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Differentiates Business With ISO 27001 Certification

Services: ISO 27001
Because ISO 27001 certification increased trust between all parties, the conversations CDS has with its clients around security have since improved and been simplified.

With the quantity of data that organizations maintain growing exponentially, it is imperative that those organizations are able to efficiently and securely access their information.

For that reason, many of the world’s most prominent law firms, government agencies, and corporations turn to Complete Discovery Source (CDS), a pioneer in the eDiscovery industry.

Services: ISO 27001
Because ISO 27001 certification increased trust between all parties, the conversations CDS has with its clients around security have since improved and been simplified.

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With headquarters in New York and regional offices in Chicago and Washington DC, CDS provides litigation technology and hosting; advisory services; and managed services to support complex discovery matters. CDS uses advanced, tested, and defensible services and software to support all stages and types of eDiscovery, supporting a number of eDiscovery tools with scalable, enterprise-grade infrastructure.

Because CDS is responsible for so much of its clients’ sensitive data, securing that information has always been a top priority for the company. Knowing that its clients demand that CDS takes a proactive approach to security, the company reached out to a third-party to review its existing security processes in 2011.

The company wanted to ensure that it had security certifications in place in order to best serve its clients. As CDS COO Garrett Bendel explains, many of the company’s clients are law firms that represent financial institutions and Wall Street firms, meaning data security and compliance are critical.

We wanted to be certain that our understanding of the security and compliance landscape was as complete as possible and that what we were monitoring was up to the strictest industry standards.

Garret Bendel | COO | Complete Discovery Source

Focusing On ISO 27001 For Security Posture

After reviewing the market, CDS turned to Schellman—a provider helping leading organizations establish a culture of security and achieve compliance objectives—to help understand the specifics of achieving the most stringent security certifications.

"Working with Schellman helped us focus our efforts on specific certifications, the bodies that govern them and the broader implications of what they mean even outside of our law firm clients," Bendel explained. "As we learned more about the subject, the knowledge we gained steered us towards pursuing the ISO 27001 specifically."

When the Schellman team got involved, its first mission was to understand what CDS’ clients were looking for, and make certification recommendations based on that information.

"Garrett and his team wanted to improve their processes from a certification and audit standpoint, as well as enhancing internal practices and procedures related to their service delivery," explains Scott Zelko, Principal at Schellman. "Garrett was one of those clients that is a pleasure to work with, because he always took a proactive approach."

Scott Zelko | Principal | Schellman

Schellman assisted CDS in understanding exactly what steps it needed to take to earn the ISO 27001, which Bendel says has already had a positive impact on CDS’ conversations with potential clients.

"When we are having discussions with organizations about engaging in a business relationship, we have found that when we share that we have the ISO 27001, the conversation around security becomes extremely short. In the past the conversations would have been extremely extensive, including questionnaires about processes and procedures, but now that we have this certification, those conversations end very quickly because the certification speaks for itself."

Having already secured the ISO 27001, CDS plans to leverage Schellman to pursue further certifications moving forward.

Bendel says his organization will be looking closely at PCI and HIPAA-related certifications, among others. CDS understands that security is always evolving and the company is determined to stay agile in order to maintain its position in the marketplace.

"During this process, working with Schellman has enabled us to learn that there are a lot of opportunities for organizations to strengthen their security profiles," he explains. "So even though we have gone through those exercises so far and getting these certificates has had a significant impact on our ability to market our organization, more importantly, it helps us get better at what we do and how we handle and store all of our clients’ very sensitive data."

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