HaystackID Acquisition FAQ

1. Announcement Overview

1.1  What is the purpose of the acquisition of eTERA by HaystackID?

HaystackID is a specialized eDiscovery services firm that helps corporations and law firms find, listen, and learn from data when they face complex, data-intensive investigations and litigation. The acquisition of eTERA, a leading eDiscovery managed services company, by HaystackID allows for the immediate addition and availability of proven subscription and contracted eDiscovery expertise, relationships, and infrastructure to support HaystackID’s integrated and optimized delivery of computer forensics, eDiscovery, and document review services as it accelerates expansion into corporate and government environments both domestically and internationally.

1.2 Why does the acquisition make sense for HaystackID and its customers?

The acquisition significantly increases HaystackID’s ability to meet three primary customer requirements with three core service offerings delivered in one of three customer-friendly pricing models.

The three core customer requirements being addressed with the acquisition include:

+ The increasingly complex requirement to find electronically stored information to support audits, investigations, and litigation.
+ The expertise and technology-intensive requirement to process, analyze, and prepare for evaluation high volumes of electronically stored information as part of data discovery and legal discovery needs.
+The need to expeditiously yet comprehensively review electronically stored information to help customers achieve their legal, informational, and business objectives.

HaystackID’s acquisition of experts, relationships, and infrastructure through the integration of eTERA will help the combined company’s customers more efficiently, effectively, and economically address these critical requirements with a robust service portfolio complemented by flexible customer-friendly pricing models.

The three core service offerings that will be enhanced significantly with the acquisition of eTERA include:

+ Forensics First Services that help customers find data.
+ Early Case Insight Services that help customers listen to data.
+ ReviewRight Services that help customers learn from data.

These core three offerings will continue to serve as the branded representation of more than fifteen targeted services designed to help customers meet their core data and legal discovery requirements.

Additionally, the three customer-friendly pricing models now available to all customers based on the expertise and experience combined through the acquisition include:

+ Traditional Service Pricing (Pay Per Project): Addresses the combination of expertise and technology applied to solve specific tasks and typically quantified by time or volume consumed or acted upon in the completion of agreed upon tasks. (Variable Fee Service)
+ Packaged Service Pricing (Subscription Pricing): Addresses the combination of expertise, technology, and time applied to solve specific tasks and typically quantified by a pre-agreed upon set of tasks that are accomplished for a specific period of time for a fixed price at a rate lower than traditional service pricing. (Fixed Fee Service)
+ Managed Service Pricing (Master Services Agreement):  Addresses the combination of expertise, technology, and time applied to manage and solve specific tasks and typically quantified by a pre-agreed upon set of tasks that are managed and accomplished for a specific period of time for a fixed price at a rate lower than traditional service or packaged service pricing.

The combinatorial impact of the acquisition significantly extends the synergies of integration and support to make HaystackID’s delivery of these models unparalleled by eDiscovery providers who are large enough to meet any requirement yet appropriately sized to handle all matters with white glove service.

Hal Brooks, CEO of HaystackID, shared, “I am incredibly excited to have eTERA join the HaystackID family as we continue to increase our ability to help customers solve their complex discovery challenges. eTERA brings proven expertise delivering managed eDiscovery services to corporate legal departments and governmental agencies throughout the world. Their addition will immediately enhance our Forensics First, Early Case Insight, and ReviewRight portfolio of services and help optimize the delivery of those services for long-term, subscription and contracted engagements. I look forward to working with Scott Holec and his team as he transitions into the Chief Operating Officer role at HaystackID and drives our collective vision of developing and delivering the highest level of client services in the market.”

1.3 Why does the acquisition make sense for eTERA and its customers?

eTERA’s founders started the company on the principle that superior electronic discovery solutions were not determined by software or computers, but rather by smart, dedicated and experienced professionals able to provide high-quality solutions and superior quality control procedures. That philosophy aligns perfectly with HaystackID’s approach to supporting law firms, corporations, and governments in the conduct of data and legal discovery and is the cultural and business basis for the acquisition of eTERA by HaystackID and the agreement for the acquisition by eTERA. Simply stated, eTERA will be able to support customers with more services, more profound expertise, and more organizational resources.

