Investigation management software helps organizations to streamline the process of conducting internal investigations, from fraud investigations to employee misconduct. These systems enhance efficiency, simplify collaboration and communication among team members, and enable organizations to track, document, and manage all aspects of an investigation with ease. This, in turn, helps organizations to maintain compliance, reduce risk, and improve overall investigative outcomes.
All organizations have to handle sensitive cases, whether those involve security incidents, fraud, accidents, or HR issues such as employee misconduct or harassment. When such an event arises, it needs to be investigated to help identify what caused the event and what the outcome should be. This will help prevent the same thing from happening in the future. Carrying out an investigation like this can be time-consuming, when undertaken manually, and complex, making it difficult to keep track of all the documents, people, and activities involved. Without clear visibility, it’s possible to draw the wrong conclusion from an investigation. That’s where investigation management software comes in.
Investigation management tools help organizations monitor and manage every aspect of their investigations. By offering features such as case management, evidence management, data analysis, reporting, and workflow automation, these tools ensure that the investigation process is streamlined and conducted in a logical and traceable manner.
In this guide, we’ll explore the top investigative management software solutions on the market, based on factors such as features, functionality, user reviews, and industry reputation. We’ll delve into the strengths and weaknesses of each platform to help you make an informed decision when selecting the right solution for your organization.
CaseIQ is a risk mitigation solution offering easy and anonymous reporting options for employees through hotlines, webforms, and other channels. The platform promotes a speak-up culture, leveraging comprehensive analytics and personalized dashboards to help businesses prevent and manage incidents.
CaseIQ is highly flexible and scalable, which means it can be tailored to address various case types such as employee relations, ethics and compliance, fraud investigations, and security breaches. The platform provides efficient case management with intelligent case workflows that centralize documentation, automate processes, and generate comprehensive case reports. CaseIQ’s advanced analytics and customizability make it easy for organizations to reduce risk and improve their investigation processes, and the platform integrates seamlessly with core systems such as HRIS, CRM, ERP, and ticketing software to provide greater efficiency and control.
Security and privacy are crucial components of the CaseIQ platform, which complies with various data privacy and protection regulations, including HIPAA, PIPEDA, GLB, and GDPR. The platform also offers controlled access, configurable user roles, and single sign-on features to ensure the highest levels of security.
CloudNine Explore is a solution designed to help legal teams, investigators, and auditors navigate and assess data for investigations, compliance checks, and early case assessments. This platform allows users to gain insights into big data, identify potential risks, and control costs.
Key features of CloudNine Explore include step-by-step and advanced user workflows, drag and drop data indexing, and granular filtering options that enable users to filter by date, domain, file type, and personally identifiable information (PII). The platform also offers search term testing and reporting, first-pass web UI review with batching, tagging, and sampling, foreign language document identification, and compatibility with MS SQL Server, DT Search, and open API. This makes CloudNine Explore easy to integrate with existing tech setups. Additionally, CloudNine Explore offers functionalities such as bulk OCR text generation, fully processed native exports, and optional features like scan, searchable PDF creation, TIFF image creation, review, and production services.
Designed for flexible deployment, CloudNine Explore can be installed on various devices, including laptops, allowing users to access the platform wherever data is stored. The platform features cross-machine multi-threaded/core in-place indexing, which enables it to index up to one million records per hour and eliminates the need for file copies until export.
FaceUp is an anonymous reporting system designed for employees and students to disclose concerns and issues. This system aims to create a transparent culture, while preventing harassment and bullying. Compliant with the EU Whistleblowing Directive and global whistleblowing laws, FaceUp provides several reporting options, including web forms, voice messages, and telephone hotlines, with support for 113 languages.
The platform allows for anonymous reporting, with the option for whistleblowers to reveal their identity. FaceUp can also be integrated with a company’s intranet, website, or app through an API. Reporting forms can be customized according to organizational needs, and the system offers two-way communication for further information gathering. Users can easily add team members and manage reports, while assigning priorities and labels. FaceUp provides clear visualizations, data analysis, and export options, along with email notifications for various actions. With an activity log available within the administration platform, users can track all interactions, assignments, and report status changes. FaceUp ensures that data is hosted securely in either the EU, US, or other locations according to user preference.
HR Acuity’s HR Workplace Investigations Management solution is a comprehensive tool designed to help HR professionals conduct efficient and fair workplace investigations from start to finish. The platform offers a standardized methodology based on years of experience, resulting in improved transparency, accuracy, and defensibility.
To protect the investigation workflow and minimize the risk of retaliation, the platform streamlines communication between investigators and decision-makers, in line with compliance best practices. It offers comprehensive interview guides to ensure investigators ask the right questions to the relevant parties during their inquiry. By guiding users through each step of the investigation process, HR Workplace Investigations Management promotes a fair and efficient procedure for addressing workplace issues. The platform also aids in maintaining thorough documentation of all communications, ensuring all involved parties are informed throughout the process and strengthening your case in the event of any disputes.
Resolver Investigations & Case Management (ICM) is a software solution designed for businesses to gain insights into complex cases and protect their employees. The software centralizes security data, ensuring investigative teams can easily gather the information they need for thorough evaluations.
