Vound Colorado, Ltd. Knowledge Base - Using tasks for automated processes

Intella Desktop's Tasks feature enables users to automate processes using predefined actions. This article provides an example of how to use the Tasks feature to automate eDiscovery searching, filtering, and exporting processes.

Note:

This example is for illustrative purposes only; your search, filtering, and export requirements may differ. It is assumed that all necessary checks and pre-processing tasks, such as investigating unprocessed items (e.g., OCR and encrypted items), have been completed prior to running the Tasks.

Basic ED processing/filtering steps

To demonstrate the Tasks feature, we will cover the following eDiscovery processing steps:

Searching/filtering the data using a keyword list and a date range.
Showing the top-level parents for the items that responded to the searches.
Deduplicating the top-level parents.
Returning all family items, including email attachments and embedded items.
Removing irrelevant items, such as folders, containers, embedded items, and non-document types, to prepare for review.
Exporting the remaining items for review to a load file.

Creating the Tasks

To create a Task in Intella Desktop, navigate to the File menu and select the Tasks wizard. Click on the New button in the Tasks window and assign a name to the task. To organize multiple Tasks, consider using a sequential prefix, such as `01 -`.

Step 1: Search for items using the Tasks feature by selecting the 'Keyword list' option and either choosing a keyword list from the case or loading one from a file. Click on the 'Add' button and enter the date parameter by selecting 'Date' from the dropdown.
Step 2: Refine the search if needed, but this is not necessary for this Task.
Step 3: Apply actions to the search results by tagging the respondent items using Hierarchy tags. Set all of the output tags under the top-level tag '01 - eDiscovery Processing', such as '01 - eDiscovery Processing/01.01 - KWSearch-DateRange'.

The second Task is designed to return all parent items from the search results obtained in Task 1. To create this Task, navigate to the Tasks wizard and click on 'New'. Give the Task a relevant name.

Step 1: Select the tag that contains the items that responded to the search criteria. Ensure the hierarchical tag structure that we established in Task 1 is followed. For instance: '01 - eDiscovery Processing/01.01 - KWSearch-DateRange'.
Step 2: Click the 'Add' button in Step 2 and select 'Identify parents' from the dropdown. Choose the 'Top level parents' radio button and make sure to check the box next to 'Add items that are already top level parents'.
Step 3: In Step 3, tag the items into a new tag under the '01 - eDiscovery Processing' group. For example: '01 - eDiscovery Processing/01.02 - Show Top Level Parents'.

After identifying top level parents, the next Task is to deduplicate them. To create this Task, navigate to the Tasks wizard and click on 'New'. Give the Task a relevant name.

Step 1: Select the tag that contains the top level parent items.
Step 2: In Step 2, click the 'Add' button and select 'Deduplicate results' from the dropdown.
Step 3: Tag the items into a new tag under the '01 - eDiscovery Processing' group in Step 3.

With the top level items deduplicated, the next Task is to return their families. To create this Task, navigate to the Tasks wizard and click on 'New'. Give the Task a relevant name.

Step 1: Select the tag that contains the deduplicated top level parent items.
Step 2: Click the 'Add' button in Step 2 and choose 'Identify children' from the dropdown. Choose the 'All descendants' radio button and make sure to check the 'Ignore folders' checkbox.
Step 3: In Step 3, tag the items into a new tag under the '01 - eDiscovery Processing' group.

The next step is to combine the top level parents and family items into one tag and remove any embedded items and containers, such as zip files and PST files. To create this Task, navigate to the Tasks wizard and click on 'New'. Give the Task an appropriate name.

Step 1: Select the 'Match' dropdown menu and choose 'Any'. This is because we will be adding all the data from both tags; we do not require just the intersection of the tags. Then, enter the name of the tag that contains the deduplicated top level parent items. Click the 'Add' button to the right and enter the tag name that holds the family items.
Step 2: Click the 'Add' button in Step 2 and select 'Suppress irrelevant items' from the dropdown.
Step 3: In Step 3, tag the items into a new tag under the '01 - eDiscovery Processing' group.

Although we have removed irrelevant items, there may still be other file types in the dataset that need to be cleaned out. These could be items located in System and Others categories under the Type facet. To address this, we need to create a saved search for this Task using Exclude searches:

Run a search over the tag that contains the items with the irrelevant items removed.
Run Exclude searches over the Containers, System, and Others categories under the Type facet.
Click on the 'Save' button in the Results box on the right and give the saved search a name (e.g., '02 - Excluded: System, Others, Containers').

To continue with this Task:

Open the Tasks wizard and give the Task an appropriate name.
In Step 1, select the 'Saved Search' option and use the second dropdown to select the newly created Saved Search. Note that a Saved Search can also be loaded from a file.
We don't use Step 2 for this process.
In Step 3, tag the items into a new tag under the '01 - eDiscovery Processing' group.

This completes the searching and filtering tasks required to provide a dataset that is ready for review and export.

Exporting the results

With the dataset now ready for export, we can create a Task to export the data to a load file:

Open the Tasks wizard and give the Task an appropriate name.
In Step 1, select the 'Tag' option and enter the tag name that contains the items ready for review.
We don't use Step 2 for this process.
In Step 3, select 'Export' from the dropdown menu. Choose your pre-configured load file template from the list.

This completes the export process. You can now review and export the dataset in the desired format.

Once the tasks have been created and run, they should look like this.

Updated April 2023