Additionally, eTERA’s acknowledged expertise and infrastructure for supporting highly complex long term managed service engagements complements HaystackID’s computer forensics, early case insight, and legal document review capabilities, creating a combined company that can meet customers needs regardless of depth or breadth of the requirement, the size and complexity of the matter, or the language or location of the case with the white glove service that has given HaystackID a worldwide reach with a local expert touch.

Scott Holec, Founder and President of eTERA, added, “HaystackID’s data expertise, informed by their sterling reputation for forensics, discovery and innovative managed review powered by ReviewRight, is highly complementary to our service portfolio and immediately additive to our ability to serve our global customer base. More importantly, both companies have an unwavering client service focus which promotes the right cultural fit across our respective employee and customer bases.”

2. Integration Overview

2.1 Public Announcement of Acquisition (January 2019)

The announcement of the acquisition to media, industry analysts, and the initiation of communications to customers and partners will begin post-closing of the HaystackID acquisition of eTERA.

2.2 Operational and Workforce Integration (1Q 2019)

With the announcement of the acquisition, HaystackID and eTERA will begin the process of operational and workforce integration to optimize efficiencies.  The combined company will be positioned to support customers and partners with offices, operations centers, and data centers throughout the world. Locations include:

United States (11 Locations)

+ Washington, D.C. (Headquarters)
+ Boston, MA (Office and Operations Center)
+ New York, NY (Office)
+ Chicago, IL (Office and Operations Center)
+ Detroit, MI (Operations Center)
+ Miami, FL (Operations Center)
+ Houston, TX (Operations Center)
+ Los Angeles, CA (Office)
+ San Diego, CA (Office)
+ Portland, OR (Office)
+ Atlanta, GA (Office)

International Offices (4 Locations)

+ Toronto, Ontario (Operations Center)
+ Paris, France (Satellite Office)
+ Frankfurt, Germany (Operations Center)
+ Shanghai, PR China (Satellite Office)

Data Centers (6)

+ Boston
+ Chicago (Disaster Recovery)
+ Virginia
+ New York (Disaster Recovery)
+ Toronto
+ Frankfurt

* Operations Center includes either processing or legal document review operations.

2.3   Organizational Leadership Integration (1Q 2019)

As an owner-operated eDiscovery services company, HaystackID will have an expanded leadership team that increases the breadth and depth of industry experience that can be applied to enhance customer and partner engagements with the newly combined company operating as HaystackID.

Key leaders at HaystackID will remain in place with notable additions based on the acquisition of eTERA making up the following C-level leadership team:

+ Chief Executive Officer: Hal Brooks
+ Chief Operating Officer: Scott Holec (Formerly eTERA Founder and President)
+ Chief Revenue Officer (Operating Advisor) Mike Bryant
+ Chief Financial Officer: Larry Marshall
+ Chief Administrative Officer: Margaret Lindsay (Formerly eTERA Chief Financial Officer)
+ Chief Marketing Officer: Rob Robinson
+ Chief of Staff: Andy Parrish

Additionally, all key sales, operations, and support teams from both parties in the acquisition will be retained to support the optimized delivery of services for HaystackID.

2.4 Organizational Branding Integration (1H 2019)

HaystackID seeks to complete the consolidation and updating of all external content and communications regarding the eTERA acquisition as soon as practicable and no later than the end of the third quarter of 2019. This branding integration will focus on representing the expanded capability of the HaystackID to help customers find, listen, and learn from data as part of investigations and litigation.

Mike Bryant, Operating Advisor at Knox Capital and Chairman of HaystackID Holdings commented, “The acquisition combines the business models and expertise of two leading eDiscovery providers to help our growing customer base of leading corporations, law firms, and data-dependent government agencies solve difficult data and legal discovery challenges. 2018 was a record year of growth for both companies and the acquisition will advance HaystackID’s capability to streamline the delivery of critical services that help customers achieve quality outcomes in investigations and litigation at a fair and predictable price.” 

3. HaystackID and its Offerings

3.1 Who is HaystackID?

Founded in 2010, HaystackID is a specialized eDiscovery services firm that helps corporations and law firms find, listen, and learn from data when they face complex, data-intensive investigations and litigation. With an earned reputation for mobilizing industry-leading computer forensics, eDiscovery, and attorney document review experts, HaystackID’s Forensics First, Early Case Insight, and Review Right services accelerate and deliver quality outcomes at a fair and predictable price.

