BringingItTogetherinaReviewPlatformandManagingtheReview·Chapter9 255 The Benefits of Using an Early Case Assessment (ECA) Strategy Throughout this chapter, we have been discussing risks and costs associated with the document review process. But more importantly, large volumes of information have caused this proliferation in reducing the number of documents requiring review. Therefore, it is not enough to collect everything and process it through traditional e-discovery data discovery (EDD) technologies to minimize the review. More advanced methodologies and technologies have been hitting the market for the past couple of years, known as early case assessment (ECA) tools. These tools provide you with the ability to de-duplicate, identify key relationships, analyze e-mail conversations, search by keyword or phrase, and restrict data within certain date ranges. Overall, you should be able to accomplish the following with a suite of ECA tools: Cluster data by concepts. Create priority sets of data through directories or other highlighted folder features. Identify threads of e-mail messages which are critical to the case. Identify key relationships as they correspond to topics and time frames. Conduct traditional and advanced searches, in English and non-English documents.