Intapp has acquired Wilson Allen’s prebill automation solution Billstream (formerly Proforma Tracker), with a 14-strong team led by COO Shishir Shetty to join Intapp as part of the acquisition.
Relabelled as Intapp Billstream, the solution, which simplifies and digitises the preparation of prebills and proforma invoices, will become part of the OnePlace operations and finance suite.
While Intapp is an established leader in time tracking, to date it has had no pre-bill capability, and speaking to Legal IT Insider, Intapp’s president Dan Tacone said: “We always felt that it would be a natural extension because we work with a lot of fee-earners around our very rich time solution and in addition to time entry, capture and reporting we have just announced a pricing set of capabilities. Lawyers want a neat solution that they can use with their financial system to deliver bills and there were a lot of lawyers who during the pandemic had to go physically into the office and look at printed out prebills because they didn’t have the ability to do it electronically away from the office. This is the perfect solution to that.”
Customers will still be able to buy Billstream as a standalone product and Tacone said: “It will depend on the firm how they use it. It will integrate with our entire connected platform of products but not all firms are ready to implement the entire suite.”
Billstream partners with Aderant and Elite and Tacone said: “We’re not competing with them, we’re helping to make the solution better for customers.”
Wilson Allen has been steadily growing Billstream since its launch in 2017, winning clients such as UK top 100 firm Bevan Brittan and Am Law 100 firm Perkins Coie.
Speaking to Legal IT Insider about why Wilson Allen is parting with Billstream after a period of considerable investment, Bruce Wilson said: “Wilson Allen is primarily a consulting business and from time we build solutions like Pro Forma Tracker, now Billstream. Billstream really hit the mark in the pandemic and really helped law firms, and we had an aggressive plan to grow it but it’s not our primary purpose and we’re not a software company.
“We were looking for a way to raise capital and invest more in Billstream but Intapp stepped up and we thought it was a good fit, because of what they do, and they had a specific gap that it filled.”
Wilson Allen is a big Intapp partner and Wilson said: “We will continue to partner with Intapp, particularly around Billstream. Our clients want a lot more from the product and we felt this is the best way to meet that need.”
With regard to Shetty and the team moving to Intapp, Wilson said: “This was Shishir’s baby and we felt that for the continuity of our clients and the Billstream team that him joining was critical to its success.”
Wilson says that Wilson Allen has been planning for the transition, including hiring Justin Farmer from Thomson Reuters as vice president of product and services last year.
“The breadth and depth of Intapp solutions — along with its years of excellent service and long history of industry-changing product innovation — make the company the ideal fit to help Billstream reach its full potential,” said Shetty in a statement out today (13 June).
“I’m excited to see Billstream move forward as part of OnePlace Operations & Finance, helping firms address billing process challenges and supporting profitable delivery across the engagement lifecycle.”