Unless you’ve been under a rock, you must know by now that Nuix (www.nuix.com), a security, risk, and compliance software company, acquired the Ringtail eDiscovery software business from FTI Consulting for $55 million USD. Nuix, known for its strength in its processing engine combined with the powerful review and automation capabilities of Ringtail, promises to be a true end-to-end eDiscovery platform.
Mary Mack, Executive Director of ACEDS, (who also happened to work with Ringtail from 2003 to 2010) spoke with Andrew Nester, Head of Marketing, Stephen Stewart, CTO, and Rod Vawdrey, CEO and first asked the obvious, “Why Ringtail?” The quick response makes perfect sense. Ringtail already has Nuix integrated into its platform and furthermore, Ringtail was a long-time client. Therefore, it’s pretty much a plug and play solution. There is no development time needed for the two pieces to talk to each other…it’s already there. Users can simply sign on and go! Imagine, end-to-end seamless integration with increased speed along with the visual analytics acquired from Attenix. Besides, many Ringtail customers are already on the Nuix processing platform so it will be a particularly smooth transition for them.
FTI is one of Nuix’s oldest partners and will continue to be a premiere partner. Nuix’s main majority of revenue flows through their partner channel which is large and established.
With the purchase of Ringtail, Nuix has more than 2,000 customers in over 70 countries and more than 550 employees across the world. Ringtail has 50,000 users around the globe. The good news is no one loses their job as everyone at Ringtail will be hired at Nuix – that’s about 80 employees. Mary was especially pleased to hear that Bill Adams, Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting and Head of Ringtail, will be joining Nuix as well. Bill has been a leader with FTI for more than 20 years. Mary said, “Bill Adams is one of the few attorneys who is hands on creating and applying enterprise technology—and who is also welcome to sit with the trial attorneys in bet the company cases.” That’s great to hear.
When asked about the specifics of the purchase, Rod mentioned three key facts:
- Customers have been looking for an alternative enterprise platform choice
- The current drive to the cloud, which of course allows for easier scalability and multi-tenant capabilities and
- Users wanted a simpler user interface which Ringtail was able to provide.
Rod Vawdrey, CEO, stated, “We think this is a clear win as a full end-to-end eDiscovery platform. We also love the fact that two Australian companies have come together to provide such a great service to the eDiscovery community. Nuix’s acquisition of Ringtail was truly part of a strategic plan due to market changes and consolidation and hearing what the market was asking for.” Rod also said, “Corporations, governments, and legal service providers who depend on Total Data Intelligence from Nuix will be further empowered to simplify, de-risk, and speed up eDiscovery without compromise.”
The air was full of excitement as the three gentlemen went on to discuss the purchase. They definitely indicated that in this case 1+1 equaled MORE THAN 2. It was great to hear the passion they expressed regarding the purchase. Stephen Stewart, CTO of Nuix, reiterated that, “The longstanding relationship with Ringtail has enabled them to launch immediately and users will be able to take advantage of the already-deep integration between the two platforms, which is the result of a long-term partnership between the two vendors.” He also stated it was great to be flying under the same banner.
From today forward, customers can obtain Ringtail from Nuix’s global partner network or from Nuix as on-premises software or a hosted service.
ACEDS wishes much luck to Nuix and thanks them for their time to speak with us about the acquisition.
Gayle has held a variety of positions including Marketing Director at Degen, Blanchard and Nash, a large law firm located in New Orleans, and has served as a marketing strategist for numerous legal software providers. Gayle was also the former trial technician for the federal public defenders Hells Angels case in Seattle, WA.
Throughout her career, Gayle has been a speaker at numerous conferences ranging from the New Zealand Law Society, the ABA, Access to Justice Foundation as well as local organizations such as bar associations and NBI CLE offerings.
She can be reached at [email protected] or @gaylemoconnor.
She is also an avid Harley rider.