Apperio Included as a Representative Vendor in 2021 Gartner® Market Guide for Corporate Legal Spend Management and E-Billing
London, UK – October 7, 2021 – Apperio, a provider of legal spend analytics and matter tracking, today announced it has been named as a Representative Vendor in a new report titled, “Market Guide for Corporate Legal Spend Management and E-Billing*,” which was published on October 4, 2021, by Gartner, Inc. which delivers actionable, objective insight to executives and their teams.
“The corporate legal spend management and e-billing market is an established one. However, shifting customer expectations, new flexible delivery models, functional consolidation and innovation opportunities for new entrants suggest it will remain diverse and fast-changing,” wrote Gartner analysts Chris Audet, Jim Murphy, Nikos Drakos, and Zack Hutto in the report. “Further, the clear value proposition makes it ideal as an initial foothold from which vendors can offer related legal technology products and services.”
The report makes several recommendations to corporate in-house legal teams including the following:
1) “Align investments with business goals by meeting with legal stakeholders to prioritize desired outcomes and end-user requirements.”
2) “Accompany spend management and e-billing initiatives with a change management program to ensure new capabilities for decision support and stakeholder collaboration are used effectively.”
3) “Foster collaborative rather than adversarial relationships with outside counsel by sharing objectives, identifying mutual benefits and sharing performance information.” [1]
“We are pleased to be recognized as a Representative Vendor and believe this report helps articulate the critical role legal technology has in bringing transparency and predictably to legal costs,” said Apperio Founder and CEO Nicholas d’Adhemar. “At the same time, we interpret that the report highlights that legal spend technology should help build a collaborative relationship with outside counsel rather than adversarial one.”
Having worked as a lawyer in both a law firm and as in-house counsel, Mr. d’Adhemar spotted a business opportunity several years ago when employed as an investment manager working for a private equity firm. The investment team was highly reliant on outside counsel to close deals but was frequently surprised by invoices that exceeded estimates.
He knew, based on his experience, that the law firms were not merely running up the bill, but rather both sides lost track of the work. The investment team was relying on invoices to manage legal spend, which means they were never aware the legal team was over budget until they received an invoice.
Apperio helps in-house teams see spend ahead of the invoice because it plugs directly into the practice management systems at law firms. This way the clients can see the status of WIP and accruals in real-time as it happens. Clients can see when a matter is headed over budget and proactively manage costs rather than reacting to a higher-than-expected invoice.
Law firms are also finding this level of ultra-transparency is proving to be a competitive advantage. It’s facilitating contemporaneous time-entry amongst their billing attorneys which improves data hygiene. In turn, those firms find they can produce more accurate invoices with less time and effort. As a result of transparency, a surprise invoice becomes a rare exception and, in turn, the law firm is paid faster and more likely to be paid in full.
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* Gartner, Market Guide for Corporate Legal Spend Management and E-Billing, Chris Audet, Jim Murphy, Nikos Drakos, and Zack Hutto, 04 October 2021 (report available to Gartner subscribers). GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission.
Disclaimer: Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
About Apperio
Apperio is a legal spend analytics and matter tracking platform which effectively transforms how corporate legal departments function, bringing clarity, control and confidence to their operations. The platform provides complete real-time certainty on legal spend, aggregating data from all connected law firms and providing consistent, up-to-date information on all work-in-progress (WIP) and billed legal matters. Apperio visually represents for legal teams, finance and other corporate departments exactly what has and will be spent on legal fees, accurately measuring the performance of its external law firms. Quick to install, cloud-based Apperio requires no on-site IT team. Currently, the platform is used daily by more than 50 in-house legal teams including Epiris, EQT, Network Rail, Royal London, Monzo and Farfetch.
Apperio is based in London, England. For more information, please visit Apperio.com or follow Apperio on LinkedIn or Twitter.
