Executive Summary: 2024 ESI Risk Management & Litigation Readiness Report

Managing electronically stored information (ESI) is a challenge for most organizations today. Numerous, diverse data sources, from websites and social media accounts to internal chat platforms, are creating huge volumes of information, making eDiscovery, litigation readiness, and responding to requests for ESI difficult, if not impossible.

Did you know that nearly 1/3 of companies have been fined by courts or regulatory agencies because the organization couldn’t respond in time to requests for electronically stored information (ESI)?

With over 100,000 users connecting every minute, Microsoft Teams has become the go-to communication platform for organizations worldwide. Its widespread adoption can be attributed to the surge in remote work at the onset of the pandemic. The chart below shows the number of daily active MS Teams users growing significantly in 2020, with the trend continuing in 2021 and 2022. Microsoft Teams now boast over 300 million users. Source: https://www.communicationsquare.com/news/microsoft-teams-vs-slack/

If you're familiar with Microsoft Teams, you probably know about its built-in archive feature. By visiting the Microsoft Teams Admin Center (you need to be a Teams administrator to do this), you can quickly archive a team, which removes it from the active list and makes it read-only.

The adoption rate of Microsoft Teams over the last few years has been nothing short of astonishing. In 2019, just prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft's collaboration platform had around 20 million users. As of 2022 (the most recent stats available), the number of active users sits at 270 million! This incredible growth is a testament to the benefits that Teams offers organizations—especially in an environment where many employees are working remotely.

Pagefreezer now offers Microsoft Teams archiving as part of its legal and compliance solutions.

The healthcare industry has come up against unprecedented pressure in recent years. Digital transformation has had a significant role to play when it comes to creating the efficiency needed to deal with the challenges of a global pandemic, in addition to the other mounting challenges of aging populations, staffing shortages, rising costs, and regulatory changes.

Team collaboration tools are here to stay – and we can reasonably expect their use to increase for years to come. Whether seeking smoother project management or better communication, companies can now choose from an ever-expanding range of platform options.

Electronic communication has come a long way in a few short decades. In 2006, Rule 34 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure was amended to confirm that discovery of electronically stored information stood on equal footing with discovery of paper documents.

Working from home is an increasingly common reality for workers across a wide range of sectors. While remote working presents the opportunity for a better work-life balance, can increase productivity levels, and even save your company money, it also brings a unique range of challenges for HR teams.