RelativityOne Launched in South Africa

Relativity, a global legal and compliance technology company, announces that its secure, end-to-end SaaS product RelativityOne is now available in South Africa. Deloitte and Control Risks partnered with Relativity on the expansion to the region, which is a legal hub within the African continent and will help provide scale, reliability and accessibility within the region to current and future customers.

South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) came into effect in 2021, sparking a growth in the country's maturity around personal data protection, cyber-breach response and how cross-border data is handled. The country's Cybercrimes Act, which is directly linked to POPIA, mandates organizations to require access to information from their employees and customer devices to contextualize matters under investigation for cybercrimes. As this includes personal information, it is critical for companies to adhere to POPIA to ensure that there are no legal repercussions.

"We are excited to partner with Deloitte and Control Risks on our endeavour to expand accessibility to RelativityOne worldwide. RelativityOne is available in South Africa at the perfect time as the platform can help customers adhere to the latest data policies and laws in the region," said Steve Couling, Managing Director and Vice President of Sales, EMEA at Relativity. "Now more than ever before, there is more pressure for companies to keep their data within South Africa and to respond quickly to cyber breaches that may involve cross-border disclosures. RelativityOne allows Deloitte and Control Risks the speed and advanced tools to help their clients comply with such matters."

Many of Deloitte's and Control Risks' global clientele already utilise RelativityOne and this expansion to South Africa demonstrates how the evolution and maturation of data privacy laws and data residency requirements generate demand for greater availability. This move is a facet of a broader strategy to create global, scalable solutions in a secure and extensible cloud platform. With data continuing to grow exponentially, Relativity fills the gap by providing these firms with cutting-edge technology like RelativityOne.

"We are excited to extend our global partnership with Relativity to South Africa," said Dr Antonio Pooe, Deloitte Africa Forensic Leader. "Through this alliance, Deloitte Africa Forensic now runs a hybrid Relativity environment that addresses myriad technical and legal requirements for our local and global clients." 

"We are extremely proud to be first among Relativity Gold Partners to launch RelativityOne in South Africa," said Joyce Nkini-Iwisi, Principal at Control Risks. "Both here and across the world, our clients are grappling with the implications of today's high data volumes for complex, cross-border matters. Being able to offer world-class technology that supports data collection, processing, hosting and review within our own jurisdiction – without the international price tag – is a game changer. Since 2017, Control Risks South Africa has had on-premise Relativity with client data hosted in the country. The launch of RelativityOne in South Africa will help us to serve clients better through cutting-edge technology that helps them manage the review of today's huge data volumes."

As RelativityOne Gold Partners, both Deloitte and Control Risks are dedicated to bringing a secure, reliable and extensible cloud platform to their clients around the world. The expansion to South Africa comes on the heels of strong regional demand for a cloud-based e-discovery platform. This expansion also provides more opportunities for Deloitte's and Control Risks' well-versed teams to offer an even better experience for their customers in the cloud.

RelativityOne is now available in 17 geographies. Earlier in 2022, RelativityOne expanded to France, India and Japan.

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