A free tool designed to help organisations measure and improve their ediscovery processes has been released by the standards group EDRM.

The EDRM eDiscovery Maturity Self-Assessment Test (eMSAT-1) is a downloadable Excel spreadsheet containing 25 worksheets organised into seven sections covering various aspects of the e-discovery process. Complete the worksheets and the assessment results are displayed in summary form at the beginning of the spreadsheet. 

"This self-assessment resource is just the beginning of a dialogue," says Kevin Clark. "The EDRM Maturity Model team will be developing a series of specific self-assessment guides and practical e-discovery tool kits all aimed at a common goal: helping organisations measure and improve their e-discovery processes."

eMSAT-1 is the first of several resources and tools being developed by the EDRM Metrics group, led by Clark and Dera Nevin, with assistance from a diverse collection of industry professionals, as part of an ambitious Maturity Model project. 

"E-discovery literature often focuses on amorphous concepts like 'proportionality' or what is 'reasonable,'" says Matthew Knouff, team leader of the Maturity Model initiative. 

"However, corporate stakeholders, legal teams and others who want to improve e-discovery effectiveness within their organisation might not understand how to implement those concepts in a practical manner. EDRM is focused on defining clear metrics so that companies can take a measured approach to improving their e-discovery processes. We are doing something new that is designed to help organisations make tangible improvements." 

The eDiscovery Maturity Model, of which eMSAT-1 is the first part, is dedicated to building practical resources that facilitate discussion among all stakeholders throughout an organisation, allow for meaningful self-assessment of current e-discovery practices and offer practical means for process improvement.

The EDRM Maturity Model Self-Assessment Test is the fourth release in recent months by the EDRM Metrics team. In June 2013, the new Metrics Model was released, in November 2013 a supporting glossary of terms for the Metrics Model was published and in November 2013 the EDRM Budget Calculators project kicked off. 

"The EDRM Maturity Model represents a consolidation of many of the resources the EDRM Metrics team has developed over the past year. We look forward to actively engaging the global e-discovery community with this project," says Nevin.

Primary contributors in the development of eMSAT-1 are Knouff, Evan Benjamin, Tiana Van Dyk (Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP) and Brett Livingood (Bryan University).

eMSAT-1 is available for download at www.edrm.net/resources/emsat1