Common use of Document Processing Clause in Contracts

Document Processing. The Supplier shall assess the data collected and report to the Contracting Body and their client regarding: precisely what data has been collected, including data type and size; possible complications / problems typically associated with such data, and recommend appropriate strategies for overcoming anticipated difficulties; precisely what data has been excluded and why, such including data type and size; where possible from the Contracting Body’s client’s data already analysed, provide a basic indicative assessment of the anticipated nature, size and extent of relevant data held by other litigants, with a view to aiding agreement with other litigants as regards a proportionate approach to the disclosure exercise. The Supplier shall prepare the data for processing, including: restoring back-ups; converting legacy formats, whilst maintaining the integrity of the originals and recording any conversion anomalies ; extracting files from container files; cataloguing and itemising all extracted files, emails, attachments, and loose documents; in respect of hardcopy documents, where considered desirable or otherwise required (as agreed in consultation with the Contracting Body and their client), to bulk scan the aforementioned hardcopy documents into electronic form, including recording key information against each such document (at least author, recipient, subject and date), such to then be stored in electronic form in the same manner and place as ESI collected in the Preservation and Collection phase. This includes placing the documents in a form such that they can be processed in order to electronically extract the text and any other content; and identifying and eliminating duplicates (de-duplication). The Supplier shall identify data that should be moved forward to the review stage, by using a variety of suitable methods agreed with the Contracting Body and their client, such to include at least the option of: pre-selected search terms and word strings (as advised by the Contracting Body), such applied across all prepared data; grouping documents which either: share common concepts; or were created at a particular time or by a particular individual or group of individuals; email threading, by linking email chains to result in a continuous email exchange from first to last email, across multiple users; linking any other data threads generally (and recording any relevant audit information that may be available); and data sampling. Output The Supplier shall transform the data selected for review into a common format necessary for the downstream review platform to be used, whilst also retaining the data in its native form. This should include the option (as elected by the Contracting Body and their client) of: cross-referencing documents from different parties with a view to performing searches across responses; relevance ranking; and identification of near-duplicates (near duplication). The Supplier shall regularly analyse and validate data and results achieved, throughout all of the stages in the Document Processing phase, in order to ensure that overall results are as intended and handling decisions are correct and defensible. The Supplier shall at the output stage, implement an appropriate quality assurance procedure that ensures that the proposed output meets initial expectations and that any significant variances from expectations are accounted for and explained. The Supplier shall document the steps for the Document Processing phase taken as above by way of a comprehensive report to the Contracting Body and their client which will satisfy them (as evidenced by a clear audit trail with clear proof of chains of custody), that the steps taken are defensible, reasonable, and proportionate and comply with the Contracting Body’s client’s legal obligations.