{"id":121960,"date":"2025-06-05T15:27:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T23:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/05\/at-aderants-momentum-global-conference-a-drive-towards-ai-enabled-cloud-innovation-and-unmatched-client-experience\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T15:27:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T23:27:21","slug":"at-aderants-momentum-global-conference-a-drive-towards-ai-enabled-cloud-innovation-and-unmatched-client-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/05\/at-aderants-momentum-global-conference-a-drive-towards-ai-enabled-cloud-innovation-and-unmatched-client-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"At Aderant\u2019s Momentum Global Conference, A Drive Towards AI-Enabled Cloud Innovation And \u2018Unmatched Client Experience\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post At Aderant\u2019s Momentum Global Conference, A Drive Towards AI-Enabled Cloud Innovation And \u2018Unmatched Client Experience\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As he took the stage before the nearly 1,000 people assembled in the ballroom of the Omni Hotel in Dallas to open his company\u2019s Momentum Global 2025<\/a> user conference May 20, Aderant<\/a> President and CEO Chris Cartrett<\/a> said he preferred to think of his talk not as a keynote, but as a kick-off. But by the time I left the conference two days later, I could not help but think that his kick-off \u2013 and much else at the conference \u2013 was also a bit of a kick in the butt.<\/p>\n

Even as Cartrett (pictured above) and other speakers heralded the benefits of the company\u2019s new generation of AI-enabled, cloud-based business and financial management products, they did so to an audience that is still betwixt and between \u2013 with many users still loyally rooted in the terra firma<\/em> of the on-premises products upon which Aderant originally built its reputation.<\/p>\n

Ever since 2017, when Aderant first released Expert Sierra, the cloud version of Aderant\u2019s Expert financial management software, the company\u2019s sights have been set squarely on the cloud. When Cartrett \u2013 with Aderant since 2014, after moving there from Thomson Reuters \u2013 was named CEO in 2022, his express mission was to aggressively advance a cloud-first strategy<\/a> throughout Aderant\u2019s suite of solutions.<\/p>\n

The company significantly advanced that strategy at last year\u2019s Momentum conference with its release of Stridyn<\/a>, an AI-driven cloud platform designed to unify all of Aderant\u2019s cloud products within a cohesive interface.<\/p>\n

And it further advanced that strategy at the conference with the launch of another four cloud-based applications<\/a> \u2013 Cloud Accounts Receivable (AR), Cloud General Ledger (GL), Stridyn Analytics, and askMADDI \u2013 and enhancements to other cloud applications, such as AI-powered generation of billing narratives in iTimekeep.<\/p>\n

The momentum on display at Momentum has proven successful for the company. In his kick-off, Cartrett highlighted 2024 as a record-breaking year for the company\u2019s growth and said 2025 was on track to be even stronger.<\/p>\n

Driving much of that growth was Sierra, the cloud version of Expert, which grew by 234% over the last two years, Cartrett said. In just the first quarter of this year, 11 new firms have gone live on Sierra, and last year, 47 firms went live. To help drive all this, the company hired 110 new employees in 2024.<\/p>\n

But it cannot be overlooked that Aderant, after all, is a company whose roots go back nearly 50 years to its founding in 1978. For many of those earlier years, it was on the strength of its on-premises products that it was able to establish and build a significant customer base among large and mid-sized law firms.<\/p>\n

Even in the face of all this momentum towards the cloud and AI on display at the conference, I spoke to several customers \u2013 primarily at larger law firms \u2013 who told me they are quite happy with their on-premises versions of Aderant\u2019s software. They said they have no interest in moving to the cloud \u2013 at least not for now.<\/p>\n

Some told me that they spent years customizing and tailoring the software to make it a perfect fit for their firm, and, having done that, they are in no hurry to walk away.<\/p>\n

So when I say that Cartrett\u2019s kick-off might also have been a bit of a kick in the butt, I do not mean to suggest that he is pushing any of his customers off on-premises versions of Aderant\u2019s software.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the morning before the registration rush.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In fact, I directly asked him whether Aderant had any plans to follow the example of e-discovery company Relativity \u2013 another business that built its reputation on its on-prem software long before building its cloud platform, and which recently announced<\/a> that it will require all new cases to be in the cloud starting in 2028.<\/p>\n

Cartrett responded that he has no plans to do anything similar, and that if such a date were ever to come, it would be very far off into the future.<\/p>\n

Still, to this observer, it did feel that Aderant is performing a delicate balancing act between its legacy customers and its cloud customers. And, to the extent it is a balancing act, then for any customers still teetering, Aderant is explicitly, if gently, encouraging them to join the cloud side.<\/p>\n

In fact, during the opening session, Andy Hoyt<\/a>, Aderant\u2019s chief technology officer, and Josiah Chaves<\/a>, an Aderant veteran who was recently named the company\u2019s chief client officer<\/a>, made this crystal clear through two slides they presented.<\/p>\n

The first, titled \u201cThe Path of Innovation Adoption,\u201d outlined how transitioning to the cloud would \u201crevolutionize your experience and productivity\u201d and enable customers to \u201cfully leverage the cloud\u2019s potential and our refined, feature-rich platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following that was a slide titled, \u201cCome to Sierra\u201d that outlined the key benefits for customers of moving to Aderant\u2019s cloud platform:<\/p>\n