The thing about Nuix, from a commentator’s point of view, is that it has always got something new to say, across multiple fronts and in many jurisdictions at once. If, as I just have, you have a run of events which keep you from your desk and then a week’s holiday, you come back to a big list of things which Nuix has done or plans to do. It makes sense to roll some of them into one article.

The big news is the release of Nuix 6 .2 – you will find a page about it here which links to a Fact Sheet. It also has a video in which CTO Stephen Stewart describes succinctly the new functions and benefits. You get more facts per minute from Stephen Stewart than from anybody else in eDiscovery, and the video is the fastest way of finding out what Nuix 6.2 offers.

If you prefer written words to video, a description of Nuix 6.2 can be found here. eDiscovery customers get email threading, and a search and tag tab and new analytics; those concerned with information governance get new tools which allow IG to be managed as a continuing housekeeping exercise rather than a set of individual projects; investigators get yet more powerful analytics and further integration between desktop and web applications to make digital evidence more accessible to those without specialist technical skills; all of these interest groups gain from improvements in Nuix Director and Nuix Web Review and Analytics.

The changes both reflect and drive new ways of collecting information and using it. CEO Eddie Sheehy says:

“Although our customers tend to buy our products to solve a particular business issue, they are finding these silos are becoming less meaningful. The distinctions between investigation and eDiscovery, or information governance and cybersecurity, are small and getting smaller. Nuix is a long-term investment in your organization’s ability to dominate its data.”

There are three different kinds of “silos” here: one is to do with function – forensic collection, investigations, eDiscovery and information governance have grown up as distinct, albeit related, business needs; a different kind of silo lies in the ever-wider range of data types and data sources; yet a third lies in the individuals and disciplines within an organisation with responsibility for managing information. If Nuix’s product set reflects all these aspects, it has also been a driver for them, both in terms of the tools based on the Nuix engine and in terms of Nuix’s strong commitment to education and training.

I attended the Nuix Insider Conference in London in March. The venue was smart and sizeable, but my first thought as the delegates filed in was “You’re going to need a bigger boat”. The place was packed with people from the very broad range of interest groups whose business is supported by Nuix – corporations and law firms, providers of forensic, investigations, eDiscovery and information governance services rubbed shoulders with each other, making this a valuable networking event as well as a way to pass on knowledge about Nuix’s tools.

Stephen Stewart (him again) brought his customary eloquence to the podium in a keynote which introduced Nuix 6.2.

Another session which sticks in the mind was one on mobile data given by Carl Barron, describing, amongst other things, how Nuix can make use of GPS data to bring together all components of the evidence which emanate from a chosen geographical area. This has obvious implications for those tracking crime or terrorism, but to have tools like this on hand has potential implications for more everyday discovery matters.

My own involvement was in the closing information governance panel called Convergence: The State of Information Disciplines Coming Together to Drive Value. This panel was moderated by Julie Colgan and included Alison North – we did a similar panel together at LegalTech a few weeks earlier in New York.

You will deduce both from the title and from what I have said above about the overlap between silos, that convergence is not just an aspiration but a fact – that is how corporations and their advisers are now handling data in a way that transcends specific business issues and (to go back to that quotation from Eddie Sheehy above) reflect “an organisation’s ability to dominate data”.

We had a packed room for this session which, like its LegalTech predecessor, was fun to do because it had no predefined boundaries. Some of the subjects I get involved in – cross-border eDiscovery for example – involve a list of topics which must be covered. Information governance, and the ways in which organisations try to diminish risk and increase the value of their information, are less predictable in outcome because there is more room to be imaginative about the near future. I enjoy sessions whose endpoint is not pre-determined.

Nuix always has a rolling programme of events but I will mention two of them. One is the Nuix Exchange which takes place again at Huntington Beach from 27 to 29 September. There is a page about that here.

The other is Techno Security which takes place again at Myrtle Beach in South Carolina from 31 May to 3 June. There is a page about that here and some videos here. I was there last year, moderating a cross-border discovery panel, and would thoroughly recommend it.

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