My running joke with Litera people is to pitch that I have a “cloud-native, machine learning enabled, FedRAMP certified data lake startup” just to see if the company will accidentally buy me out while managing the rest of their acquisitions. When Litera acquired Kira Systems, representatives told me that the long-term goal is to bring the whole contract workflow into one place. Which makes sense because it’s a lot easier to work with an end-to-end product.
That holistic philosophy extends beyond just contracts to all of law firm management and that’s why the company announced today that it has acquired financial and business intelligence provider BigSquare.
BigSquare takes financial data and provides management teams with analysis and visualization allowing the firm to strategize without relying on outside experts to interpret the mountains of data out there.
“Shearman & Sterling has used BigSquare to help create and foster a transparent culture. Its fully cloud-based and configurable technology is very sound and secure. The initial implementation only took months compared to many years with other providers in the market,” says Meredith Williams-Range, Chief Knowledge and Client Value Officer at Shearman & Sterling LLP. “Two key things make BigSquare stand out. First, we can configure the dashboard to fit our specific needs without needing engineers. Second, the system is fully cloud-based. BigSquare helps to make Shearman’s goal of providing technology on any device, anytime, anywhere a reality.”
With BigSquare joining the Litera fold, it can scale up working with Litera’s global client base and slide into Litera’s suite of Firm Intelligence products allowing firms to “get invaluable business intelligence and data insights from Foundation, pricing and budgeting intelligence from Clocktimizer, and marketing intelligence from Concep.” Litera CEO Sheryl Hoskins said, “Law firms continue to seek and move to cloud-based solutions, including financial BI. We view BigSquare as a valuable, strategic addition to Litera’s Firm Intelligence portfolio to deliver what customers seek regarding data and insights accessible anywhere.”
Whether it’s transactional workflows or management strategy, Litera’s committed to building out its capacity to cover all law firm tasks with end-to-end solutions and continues to survey the market to find the vendors that can build those out.
Which brings me back to my startup’s hyperautomated, Metaverse capable, gamified blockchain solution for ERISA workflows. Call me.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
