Not sure it’s a strange one IMO. The product sits well in Intapp’s portfolio and compliments the Dealcloud offering. We have seen Intapp take this path before with Frayman. Expand market share and reduce the competition. If you can afford it why not..
The white elephant would be addressed with a suitable technology offering that lawyers actual see the benefit of using and isn’t too cumbersome to use.
If you take in the messaging from the recent conference around zero entry CRM, data led insights around relationships this has the makings to leverage CRM and give the value to management of the client lifecycle. Now plug that wonderful process and data into a world class inception, compliance, time etc offering and you get to see the reasons Intapp have gone this route and the possible value of joining these dots as a platform for lawyers to use.
I’m sure the financial system thing would be a nice step at some point. But then I think your point about “why would they” comes more to mind.