Intapp has launched a new standalone consulting arm to advise law firms on technology, data and change management led by Sanjeev Gandhi, who joins from PwC as vice president and head of Intapp Consulting.
London-based Gandhi (pictured) has been at PwC for 17 years and a director at PwC Consulting since 2001. He has focused specifically on the legal sector over the last seven years, including working with many of the Top 20 UK law firms.
Gandhi will lead the new Intapp Consulting group worldwide. Intapp’s business consultants in the specialist practice areas of risk, client development and data strategy will now be part of Intapp Consulting. The Intapp Professional Services organisation, which includes implementation services, support and training on Intapp products, continues to be led by senior vice president Tariq Choudry.
Speaking to the Orange Rag about the launch of the new consultancy arm, Intapp’s president Dan Tacone reminded: “It’s not completely new because we’ve had Risk Consulting for several years.”
But whereas Risk Consulting piggy-backed on the services offered by other executives, the new consulting arm will operate independently.
Tacone says that appetite for Intapp’s consultancy service has grown as law firms realise they need to analyse their business processes and enterprise wide risk management programs before improving their conflict of interest or business intake technology.
Tacone said: “That really resonated with us and our risk team would go in and make recommendations and then the firm would be on solid ground when they went out to automate.
“There are so many areas in a firm when they start to think about executing on a strategy around technology and data that firms want to dig in and understand how they delight their client. Sanjeev has been doing this for years with some large notable UK based firms. There is an opportunity for us to expand the risk consulting we’re already doing.”
He adds: “We been thinking about this for a while. We’ve been a partner with many consulting groups including PwC and together worked to make many customers’ efforts a success. When you start building relationships you have many conversations and things come together. There was no recruitment effort and we’re excited that this is the right time to better serve our customers and Sanjeev is exactly the right person to lead this offering.”
The plan is to grow Intapp Consulting in the UK – where former Eversheds head of operations Kerry Kendal joined as a business consultant in February – and in the US. Tacone says: “We’ll make the service available widely to all customers. Not all customers are interested in new things but where things come up and firms are building strategic plans, they can look to us to help. This is more around what they are trying to achieve and how to align that with their customer. We are seeing opportunities in the largest firms and in regional firms, whether in the UK, Australia or North America.”
The new consultancy arm will mean Intapp is at times competing with external consulting groups and in terms of whether Intapp’s advice will be product neutral or focus on its own technology stack, Tacone said: “We’re in business and to add value to our client: we build great technology and offer great services but we don’t solve everything and there is a limit to what we solve, just like any other company. We’re not trying to be everything to everybody but to the extent that we get into a conversation with a client and we have something that can solve that problem, yes, we’re in business and will make that recommendation.”
He adds: “Sanjeev has been with PwC for 17 years and worked many with many UK law firms but a lot of those issues are global. We’ve been serving law firms for same time frame and the combination is fantastic.”
In a statement out today, Gandhi says: “Law firms are experiencing significant pressure to transform their business operations to address market and client demands. This dynamic creates challenges as well as opportunities for firms to explore and embrace new ways of doing business and delivering client success.
“This is an exciting opportunity to further develop Intapp’s capabilities in consulting services, and to work more closely with law firm leaders to develop technology and data strategies that position them competitively for the future.”