Case Study
FTI Technology Delivers Specialized Emerging Data Expertise in Response to Second Request
As part of a merger clearance review, a client needed to rapidly respond to a quick look inquiry and begin preparing for an impending Second Request. Numerous emerging data sources and mobile devices were in scope for the matter, including Gong, an AI-based cloud platform containing audio, video, transcripts and other data about the company’s sales performance and customer pipeline. FTI Technology’s emerging data sources experts supported the client in retrieving data from Gong and other cloud platforms in an efficient and fully compliant manner.
Situation
Quick looks and Second Requests are inherently high-pressure exercises under strict timelines, which require legal teams to quickly conduct far-reaching identification, collection, processing and review of documents and custodians. The scope in this matter included a variety of complex cloud-based data sources, including Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, Ironclad, Zip and Salesforce. Data and metadata from Gong was included, as the platform contained potentially relevant evidence in audio, video and text formats, including approximately 1,000 recordings that would be challenging to collect.
In an already time-pressured engagement, the legal team faced limitations in manual download speed, deduplication and bulk data reporting from the Gong platform. The system required transcripts and recordings to be downloaded separately and individually, which would create significant delays to the overall review.
Our Role
Having supported dozens of Second Requests and hundreds of matters involving complex emerging data sources, FTI Technology brought the necessary expertise to solve the client’s challenges with collecting data from Gong and the other cloud platforms.
As a portion of FTI Technology’s work in support of the quick look and Second Request, the firm’s emerging data sources experts:
- Educated the legal team and client stakeholders to align expectations and strategy related to the importance of Gong data to the case, as well as the limitations and operational challenges of extracting it from the platform.
- Established API access to streamline Gong data retrieval, significantly improving the timeline for collecting 1,000 recordings and other relevant material.
- Provided audio, video, metadata and Gong AI insights that was otherwise only available in the system’s user interface and API, enabling insight for the client via topic summarization, meeting sections, speaker duration and other key points.
- Produced metadata reports detailing the recordings and transcripts for in-scope custodians.
- Shared search term hit reports to help prioritize review and responsiveness.
Our Impact
Through a streamlined API approach and technical expertise, FTI Technology enabled collection and reporting for a critical data source with no built-in e-discovery or data preservation capabilities. The team streamlined extraction and processing of relevant items from Gong to support the client in meeting deadlines for the quick look and preparing for an eventual Second Request.
The approach significantly reduced the manual workload and saved the client an estimated 100 hours that would have otherwise been spent collecting files and metadata.