In light of the growth in focus on using technology to automate compliance with outside counsel guidelines and the need for mobile time capture, it is big news indeed that Aderant announced today (19 December) the acquisition of Bellefield, a market leader in helping lawyers recover more billable time and grow revenue.
The acquisition will bring into the Aderant fold timekeeping SaaS solution iTimekeep and OCG Live, which enforces OCG compliance at point of time of entry and is powered by Microsoft Azure. Bellefield was co-founded by CEO Gabriela Isturiz, who also co-founded eBilling Hub and sold it to Thomson Reuters.
“Aderant’s mission is to help law firms excel and improves people’s lives through technology,” said CEO Deane S. Price. “The acquisition of Bellefield is another step in enhancing the lawyer experience and realizing our mission. It’s about bringing a best-in-class solution to end users, while solving their numerous compliance challenges. We are excited to have the number one mobile time application as part of the Aderant family.”
“When we founded Bellefield in 2012, we had a specific purpose: to help firms achieve a faster path to revenue through better timekeeping and compliance.” said Isturiz. “We’re thrilled to join forces with Aderant to continue to deliver on that vision. With shared values, we will continue to provide our clients with the innovations, experience and results to which they have grown accustomed.”
Editor Caroline Hill asked president Deane Price how the new acquisition fits into the strategy and what the roadmap looks like.
CH: What is the plan for integrating iTimekeep and OCG Live and how will that impact your existing offering re the former? How will it affect clients/what are they being told?
DP: iTimekeep, OCG Live and Thrive, will now be offered as part of Aderant’s suite of software solutions. We are very excited to have the number one SaaS solution for mobile time capture that like other Aderant products Handshake, CompuLaw and BillBlast, is practice management system agnostic.
CH: Is the plan to keep an on prem offering with the option of moving to a cloud SaaS? Please explain the early ideas as to how this will work/the roadmap.
DP: Expert Time will continue to be developed as an on-premise solution. One of the biggest benefits of Expert Time is the “real-time” time aspect. iTimekeep is the only other product that offers that capability. The key difference is Expert Time is on-premise, whereas iTimekeep is a true SaaS product and is completely agnostic to practice management systems.
CH: Was this opportune and how does it fit into the bigger strategy?
DP: One of law firms greatest challenges is managing to their outside counsel guidelines (OCG). By combining all of the software assets and OCG data, Aderant will be able to help our clients solve this challenge – timekeeping, ebilling and compliance.
CH: Clearly automating/improving compliance with OCG is really coming to the fore and I like Gabby so I’m excited for you for this acquisition.
DP: Over the past few years we have focused on improving compliance of OCGs. Developments like rules and guidelines referenced and managed at all key areas in Expert where business and legal professionals work day to day has been a focus for us for improving compliance and helping clients capture revenue. Additionally, we purchased BillBlast helps law firms adhere to OCGs and create cleaner bills. BillBlast also provides insights back to the firm to where issues occur upstream, like rules for time entry, resources and expense. When this insight is applied, improvements can be made to increase the accuracy of billing. OCG Live helps continue our approach of compliance at the point of time entry.