Intapp today (28 October) announced that it will transition to exclusively cloud-based solution sales starting January 1, 2021. It brings to an end a dual on premises-cloud strategy that was kick started in 2016 with the acquisition of Rekoop, when Intapp’s chief operating officer Don Coleman told Legal IT Insider: “Fundamentally we are making an investment in the cloud. We want to make sure that we are both in the cloud and offering choice for customers not ready for the cloud,” adding: “In the very long term we believe most software will be delivered via the cloud but in the mid-term many firms will prefer on premises solutions for security and control reasons. We will continue to innovate in our on-premises solution but will also have a solution for firms ready to take that step.”
Whether six years is ‘very long’ term is up for debate, but COVID-19 has accelerated the legal sector’s flight to cloud in ways that were previously unimaginable.
Intapp says it will continue to service existing clients with on-premises software and support them as they become ready to migrate to cloud solutions.
“Although much of business world has quickly migrated to cloud-based software, professional and financial services firms have lagged behind. Intapp is taking the lead in bringing these industries up to date,” said Thad Jampol, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Intapp. “It’s more than managing costs and enhancing operational efficiency. This is about our client firms adopting a modern, technology enabled model that enables them to better meet their clients’ needs. Legacy, location-dependent services are the past; cloud is the future.”
It is a bold strategy given that in the ILTA Legal Technology Survey 2020, asked, ‘How would you describe the cloud philosophy at your firm?’ only just over a third of responses were ‘cloud with every upgrade.’”
However, Intapp has been preparing for this transition through acquisitions, updates, and product launches during the past few years. Its acquisitions of cloud providers include DealCloud (2018); OnePlace (2019) and gwabbit (2019).
“With on-premises software, upgrades take time that often renders enhancements irrelevant by the time they’re in place,” added Jampol. “With real-time, cloud-based updates, everyone across the firm has immediate access to the latest features and the current data required to work better together.”
As of January 2021, Intapp will launch new subscribers directly onto the Intapp secure cloud.
Jose Lazares, vice president of product, strategy and business management at Intapp said: “It’s time for professional and financial services firms to seize the opportunities that moving to the cloud provides.”