AbacusNext Acquires HotDocs

AbacusNext has acquired document automation provider HotDocs. AbacusNext is the largest technology-as-a-service provider for the professional services industry. The company plans to integrate HotDocs into its existing technology solutions for legal, accounting, and business management.

Highlights of Acquisition:

HotDocs is the leading provider of document automation software, with customers in 60 different countries and a user-base, globally, that exceeds one million.
AbacusNext pioneered the only Compliance-Ready™ suite of technology solutions designed exclusively to cloud-enable desktop, mobile and SaaS applications in a single sign-on, secured and fully managed environment.
HotDocs is widely used in the legal, banking, insurance, government, public and corporate sectors, for increasing accuracy, reducing cost, mitigating risk, and improving efficiency in the generation of complex documentation. Users can quickly and efficiently generate customized documents such as contracts, sales agreements, government forms, and loan documentation.
HotDocs Market, the standalone marketplace and publishing platform, gives professionals access to thousands of premium templates. Utilized by over 9,000 users, HotDocs Market is populated with content created by leading publishers and state bar associations.
AbacusNext’s combined user base, 1.5 million worldwide, will benefit from the most compelling products and services portfolio in the industry, including case management and practice management software solutions, private cloud hosting, Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), IT infrastructure management, security endpoint protection, and business automation.

This caps a year of expansion for AbacusNext—which saw acquisitions of Results Software, an award-winning CRM, OfficeTools, an industry leading practice management application, and Cloudnine Realtime, a hosting platform for accounting firms. The combination represents a unique opportunity to bring end-to-end technology services to existing clients, and AbacusNext will be positioned to capture significant market share in a highly fragmented market as the first company to provide a comprehensive suite of enterprise-level technology services and products.

In addition to core products, AbacusNext acquires HotDocs Market, an online ecommerce marketplace that allows clients to purchase and use HotDocs templates whenever and wherever they want. This unique, self-contained e-store built by HotDocs will ultimately allow on-demand access to products and templates across the unified AbacusNext portfolio. Incorporating HotDocs Market into the AbacusNext ecosystem will deliver yet another game-changing automation platform for clients.

“Today marks another milestone as we continue building on our unique technology services platform for our current and future clients,” said Alessandra Lezama, CEO of AbacusNext. “HotDocs’ document automation software is the perfect addition to our portfolio and will make an immediate impact for our client base of legal and accounting firms. By leveraging the HotDocs platform and support staff, we’ll be able to offer organizations greater business efficiency than ever before, with the broadest value proposition to support customer growth. The combined company will have an unmatched position in serving clients by providing a complete end-to-end solution.”

Rapid technology changes in recent years, together with increased pressure to reduce costs and increased mobility, is driving the movement to cloud-enable firms in the professional services industry to considerably reduce their costs and increase revenues. With this acquisition, AbacusNext builds HotDocs service offerings into its platform, allowing deeper relationships with business clients by providing the solutions they need to maximize operational efficiency and strengthen profit margins.

“HotDocs and AbacusNext work across many of the same markets and are a natural fit” said Russell Shepherd, outgoing CEO of HotDocs. “I was looking for an acquirer with the same grand scale of ambition as the HotDocs team, and Abacus has the ambition to take the combined businesses on to even greater heights. HotDocs offers Abacus the opportunity to expand vertically and internationally in one bold strategic move, through the acquisition of a global, market leading brand, and I am delighted to be passing on the leadership and ownership of HotDocs to this successful and expanding company.”

Steve Spratt, COO at HotDocs, commented, “HotDocs document automation technology will enhance the existing product suite that AbacusNext already provides to its impressive client base and the 11,500 existing HotDocs client organizations will now have access to new CRM, practice management and hosting services under one roof. We welcome this new partnership and I look forward to sharing the benefits it brings with existing and new customers across our key verticals of banking, legal and large enterprise.”