Based on successful company growth since 2010, HaystackID, as of today, today is serving more than 500 of the world’s leading corporations and law firms from North American and European locations. HaystackID’s combination of expertise and technical excellence coupled with a culture of white glove customer service make it the alternative legal services provider that is big enough to matter but small enough to care.

3.2 What is the offering portfolio framework for HaystackID?

With the acquisition of eTERA, HaystackID will enhance its offering portfolio that supports three core investigation and litigation workstreams including:

+ Forensics First Services that help customers find data. (Including Early Information Assessment and Forens1cs One from eTERA)
+ Early Case Insight Services that help customers listen to data. (Including 1ntelligent One from eTERA)
+ ReviewRight Services that help customers to learn from their data. (Including Rev1ew One from eTERA)

These core workstreams include but are not limited to:

Forensics First Services

+ Computer Forensic Collections and Analysis
+ Computer Forensic Expert Witness Testimony
+ ESI Identification, Collection, and Preservation
+ ESI Triage Services
+ Data Discovery Consulting and Management (Compliance, Information Governance, Computer Forensics)

Early Case Insight Services

+ ESI Ingestion and Processing
+ ESI Assessment and Analytics
+ ESI Hosting
+ Managed Services
+ Legal Discovery Consulting and Management

ReviewRight Services

+ ReviewRight Match: Performance-Based Task to Talent Contract Attorney Alignment
+ ReviewRight Translate: Foreign Language Review and Translation
+ ReviewRight Manage: Legal Review Consulting and Management
+ ReviewRight Host: Hosted Document Review Service
+ ReviewRight Virtual: Secure Remote Review Service
+ ReviewRight Automate: Technology-Assisted Review

These services are enabled and augmented by a combination of best-of-breed and proprietary technologies to support customer and partner requirements.

Examples of these technologies include:

Core Software Platforms

+ Relativity: An industry-leading eDiscovery and review hosting platform.
+ Nuix: An industry-leading compliance and eDiscovery platform.
+ Brainspace: An industry-leading analytics platform.
+ ReviewRight: A proprietary software and database designed to streamline the assessment and selection of document review contract attorneys.

Core Software Enablers

+ DataThresher: A proprietary interface designed to streamline culling in industry leading eDiscovery processing and analytics platforms. (Interoperability with Relativity and Brainspace)
+ Electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD) Review Module: A proprietary review module designed to preserve the integrity and security of files being considered as part of complex regulatory reviews typically associated with FDA audits, investigations, and reviews. (Interoperability with Relativity)
+ Relativity Cellebrite Integrator: A proprietary tool that streamlines fact harvesting of unstructured data formats from mobile devices and enables extracted data to be searched, reviewed, and produced within an industry standard review and document production workflow.

4. Operational Questions

4.1 Will the services provided by eTERA continue to be supported by HaystackID?

Yes, all services provided by eTERA will continue to be supported and expanded as part of the HaystackID offering portfolio.

4.2 What procedures will change for support and billing for the services provided by eTERA?

Current procedures for all support and business requests will remain in place until customers are notified by their account managers of changes in procedures or contacts. Over time customers can expect a controlled migration of systems and contacts into a consolidated business and support organization. However, all changes will be proactively communicated to customers to ensure business and execution continuity.

4.3 What pricing and contractual terms will change for eTERA customers?

Current contracts and pricing agreements will remain in effect for all eTERA customers. Over time, pricing may be adjusted favorably for customers to reflect the greater portfolio of product, service, and professional service offerings available from HaystackID. Contractual and pricing communications will be proactively initiated by assigned account managers before any changes to ensure comfort and continuity with any adjustments or updates.

5. Acquisition and Investment Communications

All HaystackID customer requests for computer forensics, legal discovery and legal review services can be addressed through current HaystackID account managers by contacting HaystackID at 877-942-9782 or [email protected].

All eTERA customer requests for computer forensics, legal discovery and legal review services can be addressed through current eTERA account managers by contacting eTERA at 202-349-0177 or [email protected].

All media, analyst (financial and industry) requests for comment or information can be directed to Rob Robinson, CMO, HaystackID at 512-934-7531or [email protected].