Sometimes one head is better than two. Legal business intelligence (BI) companies Iridium Technology and Data Fusion Technologies, Inc. (DFTech) announced today they have merged into a single entity with more than 65 employees and 250 clients.

The combined entity will fly under the Iridium Technology banner, folding DFTech's Intellistat and Steere business analytic tools into the company's existing line of products. Terms of the merger were not disclosed, but Iridium CEO and founder Tom Jones indicated that casual discussions around merging began around two-years ago.

"You get tired of fighting each other, and so why don't we join forces? And there were really a lot of alignments as far as filling in spaces or gaps in our product offerings and just building out our technical team," Jones said.

While Iridium has primarily focused on business intelligence offerings that can be used to measure revenue or track performance, DFT Tech president Jeff Suhr noted that his company will help fill existing gaps with its portfolio of  "financial analytics applications" that can be used for tasks like budgeting, financial reporting, paperless pre-billing and alert notification management.

To be sure, there are no shortage of companies looking to establish a beachhead in the legal business and financial intelligence space. Last March, Orion released the fifth incarnation of its practice and financial management software, which also features a paperless pre-billing feature. On the matter planning and pricing front, Wolters Kluwer just dropped a new AI-powered LegalVIEW BillAnalyzer Data Service designed to help legal teams manage billing guidelines.

However, this playing field may be in no imminent danger of becoming overcrowded.

"A lot of times you'll see entrants come into the market and then quickly exit. … A lot of that is barriers to entry—number one [is] the technical domain expertise. But quite honestly it's also making sure that you've got a good roster of clients who are supporting you," Suhr said.

It's never wise to take that last part for granted. A panel held during Legalweek in January examined how law firm IT departments can leverage data analytics to drive insights and change inside their own organizations. But panelists indicated that convincing leadership to get on board can be an uphill battle since most firms are inexperienced at making their data work for them.

However, Jones said that Iridium has seen more law firms invest in business intelligence solutions around profitability over the years.

"I think it's reached a tipping point where firms now think that that if they don't have a BI solution on profitability or analytics, they are now at a disadvantage. So I think the phase where we were educating clients has been checked," Jones said.