technology implementation Photo by shutterstock

The challenges posed by implementing a new technology platform in-house can often beset the most seasoned law firm or legal department manager. So it's little surprise managed services companies are becoming more of a mainstay in the legal industry by offering more hands-on services.

The latest to join the fold is Alphaserve Technologies with the launch of its Legal Innovation Consulting group. With the new offering, the company hopes to become a vital partner in legal tech creation, deployment and management.

What It Is: Alphaserve's Legal Innovation Consulting group is a hands-on managed service team that helps law firms and legal departments create, implement and manage legal technology platforms in-house.

Arup Das, CEO of Alphaserve Technologies, noted that the service evolved out of a smaller artificial intelligence consultancy group the company offered two years prior to help law firms to realize a lot of the applications of AI. Alphaserve, however, soon “realized there is a lot of commonality with AI and client driven application need,” he added. “We were doing it as a one-off consultancy, but we wanted to go after the market and say we have a formalized offering.”

Currently, the company's Legal Innovation Consulting group consists of “around eight or nine” full-time employees, Das said, including one lawyer, three data scientists and three application engineers, though the company expects the team will grow in the near future.

How It Works: The Legal Innovation Consulting group helps clients deploy any number of technologies, from compliance to e-discovery and contracts. The projects can either entail an office-wide deployment or a one-off tool for a particular case.

“It's not just AI stuff we are building,” Das said. “We are also building specific platforms for clients for specific cases.”

Starting from the ideation phase, the group will meet with law firm or legal department managers to understand their teams' operations and pain points. “Then we come back with a report saying these are the areas where we believe” technology can help, Das said, adding that the team may come up with dozens of ideas and then work with clients to narrow it to one.

From there, the team does a proof of concept, “which lasts about two to six weeks,” he added, and once approved, starts implementation.

All projects from the Legal Innovation Consulting group that are for clients are implemented on premise, and data associated with the project is always stored in-house with the clients. And though Alphaserve can help manage the platforms it creates on an ongoing basis, clients “can keep most of the IP we build for them in-house,” Das said.

Competition: While some managed service companies like Yerra focus on outsourced services, there are others that also offer hands-on legal technology implementation similar to Alphaserve, such as Pramata and Riverview Law. Das, however, argued that many of those competitors do not offer full “bespoke custom solutions” and instead rely on established technology vendors or their own platform offerings.

Beyond other managed services, Das also sees the big consultancy groups such as Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young as competitors as well.

But he believes that Legal Innovation Consultancy group can coexist with these while attracting clients on its own because of the high level of “subject matter expertise” the group brings to the table.

technology implementation Photo by shutterstock

The challenges posed by implementing a new technology platform in-house can often beset the most seasoned law firm or legal department manager. So it's little surprise managed services companies are becoming more of a mainstay in the legal industry by offering more hands-on services.

The latest to join the fold is Alphaserve Technologies with the launch of its Legal Innovation Consulting group. With the new offering, the company hopes to become a vital partner in legal tech creation, deployment and management.

What It Is: Alphaserve's Legal Innovation Consulting group is a hands-on managed service team that helps law firms and legal departments create, implement and manage legal technology platforms in-house.

Arup Das, CEO of Alphaserve Technologies, noted that the service evolved out of a smaller artificial intelligence consultancy group the company offered two years prior to help law firms to realize a lot of the applications of AI. Alphaserve, however, soon “realized there is a lot of commonality with AI and client driven application need,” he added. “We were doing it as a one-off consultancy, but we wanted to go after the market and say we have a formalized offering.”

Currently, the company's Legal Innovation Consulting group consists of “around eight or nine” full-time employees, Das said, including one lawyer, three data scientists and three application engineers, though the company expects the team will grow in the near future.

How It Works: The Legal Innovation Consulting group helps clients deploy any number of technologies, from compliance to e-discovery and contracts. The projects can either entail an office-wide deployment or a one-off tool for a particular case.

“It's not just AI stuff we are building,” Das said. “We are also building specific platforms for clients for specific cases.”

Starting from the ideation phase, the group will meet with law firm or legal department managers to understand their teams' operations and pain points. “Then we come back with a report saying these are the areas where we believe” technology can help, Das said, adding that the team may come up with dozens of ideas and then work with clients to narrow it to one.

From there, the team does a proof of concept, “which lasts about two to six weeks,” he added, and once approved, starts implementation.

All projects from the Legal Innovation Consulting group that are for clients are implemented on premise, and data associated with the project is always stored in-house with the clients. And though Alphaserve can help manage the platforms it creates on an ongoing basis, clients “can keep most of the IP we build for them in-house,” Das said.

Competition: While some managed service companies like Yerra focus on outsourced services, there are others that also offer hands-on legal technology implementation similar to Alphaserve, such as Pramata and Riverview Law. Das, however, argued that many of those competitors do not offer full “bespoke custom solutions” and instead rely on established technology vendors or their own platform offerings.

Beyond other managed services, Das also sees the big consultancy groups such as Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young as competitors as well.

But he believes that Legal Innovation Consultancy group can coexist with these while attracting clients on its own because of the high level of “subject matter expertise” the group brings to the table.