Consultancy firm Ascertus has achieved all-round business growth for 2019, the company has announced, driven by a significant upsurge in customers adopting the iManage Cloud solution.
Ascertus, which provides document and lifecycle management solutions to law firms and legal departments across EMEA, said its 2019 growth includes revenue, headcount, new partnerships and expansion into Europe.
With revenue increase split equally between law firms and corporate legal departments, the company said the “key driver” for its progress was a 34% increase in customers moving to the iManage Cloud.
“The cloud has truly come into its own as a technology deployment platform,” commented Jon Wainwright, sales director at Ascertus. “In 2019 we have seen major take up of iManage Cloud by corporate legal departments of all sizes and in the law firm space, by mid-tier organisations.
“This clearly signals a maturity in mindset – cost isn’t the only consideration for cloud adoption, elements such as disaster recovery, in-built security and the advantages of always being on the latest version of the solution has been deemed more important. We see this trend and line of thought across Europe.”
Ascertus has strengthened its presence in mainland Europe – particularly in Ireland and the Nordic countries – as well as made inroads in the pharmaceutical, finance and insurance sectors.
In the last year, the company has struck partnerships with Xakia, a provider of matter management systems for in-house legal departments, managed printer services supplier DMC Canotec, as well as timekeeping software provider Smart Time.
Headcount has also increased by 15% in key roles such as professional services, support, pre-sales and training, which the firm says are key to ensuring superior client service and customised and efficient solution delivery.
Ascertus added that In 2020 it aims to further improve the services and support it provides to its existing clients, highlighting an incoming new client portal which will be supported by collaboration and secure file-sharing platform Hubshare.
“Our aim is to offer customers the most comprehensive set of solutions across the document and information management lifecycle and so although iManage is our key business partner, we are always looking to strengthen our relationships with our other current partners, plus enter into meaningful partnerships with suppliers of complementary solutions,” Wainwright said.
“This approach enables us to design and tailor solutions that are best suited to customers’ business requirements.”