Relativity Expands In Europe, Despite eDiscovery Downturn

The world of eDiscovery may be having a hard time at the moment, but Relativity, which produces one of the sector’s most popular suites of software, is opening two new datacentres in Europe in Q3 2020, while also expanding its support for RelativityOne and Relativity Trace in the EMEA region. The new datacentres will be in Germany and Switzerland and mean Relativity will have 10 such bases across nine countries globally.  

The expansion moves come in the face of hard times for the sector, given that several companies with a focus on eDiscovery have laid off staff, although in Relativity’s case they are not the providers of human reviewers, just the software providers.

Either way, setting out major expansion plans in the middle of a crisis is a brave move and underlines the confidence the US-based company has in its future growth. Interestingly, Epiq also said they see Q3 as the start date for increased growth – see article.

Moreover, that they are building up in Europe suggests a growing market for eDiscovery and disclosure exercises this side of the Atlantic – and they may well be right to bet on this. After the courts open again and life slowly returns to a new normal, there will likely be a surge in disputes work caused by the crisis – and hence a big need for Relativity and other related providers.

Meanwhile, Relativity Trace, is primarily a system for surveillance and providing early warning triggers in the financial services sector that help to head off fraud before it happens by analysing trader communications. And that is perhaps not so directly related to current conditions.

RelativityOne’s Aero UI is also set to launch for all RelativityOne customers this August, i.e. Q3 2020. With ‘150 new product enhancements, Aero UI has navigation speeds that are 30x faster, sub-second doc-to-doc speeds, and a next-generation viewer supporting a wide variety of data types’, the company said.

The announcements come just as the company is holding its Relativity Fest in London.

Mike Gamson, Relativity CEO, said: ‘EMEA is currently Relativity’s fastest growing region at scale and we are making significant investments across the business to ensure all of our global customers have the resources they need.

‘Opening these new datacentres and making investments in security, operations, and product development reinforces our commitment to expanding globally, and that we truly value our EMEA customers and partners.’

(Pic: the Matterhorn, Switzerland.)