Tips for Reducing Hosting Costs

Monthly billing is calculated based on the highest GBs stored in the account during the current month.  The total GBs hosted includes: the original files uploaded, the search index generated for searchability, OCRed versions of files (uploaded image PDFs that did not include text prior to upload), and any productions or briefcases stored in the account. Generally, the size of GBs Received/Uploaded doubles when expanded (10 GB uploaded expands to approximately 20 GBs).  See Billing for more information.    

Tips for Reducing Costs

TIP  # 01: Deduplicate Documents

The Lexbe eDiscovery Platform (LEP) identifies exact duplicates of Outlook email (PST and MSG), Outlook Express email (EML), and various loose native files such as Excel spreadsheets, Word files, etc. which can then be deleted from a case.  See Deduplication for more information. 

TIP # 02: Download and Delete Unneeded Briefcases and Productions

Download to local desktop or flash and then delete Briefcases or Productions when no longer needed.  The account Admin User may delete unneeded Briefcases from the Case->Download Briefcase page and Productions from the Discovery->Production Job page.  The downloads will be ZIP archives. These can be downloaded directly from LEP or via a secure Shared Download link for sharing with third parties.  See Shared Briefcases and Productions for more information.  

TIP # 03: Delete Container Files Successfully Expanded

While Lexbe does not charge for hosting top-level container files, it is best practice to delete container files (ZIP, RAR, PSTs) once they have successfully uploaded, expanded, and processed.  This will not affect the original documents contained in the container files. 

Container files are marked as Not Converted, whether they expand or not.  We do not identify container files that fail to expand. Manually check for failed expansion as follows:

From the Browse page, filter by Extension (e.g. Filter Applied: Doc Extension=ZIP)

Select the following fields: Extension, Original Extension, Source FilePath, Pages, Size, and IsEmailAttachment.

If there is a nested folder structure in the uploaded container files, the paths will be mapped automatically to the Source FilePath field in the application.  In the example below, the Source FilePath lists all the documents compressed on each PST. 

If all the paths are mapped to the Source FilePath and the container file is not an email attachment, it can be deleted. 

If the paths are not mapped to the Source FilePath, review the original container file uploaded.  

The user may also filter on container files that have been flagged as Not Converted or Failed to Convert.  See Placeholder File for more information.  

To delete container files go to the Case->Add Case Documents page, click on a batch upload title.  The Browse page will display only the documents contained in the selected batch (an automatic filter).  User may show the Ext field to locate the container file or filter on the extension to locate the container file in the batch and then delete.  

TIP # 04: Archive Unneeded Cases

Account Admin Users can delete cases that are no longer needed. However, it is important to make a backup copy of the database before deleting records from the account.  See Archive Cases for more information.

Upon request, Professional Services (billable hourly) will download a case and copy to a flash drive.  

TIP # 05: Download and Delete Media Files

See Videos for more information.