Duplicates

Duplicates are bad.

Let’s say you need to answer a question about one of your contracts: you go into your database, search or scroll, find it…and then you find another version of the same contract. Now you are forced to review each one to see if one is better – more complete – than the others. This takes time, time you don’t have.

You hate duplicates. Knowable also hates duplicates. That’s why we don’t allow duplicates.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of duplicates: “Exact” and “Near.”

1. Exact duplicates are perfect matches of each other (what we tend to call “pixel for pixel” duplicates) where every letter, every signature, every coffee stain is identical.
2. Near duplicates can be:
   • exact duplicates that were scanned in slightly differently, or
   • the same agreement but one is signed and the other isn’t, or
   • one has the exhibits and the other doesn’t,
   • and so on.

Knowable doesn’t permit Exact duplicates to even enter the platform. Every document that you upload is checked against every other document your organization has loaded into KI. If you try to upload an Exact duplicate, you will see a red X next to the file in the Completed window.

On the other hand, Knowable identifies Near duplicates during contract analysis. Using both technology and human expertise, we identify any agreements that might be the same, then determine if they, in fact, are. After that, we determine the best version – the most complete one. Once we determine the best version, we mark any Near duplicates Out of Scope (“OOS”), removing them from view. If a document you uploaded has been set to OOS due to it having been identified as a Near duplicate, you will be able to see the In-Scope Document ID (the best version) in the Duplicate Contract ID field.

Intake Form Data:

If the Intake Form data of the document you tried to upload is different from the Intake Form data of the Exact match in KI, Knowable automatically merges the new data with the existing Intake Form data. For example, if the document you upload has Customer ID 123 and the matching document already in KI has Customer ID 456, both IDs will be available in the Intake Form metadata Customer ID field, showing as Customer ID 123; Customer ID 456. This occurs in real time, when the upload attempt is processed.

Since Near duplicates are identified during contract analysis, if the Intake Form metadata fields of the document marked OOS (e.g., for missing signatures) is different from the Intake Form data of the better version (fully executed), the Intake Form metadata fields will be merged and will be available in the Intake Form metadata field of the In-Scope document within 2 weeks of the Near duplicate identification.