Resolver ICM features AI-powered tagging and link analysis, automatically uncovering connections between incidents, individuals, assets, and locations. This technology allows organizations to quickly identify the root cause of incidents and threats, enabling swift response and mitigation. The software also streamlines case management by incorporating best-practice workflows and task automation, helping users manage complex cases effectively and efficiently. Resolver ICM’s customization options allow businesses to create unique workflows that suit their needs, with the support of Resolver’s team of experts. Automated reports summarize security activities, assisting in communication of the security team’s impact on the organization. Additionally, Resolver ICM includes a centralized case management system that tracks the chain of custody for evidence, helping to preserve its integrity and accessibility.
Sofvie Incident Management is a software solution designed to assist organizations in achieving a Zero Harm workplace. The platform enables users to efficiently identify root causes of incidents by offering a central intelligence system for uploading reports and data. This simplifies the process of tracing near misses and incidents back to their sources.
Sofvie Incident Management aids in identifying trends by providing categorization and visual dashboards that uncover insights that may not be easily discernible from individual files. By utilizing Sofvie’s dashboards, users can pinpoint common characteristics of near misses, and address them proactively, preventing them from escalating into more severe incidents. Sofvie Incident Management is equipped to handle multiple worksites, offering a comprehensive view of both on-site and remote work processes. The platform allows users to isolate and analyze incident trends on individual, group, and company-wide levels. Additionally, Sofvie provides analytical insights through ready-to-report charts, graphs, and customizable dashboards that utilize real-time data directly from the field. The platform also features offline functionality, temporarily storing data on users’ devices to ensure no information is lost and maintaining a consistent health and safety structure, regardless of location or internet connection.
Veriato’s Workplace Investigations software is designed to aid organizations in detecting financial fraud, data theft, and employee misconduct. With Veriato, organizations can access accurate evidence to assist with internal employee investigations and maintain a fair and impartial process during investigations, making the platform well-suited to sensitive scenarios such as addressing data breaches, discrimination, and harassment.
Veriato Workplace Investigations offers screenshot capturing, keystroke logging, and monitoring of file and document activities on local, removable, and cloud storage. Additionally, it tracks network activity, including application connections and consumed bandwidth. Veriato can be discreetly deployed through a cloud-based admin console and offers customizable settings for flexible tracking hours. The platform also features email and chat monitoring, allowing organizations to capture communication activities across various messaging applications. It also enables tracking of web and application usage, differentiating between productive and unproductive usage. Finally, the software offers reporting and real-time alerts to ensure that audit trails and logs are available when needed, contributing to compliance with corporate and regulatory requirements.
Investigation management software helps organizations to monitor and manage the activities, processes, people, and information involved in internal investigations, such as instances of fraud, security breaches, accidents, or HR issues like workplace harassment. This includes managing virtual processes and workflows, but also the physical aspects of the investigation such as witnesses and evidence. To achieve this, an investigation management solution should:
Investigation management solutions are most commonly used by HR teams, ethics and compliance officers, legal teams, security teams, and health and safety officers, either as a standalone product or as part of a wider governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) platform. When used standalone, investigation management software is usually integrated with related systems such as HR management, audit management, or legal case management tools, for easier management.
Most industries require that certain events—such as safety incident and complaints—are investigated to identify the root cause of the event and take measures to prevent it from happening again. While it’s possible to carry out such an investigation manually, there are a few reasons why your organization should consider investing in an investigation management solution to help.
Firstly, manually monitoring, documenting, correcting, and checking the information involved in an investigation is time-consuming, and if any information is missed then you could be at risk of not getting the whole picture, thus failing to identify the root cause of the event. Investigation management tools make it easier to keep on top of documentation and change management during an investigation, providing more comprehensive visibility.
Secondly, investigation management solutions facilitate smoother and more secure collaboration between different departments involved in the investigation. Storing all case documents in one central location makes it easier for investigation teams to find information, and it means they don’t have to risk sending sensitive data via unsecure channels such as email.
Thirdly, investigation management software can help investigations run more smoothly and efficiently from start to end. They enable users to assign cases and tasks more easily via a central portal; some even assign tasks automatically, based on pre-defined conditions, which saves even more time. They also alert users when they’ve been assigned a new task or when a task is almost due, to help keep streamline workflows and keep everything moving.
Finally, using a web-based investigation management tool enables investigation teams to access documents remotely; they no longer have to carry around multiple documents with them, or worry about losing any information whilst on-the-go.
The capabilities offered by investigation management tools may vary, as different tools are designed to meet specific use cases, e.g., to support certain industries or help ensure compliance with certain data protection regulations. However, there are a few key features that any strong investigation management software should offer. These include:
Caitlin Harris is Deputy Head of Content at Expert Insights. Caitlin is an experienced writer and journalist, with years of experience producing award-winning technical training materials and journalistic content. Caitlin holds a First Class BA in English Literature and German, and provides our content team with strategic editorial guidance as well as carrying out detailed research to create articles that are accurate, engaging and relevant. Caitlin co-hosts the Expert Insights Podcast, where she interviews world-leading B2B tech experts.
Laura Iannini is an Information Security Engineer. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity from the University of West Florida. Laura has experience with a variety of cybersecurity platforms and leads technical reviews of leading solutions. She conducts thorough product tests to ensure that Expert Insights’ reviews are definitive and insightful.