KPMG Enhances Its File Preservation Program for ESI Collection on SharePoint Sites

NEW YORK, Aug. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- KPMG LLP, the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm and a Socha-Gelbman top provider of e-Discovery services, has released a new version of its proprietary File Preservation Program (FPP) with enhanced support for remotely collecting electronically stored information (ESI) from Microsoft Office SharePoint sites.

"The enhancements in KPMG's FPP tool allow for the preservation of multiple data types from a SharePoint site in the same format as would be viewed by the end user. This means that document review teams will see the SharePoint page exactly as the custodian saw it, with all formatting and content preserved," said Stephen Gibson, a director in research and development for KPMG's Forensic Technology Services Network.

KPMG's FPP preservation capability includes native documents, wikis, calendar items, contacts, tasks, attachments and other data sources.  FPP not only preserves a snapshot of the page contents, but also preserves the back-end metadata that is stored for each of the SharePoint items collected.  Additionally, during the collection process, FPP allows for real-time viewing of content on SharePoint sites.

In addition to the SharePoint enhancements, KPMG has embedded an indexing engine into FPP to allow an index and search of the contents of several ESI sources, including loose files and Outlook e-mails.  

"The inclusion of its built-in search and indexing engine, in addition to the existing support for Microsoft Desktop Search, significantly increases FPP's utility and flexibility," said Paul Bright, KPMG's lead developer on the FPP project.

"The enhanced SharePoint functionality and the additional indexing and searching capabilities align perfectly with FPP's primary mission of being a leading-edge ESI collection tool," said Gibson.

About FPP

The core concept of KPMG's FPP tool is to perform forensically sound, targeted collections rather than full forensic images, thus significantly reducing the amount of non-relevant data collected and placed under preservation hold.  

FPP maintains file metadata and provides robust audit logs that can easily be uploaded into an evidence-tracking database.  FPP also identifies e-mail messages that are encrypted using SMIME, and can collect those messages in an unencrypted form by using the certificates already installed on the custodian's computer.  All data collected by FPP is encrypted during packaging to reduce a client's exposure and mitigate risk related to potential compromise of data during transit.

For clients facing requests for production of documents in a civil setting where custodian participation in the collection process is reasonable, FPP allows counsel and the custodian to work together to isolate e-mail messages, loose files and file folders from any source available to the corporate employee that are most likely to contain relevant documents.

Because of this unique and powerful set of capabilities, FPP helps legal departments lower the overall cost of e-Discovery by significantly reducing the amount of non-relevant ESI collected.

About KPMG LLP

KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm (www.us.kpmg.com), is the U.S. member firm of KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International").  KPMG International's member firms have 140,000 professionals, including more than 7,900 partners, in 146 countries.

SOURCE KPMG LLP