For many businesses, it’s not about “if” they face litigation and legal action; it’s “when.” Litigation and legal discovery are the pre-trial phases of a lawsuit. It’s a common practice that can quickly take priority for both you, your legal counsel and your IT administrator.
In many cases, email discovery is a significant part of the process. Because most communication is handled through email, it’s a natural place for lawyers to begin the discovery process for their case.
But looking at the sheer volume of email that moves through your organization can be overwhelming, thinking about how it will all be processed… enter email parser technology.
What Is an Email Parser?
Billions of emails are sent and received per day worldwide. While your organization might not receive billions, studies show that the average person sends and receives about 121 business emails in a day. That can add up over time, especially with multiple employees actively working daily.
The data in those emails may be of interest to a litigator and may be relevant to a case. But opening them one at a time, searching for pertinent information, would be tedious at best. This is where an email parser can help.
An email parser is an electronic discovery software that extracts data from inbound emails and email attachments. A person sets conditional parameters to pull specific data that matters to the end user. You only get the most relevant information to the case.
In short, it does all the legwork for the case without having to open a single email for perusal.
How Email to Sheets Can Help With Email Discovery
As a litigation team works through email discovery, they will be looking for specific documentation to support their cause. Preservation of evidence is mandatory. But it also includes identifying relevant documentation and collecting it in a way that makes sense.
Using Email to Sheets, you can begin the process by exporting emails, backing up, and saving your emails. This provides your evidence in response to a document production request, or your evidence for your defense.
From there, an email parser command can help sort through the data and create new spreadsheets based on the data you’re looking for. If it’s in the body or attachment of the email, it can be parsed and sorted into a spreadsheet. Data can include:
- Emails with a specific person like a coworker, or a client, or a vendor
- Emails from a specific timeframe
- Invoice attachments
- Virtual meeting information
- Emails between team members to verify conversations
- Emails between the sales and marketing team on lead generation
- Full shipping disclosure, including costs and ordering information
- Customer relations documentation
- Job applicant information
- And so on
This is just the start of what an email parser tool can do to help with an electronic discovery process. If you have something specific and it appears in an email, you can include that in your spreadsheet, having the data ready for further investigation in a short time frame.
Why an Email Parser Helps With Email Discovery
The process of using backup email documentation for discovery can quickly add up in costs. No matter how many emails are within the system, relying on an email parser to distribute the data to a spreadsheet provides many benefits over trying to manage the data yourself.
Workflow Automation
Any software that automates a repetitive process is invaluable to the cause. Instead of relying on time and human resources for a manual process, email parser software cuts back significantly on the amount of time needed to create meaningful data collections. It automatically gathers data from all incoming emails and attachments and feeds them into a spreadsheet you can use for deeper analysis.
Faster Processing Times
Email parsing is a fully automated process. That means that once a report is created and running, the data keeps feeding into the appropriate fields, with or without an employee standing by. Emails still flow into the appropriate landing fields, whether you’re away for the weekend, attending a conference, or in and out of meetings. You’ll be able to spend your time doing more productive work and reduce staff hours for mundane tasks.
Employee Costs
Manual data entry can be one of the slowest, most time-intensive, and most costly endeavors you’ll face through the discovery phase. The possibility of error also increases when humans drive the process. Utilizing an email parser tool reduces the need for staff hours dedicated to basic-level jobs. That also means your employees are available for more meaningful work, creating a happier workforce overall.
Quality Assurance
Using an email parser program, you can rely on the data being 100% accurate, as it flows directly from your inbox into your spreadsheet. When an employee tries to copy/paste data, it’s a tedious process that can be riddled with mistakes if emails are missed or skipped over. Email parsing software will always render a complete database according to the parameters set up with the original report.
Create a Quality Email Discovery Process Using Email Parser Software
If you’re ready to boost the efficiency of your email discovery process, managing your time and costs more efficiently throughout, Emails to Sheets is the way to go. No matter how large or small your project is, Emails to Sheets can be the workhorse that automates the most mundane, risk-prone part of the process, creating a seamless system right from the start.