Many leaders may fall into the classification “jack of all trades,” but only exceptional leaders become the master of all trades. Developing expertise in almost e very domain of their businesses, they successfully oversee the multiple teams with their all-around abilities.
Zac Schindler is one such leader who has developed abilities to handle multiple teams with his extensive experience and expertise to deliver the best services to the clients.
Joining doeLEGAL in 1999, Zac began designing and building the company’s data center, an effort that continues as technology and best practices e volve. Over the years, he developed and managed the company’s litigation support offerings and client help desk teams. He has deep experience with and has implemented technical solutions from many of the most influential vendors in the technology industry, including Cisco, Extreme Networks, Microsoft, VMware, RSA, E.M.C., Dell, Hitachi, NetApp, Citrix, VeriSign, Entrust, AccessData, Summation, LexisNexis, Concordance, and Ipro Eclipse litigation support review systems.
Focusing on extensive technical experience managing and maintaining the superior technology, software, and infrastructure environment that doeLEGAL is known for, Zac transitioned to Director of Information Technology in 2015. He oversees multiple teams of software, hardware, network, data, service, and software experts. Zac applies his hands-on experience and expert training with the most advanced technology available to provide the highest security, performance, and availability of services to doeLEGAL’s global customer base.
In an interview with CIO Look, Zac Schindler shares his journey and contribution to the data collection industry through doeLEGAL
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Tell us something more about doeLEGAL and its mission and vision.
doeLEGAL started as DOE Technologies and e volved into the leading legal technology service provider o ver 50+ years. The mission is always to provide solutions and services that help our clients e xcel and grow while reducing expenses. By focusing on client success, doeLEGAL solutions help clients reach more business goals, regardless of their challenges. Clients rely on us as a trusted responsive partner, that augments their capabilities and works as an extension of their in-house team, increasing productivity. This is why doeLEGAL leads the market.
Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in the Early Data Assessment niche through your expertise in the market.
Our experts continually evaluate leading technologies for every aspect of the eDiscovery spectrum. doeLEGAL provides each client with access to software that performs at peak levels. Providing expertise earned over 24+ years in eDiscovery management, our clients trust us to provide the tools to find the most responsive data that gives them the most visibility on documents that meet their search criteria. During eDiscovery, Early Data Assessment plays a large role at this stage. Our tools and processes catalog and categorize data, so users can visually group data sets to understand the subject matter threads in the documents they collect before processing begins. Our team of experts guides client teams through this stage.
Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your solutions resourceful?
Technology is not the only way doeLEGAL provides value. Our long history of client success, coupled with our outstanding service model, has proven to make our process more attractive to prospects. As I discussed before, we continually evaluate our process to ensure clients access the best-of-breed tools available. doeLEGAL never sits still; we develop new tools, evaluate new technologies, and find new ways to leverage the features of existing solutions. The end goal is to find the right mix of LegalTech features and benefits that add unmatched value for our clients.
If given a chance, what change would you like to bring in the EDD Processing?
The processing of mobile data formats is an area that can be improved within the EDD processing realm. While we can collect and process mobile data, the format of mobile data per platform is something that always needs to be considered ahead of time so that the output for review can be as close a representation as possible to the mobile format.
What, according to you, could be the next big change in Data Collection industry? How is doeLEGAL preparing to be a part of that change?
doeLEGAL currently outsources Data Collection to trusted partners. I foresee data culling and collection (Traditionally part of the EDD or Early Case Assessment process in Review Databases) will continue to become a more upfront operation done at the client locations, rather than after the data has been collected and sent to an eDiscovery vendor for additional culling and processing. Typically, when data is collected from a client, a wide net is cast, and often too much data ends up being collected. Time is spent moving the large collection to an eDiscovery vendor for further culling and promotion to a review position. For example, we are looking to Ipro with their Live EDA solution as a way to provide us with another tool that can be used to reduce costs on the collection, culling, review, and production. With some setup at the client location, Live EDA will allow us to index and search all of the client’s data on-prem and perform a more targeted collection. Only documents that are found to be relevant can then be collected and promoted for document review. Live EDA can be re-run later as needed to pull any new documents if collection requirements change.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run, and what are your future goals for doeLEGAL?
doeLEGAL strives to be the go-to resource for LegalTech solutions for eDiscovery and Enterprise Legal Management. Focusing on increasing efficiency and providing advanced software while lowering costs drives our solutions’ roadmap. With Questel resources behind us, we offer our expertise to a global market.
Questel also increases our technology portfolio to provide a complete LegalTech solution to any business regardless of geographic location. Our goal remains to provide the superior solutions, services, and support that leads the service provider market.
What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the IT sector?
I believe in trusting your instincts, specific talents, and the people you work with to determine a key or specific problem that your company can contribute to solving while also still staying nimble and resilient to changes in market forces and technology. A long-term outlook for planning and commitment to multiple years of work with those same people in the same space – are keys to finding, building, and growing a successful and stable enterprise and career.
