Client: A Global Auditing Firm
Project: Design and Build an Online Evidence Tracking System
Executive Summary:
For a major court case involving a multinational communications and entertainment company, the auditor’s litigation support team needed to keep track of the huge amount of physical and electronic evidence being gathered by international investigators working on multiple continents. This evidence tracking system needed to be accessible worldwide, able to handle large amounts of data and assign unique Bates stamp numbers to each piece of evidence. The Gemean’s software development team worked together with the litigation support team to quickly produce the right solution.
Business Challenge:
When the large court case quickly expanded in scope, evidence requirements threatened to swamp the litigation support team. A centralized system for indexing and tracking the huge amounts of evidence being gathered was needed quickly. This system needed to have strong security and access permission controls, handle multiple cases simultaneously and be accessible anywhere in the world.
How Gemean helped:
The Gemean team assessed the client’s needs and created a project plan and specifications. Using extreme programming methodology, the Gemean team quickly built an evidence-tracking software tool to manage the Bates-stamped inventory. Accessible anywhere in the world, this web-based engine has strong access permission controls and can handle multiple cases simultaneously, managing case-specific evidence with details including: location and time-stamp, how the evidence was captured and copied, chain of custody, technology used, investigator ID, hardware specifications and duplications made.
Gemean Provided:
- A robust web-based inventory control system
- A secure web-enabled environment
- A user-friendly application requiring minimal training
- Rapid turn-around from project assignment to delivery
Value Delivered:
The client and their field agents were able to deploy the system immediately and organize the evidence into searchable tables for the attorneys. By using extreme programming methodology The Gemean team was able to cut about 9 months off of the typical software development cycle – a great savings to the client. The system has been in continuous use by the client since its launch in 2006
