M365 and use Purview to also review data from third-party sources like Slack, Webex, Zoom, RingCentral, texts and social media. And as with tides, there is a continual flux depending upon the client and their regulatory and legal requirements.
There are many factors as to which model is more efficient and cost-effective, but these include:
- Regulatory requirements such as SEC Rule 17a-4 that require all corporate communications to be captured. As many of these communications occur on third-party platforms such as Symphony, Bloomberg, LSEG and ICE, this often means that most of an employee’s messaging is outside of M365;
- Is regulatory compliance or supervision the more important decision driver? For instance, in the pharma and software verticals, the biggest corporate concern is Data Loss Prevention (“DLP”) or making sure that trial results or code snippets are not shared outside of the organization. For other organizations, it may be more important to monitor in-bound communications such as emails from parents and students to teachers.
- The total amount of data to be moved. For most companies, email remains the largest amount of daily content in terms of gigabytes and, thus, leaving it where it originates may make the most sense.
The decision as to whether to use M365 or a different archive platform is a decision that mirrors the flow of data, only in this instance, is a dialogue between compliance, legal and IT. IT has the responsibility to determine the amount of data that needs to be collected from each messaging and collaborative platform. For instance, IT should quantify the total email, Teams, Slack, Zoom and other content sources generated on a daily basis. Using these numbers, IT can present the data processing and licensing costs of consolidating content. Based on this information, compliance and legal need to determine which platforms provide the tools necessary to perform supervision, searches, holds, and matter management.
Other issues also factor into the ultimate archive decision including:
- Should global, discoverable content be consolidated or managed in jurisdictional locations;
- What is the most critical need for the institution to address? Compliance, DLP or eDiscovery?
- How will dispositions be managed? Even if dispositions are managed by the archive, often email or attachments may continue to remain in M365. If so, will I have to perform two eDiscovery searches?
