A party involved in pending or potential litigation is best advised to go through an identification process in order to establish the custodians and locations of all potentially relevant data to the matter.  During identification, key personnel are identified; relevant documents and data are catalogued and the sources and locations of this data are established.  Once completed, a litigation hold document is drafted and distributed to all relevant parties.

The types of data relevant to the litigation must be identified and a decision made as to whether all other types may be excluded from a search. The type of document may also be established and can be negotiated by legal counsel prior to collection.

An important consideration is whether the process should be based on department, geography, job function or other criteria. In addition to specific individuals, entire departments or divisions may be involved in subject matters.

As companies' IT infrastructures vary widely, an accurate assessment of the various data sources is essential to the success of an eDiscovery.  A clear picture of the type and location of all data throughout the organisation involves the review of the following data stores:

• File and e-mail servers
• Document management systems, back-up tapes, financial systems, disaster recovery systems, NAS and SANs
• Desktops, laptops, PDAs and mobile phones
• External hard drives, USB devices, flash drives, CD-ROMs and DVDs