Microsoft Dynamics 365-based ERP and CRM provider sa.global is collaborating with new legal industry Microsoft partner AEVELON in a bid to accelerate adoption across EMEA, we can reveal.
AEVELON was launched this year by legal industry veterans Eric-Jan van Alten, Jaap van Vliet; Ernst Osnabrugge and Pim Thomassen. Van Alten owned Timesoft before its acquisition by Aderant in 2015 and has been in a familiar face in legal software for 25 years. Speaking to Legal IT Insider, he said: “I’ve been working with these guys for a long time, and we have a lot of clients that we serve in various ways. What we hear wherever we go and whichever firm we talk to is always about Microsoft Teams, it’s about Power BI, it’s about Fabric and Copilot. That’s beside the obvious Microsoft products like Office and SharePoint. So, we thought, well, if you have a true Microsoft-first strategy, let’s go all the way. The only way to do this right is if you include finance and practice management inside that Microsoft world. The goal of AEVELON is to serve firms that have a Microsoft first strategy and combine those products to make it the best possible environment for law firms, and the timing is now right.”
Sa.global’s ERP was borne out of LexisOne, which was built by LexisNexis and sold to sa.global in 2019. LexisOne started as an on-premises system but pivoted to Dynamics 365 mid-development after Microsoft’s decision to end-of-life AX 2012. While Fieldfisher became an early flagship SaaS customer, most law firms were not ready to put their financial data in the cloud, and the Dynamics product gained little traction. The small number of on premises law firm customers have moved away from LexisOne systems, including UK national firm Browne Jacobson and offshore firm Collas Crill.
Van Alten said: “It was never the right time for LexisOne but now it is and a lot of it has to do with how Microsoft has been developing their products. The icing on the cake is Copilot and Fabric, which ties everything together. If you combine that with the domain expertise we have at AEVELON, which is 25 years of delivering practice management to law firms, we think that’s a no-brainer.”
Since the LexisOne days, sa.global, which is headquartered in Belgium, says it has rebuilt the product ‘from the ground up.’ Built on Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and Azure, sa.global is focusing heavily this year on building IP around Copilot and speaking to firms about their Copilot strategy. It has partnered with vendors including document management system provider iManage and other partnerships are in the works. That is being led by head of partner, ISV & product enablement, Natalie Blackhurst, who said of the new AEVELON partnership: “A lot of our conversations are around getting law firms comfortable with change and how quickly they can adapt to change as well. So this is where working with people like Eric and the team at AEVELON, who can guide that and give that comfort blanket, is a really big thing for us.”
While AEVELON is currently only four-strong, van Alten says they will be relying on a wider network and intend to grow. “We have a network of contractors which are mainly all ex-Aderant consultants or technicians that have worked for law firms and that we can easily use in in running these projects,” he said, adding, “In the end the goal is to grow and create our own group of consultants.”
Sa.global’s current law firm customers other than Fieldfisher include CMS France, South African firm Webber Wentzel, and UK top 100 law firm Kingsley Napley.
sa.global and AEVELON will be at Lexpo’24 in Amsterdam on 10-11 June if you want to learn more about the new partnership.