Morae Global Corporation announced on Wednesday that it had acquired the professional services information management company Phoenix Business Solutions, which has largely concentrated its efforts in the area of document management. 

The details are pretty straightforward: Phoenix CEO Matthew Crocker will become president of Morae's Phoenix service line, with the rest of his leadership team remaining firmly in place. Shahzad Bashir, Morae's president and CEO, framed the decision to acquire Phoenix as a matter of it being the right combination at the right time.

“Phoenix is very strong in Europe. We are very strong in the United States. Phoenix has worked a lot with law firms along with [some] law departments. It's exactly the opposite with us—we work a lot with law departments and some with law firms,” said Bashir.

But there's also a broader game afoot. Morae's strengths have traditionally laid in e-discovery, managed services and advising. According to Bashir, e-discovery remains a huge spend for firms, but challenges surrounding information management are beginning to move the forefront.

Morae wants to establish a “one-stop-shop,” a service that can occupy the full lifecycle of information, from creation all the way down to maintenance and disposition.

“We as a service provider need to step in and help our clients in a very holistic manner in implementing all aspects of information management,” Bashir said.

Crocker's experiences reinforce a desire in the marketplace for a more holistic approach to the concerns that firms and legal departments face that exist outside of the actual practice of law. While Phoenix has primarily concentrated on document management, Crocker said clients have been pushing to expand the conversation into areas such as digital transformation and matter management.

He attributed some of that reaction to the advent of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Clients are suddenly realizing that they've been ignoring their data retention schedules or have five years worth of documents that have never been deleted. It creates a different entry point for companies like Morae or Phoenix that are focused more on governance.

“[Clients are] asking for advice not just on how to implement that system, they're asking for advice on how to strategically actually have an overview and put in place the correct processes,” Crocker said.

If everything goes according to plan, Morae should now be able to take that leap in part thanks to Phoenix's experience with implementing document management. Bashir said that in the past, the company could have designed technology to aid a global law firm with tasks like contract or records management, but when it came time to actually implement the system, the client might have had to find yet another service provider.

“This positions us to exactly perform and fulfill that vision,” Bashir said.