U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Data Delivery Standards

This document outlines how to use Discovery Assistant to deliver scanned paper collections, email and electronic document / native file collections to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Discovery Assistant is an eDiscovery processing tool that processes electronically stored documents, including PST files, zip files, scanned documents, Office documents, and PDF files, to create load files that can be opened by Concordance.

The SEC uses Concordance® 2007 v9.58 and ConcordanceImage® v4.53 software to search, review and retrieve documents produced in electronic format.

To use Discovery Assistant to produce a Concordance Load file for the SEC:

  1. Load documents into Discovery Assistant.
  2. Select ‘Deduplicate’ to remove duplicate files and messages.
  3. Apply search terms (if necessary) to identify relevant documents.
  4. Convert documents to TIFF.
  5. OCR any scanned documents that don’t have text.
  6. Re-apply search if necessary for documents that were OCRed
  7. Assign Bates Stamps and Document IDs.
  8. Export to Concordance using the SEC-defined export field settings.

Discovery Assistant Export Dialog Settings

Use Discovery Assistant to produce electronic documents and Concordance Load Files as required by the SEC.

To produce the required documentation, load PST files, native files (Office, PDF, DOC, XML, MSG), and scanned documents into Discovery Assistant. Process these documents to TIFF, then Bates stamp, and export to Concordance/Opticon load format.

Export Settings:

Format: Concordance/Opticon
Directory Structure: Volume/Box
Image File Type: Unmodified TIFF
Page Group Options: (all unchecked)
Naming Scheme: %BATES%
Other Files to include: Text files, Native Files
Additional Options: Add Bates Number to Text Files

You will need to click the Fields button to select the fields to export.

Required SEC Metadata Fields

Below is a list of required fields included in the production of electronically stored documents to the SEC. The first column is the Discovery Assistant defined name; the second column is the SEC defined name.

Metadata fields are exported to a Concordance Load File format using Discovery Assistant software.

DA Name Field Name Sample Data Description
BEGINDOC FIRSTBATES EDC0000001 First Bates number of native file document/email
ENDDOC LASTBATES EDC0000001 Last Bates number of native file document/email
**The LASTBATES field should be populated for single page documents/emails.
BTGRPRANGE ATTACHRANGE EDC0000001 - EDC0000015 Bates number of the first page of the parent document to the Bates number of the last page of the last attachment “child” document
BEGATTACH BEGATTACH EDC0000001 First Bates number of attachment range
ENDATTACH ENDATTACH EDC0000015 Last Bates number of attachment range
PARENTID PARENT_BATES EDC0000001 First Bates number of parent document/Email
**This PARENT_BATES field should be populated in each record representing an attachment “child” document
ATTACHLIST CHILD_BATES EDC0000002; EDC0000014 First Bates number of “child” attachment(s); can be more than one Bates number listed depending on the number of attachments
**The CHILD_BATES field should be populated in each record representing a “parent” document
SRCCUSTOD CUSTODIAN Smith, John Email: mailbox where the email resided
Native: Individual from whom the document originated
FROM FROM John Smith Email: Sender
Native: Author(s) of document
**semi-colon should be used to separate multiple entries
SENTTO TO Coffman, Janice; LeeW [mailto:LeeW@MSN.com] Recipient(s)
**semi-colon should be used to separate multiple entries
CC CC Frank Thompson [mailto:frank_Thompson@cdt.com] Carbon copy recipient(s)
**semi-colon should be used to separate multiple entries
BCC BCC John Cain Blind carbon copy recipient(s)
**semi-colon should be used to separate multiple entries
SUBJECT SUBJECT Board Meeting Minutes Email: Subject line of the email
Native: Title of document (if available)
DATESENT DATE_SENT 10/12/2010 Email: Date the email was sent
Native: (empty)
TIMESENT TIME_SENT 7:05 PM Email: Time the email was sent
Native: (empty)
**This data must be a separate field and cannot be combined with the DATE_SENT field
XSPATHNAME LINK D:\001\ EDC0000001.msg Hyperlink to the email or native file document
**The linked file must be named per the FIRSTBATES number
FILEEXT FILE_EXTEN MSG The file type extension representing the Email or native file document; will vary depending on the email format
AUTHOR AUTHOR John Smith Email: (empty)
Native: Author of the document
FCREATDATE DATE_CREATED 10/10/2010 Email: (empty)
Native: Date the document was created
FCREATTIME TIME_CREATED 10:25 AM Email: (empty)
Native: Time the document was created
**This data must be a separate field and cannot be combined with the DATE_CREATED field
FMODDATE DATE_MOD 10/12/2010 Email: (empty)
Native: Date the document was last modified
FMODTIME TIME_MOD 7:00 PM Email: (empty)
Native: Time the document was last modified
**This data must be a separate field and cannot be combined with the DATE_MOD field
FACCDATE DATE_ACCESSD 10/12/2010 Email: (empty)
Native: Date the document was last accessed
FACCTIME TIME_ACCESSD 7:00 PM Email: (empty)
Native: Time the document was last accessed
**This data must be a separate field and cannot be combined with the DATE_ACCESSD field
FPRNTDATE PRINTED_DATE 10/12/2010 Email: (empty)
Native: Date the document was last printed
OBJECTSIZE FILE_SIZE 5952 Size of native file document/email in KB
PAGECOUNT PGCOUNT 1 Number of pages in native file document/email
FPATHNAME PATH J:\Shared\SmithJ\October Agenda.doc Email: (empty)
Native: Path where native file document was stored including original file name.
FPATHNAME INTFILEPATH Personal Folders\Deleted Items\Board Meeting Minutes.msg Email: original location of email including original file name.
Native: (empty)
MSGID INTMSGID <000805c2c71b$75977050$cb8306d1@MSN> Email: Unique Message ID
Native: (empty)

To explore further:

Example "SEC production of documents" request
SEC Reference Documents

ImageMAKER technical staff members are available to assist in helping you set up the Discovery Assistant program, monitor the document conversion process, and review the exported Concordance load file for completeness.

To contact Discovery Assistant:

Email: Sales@DiscoveryAssistant.com
Tel: 604 525-2170
Web: www.discovery-assistant.com