Professional services solutions provider Intapp announced the release of Intapp DealCloud Activator, which uses a social media-like interface to give users “nudges” to adopt certain practices and habits that are associated with successful business development. While currently made for law firms, Intapp intends to roll this out for other professions, including accountants, in the future. Intapp made the announcement during its Intapp Amplify event in New York City on Feb. 26. 

The new solution is built around the results of an exhaustive study about the habits of highly effective rainmakers in partner-based businesses, which was eventually published in the Harvard Business Review, which Intapp funded. A series of survey tools and 1-on-1 interviews with professionals across the world coalesced into five business development profiles: Experts, Confidantes, Debaters, Realists and Activators. The final group, Activators, were found by the researchers to be 32% more successful in bringing in new business. In general, their behavior profile emphasizes network building and proactivity, such as reaching out to current or prospective clients when changes occur in the regulatory or economic environment or introducing clients to partners from other practice areas that they think can provide value. 

Rory Channer, founding partner of DCM Insights and one of the lead authors of the HBR study, said during his talk that, since the study was completed, he has been advising firms on how to encourage Activator behavior among their own staff, which he said has led to great improvements in business development. 

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Laura Saklad, vice president of Intapp’s legal industry group, said the DealCloud Activator solution is meant to encourage the same kinds of behavioral changes, but with AI-driven software versus a consulting engagement. The product, she said, is meant to address two challenges. One is how do leaders influence their professionals to adopt Activator behaviors when they cannot command or control them? The other is how can we give leaders the tools they need to monitor and adapt to AI in a way that works for their culture? 

The answer to both, said Saklad, is a concept in behavioral science called “Nudges” which encourage or discourage certain behaviors not through coercion or education but, rather, subtle interventions in the choice architecture that, while easy and cheap to avoid, can alter how one makes decisions. Contrast putting fruit at eye level to encourage people to eat healthier, versus outright banning junk food. Saklad said we already see this being applied in other applications. 

“Nudges are embedded in the apps we use everyday, your phone may nudge you about your steps or to drink water or to stand up and get out of your seat and move around, whatever it is you are personally committed to you can use your apps and this technology to keep you true to your commitments. The approach focuses on encouraging small incremental improvements that add up over time, and given the size of the firms you all work in, even modest individual improvements can have a significant cumulative impact and that is what we’re going for. Our implementation is called Signals, it behaves like an assistant thinking of you and your practice 24 hours a day without having to go into a dashboard or tech app,” she said.

The solution interface features what is called an Activator Feed that is tailored specifically to the user. It appears similar to a social media feed, but instead of scrolling through posts about people’s dogs or their trip to Italy, users scroll through AI-produced reminders about current clients who could be proactively contacted to discuss a recent tax law change, or notes about changes in a company that night necessitate a talk. During her talk, her Activator Feed first reminded her of tips she received from a recent training session and the need to take quick action when she has time to spare, followed by a reminder to nurture her professional network by reaching out to a client who recently completed an M&A transaction so she can talk about how post-deal integration is going. 

“Now, of course, this is good client service, but importantly, I know that clients often need compliance advice after closing these types of deals, and so it is certainly worth checking in to see if my firm can be a further assistance. And once I do that, I can schedule a meeting. I can record that that meeting took place, so I have that and I can reference it in the future,” she said. 

The final item was to reminding her to take action to create new value for the firm. Specifically, the AI looked at historical data as well as information about her own work patterns to tell her that a partner at her firm has recently opened an IT engagement with a client she has been trying to figure out how to build a relationship with, which gives her an opportunity to expand the relationship further by offering other services. 

“It’s really exciting, because I would not have known this without this piece. I have not met him yet at his new firm, so now I can quickly send him an email or message and suggest that we collaborate on how we can expand the relationship and add more value for this. So that is a glimpse at how the activator experience for professionals can use nudge theory to provide timely, data driven insights that will help partners commit to consistent business development, connect with their professional networks and then create new opportunities for their firms and new greater value for their clients. That’s pretty cool,” she said. 

The second problem—how can we give leaders the tools they need to monitor and adapt to AI in a way that works for their culture?—is also addressed through nudges, according to Saklad. The software allows firm management to monitor, fine tune and prioritize how Activator behaviors are deployed in their firm. She noted that managing partners often have had difficulty getting clear insight into how my partners spend their business development time, but technology now enables this level of oversight. 

“[In this example] I am very focused on cross-selling, and I am able to see how my partners are engaged with cross-selling behavior and how they are improving over time… I can also see how much time my partners are spending on business development time versus billable work. And again, I can see it over time, and I can save by practice group. And then when I look at the details, I can say, for example, that right now my capital markets partners are not spending as much time on business development as some other groups. And I can make a note that when I next talk to the practice group leader, I can talk to her about how we can best support our partners and others. I can also drill down to see the daily and the weekly cadence of business development time,” she said. 

It also has a heat map of which practice groups have the strongest adoption of the desired behaviors, and offers the ability to drill down and identify how specific individuals are performing. 

“I can see which partners are doing well and reach out and give them a pat on the back. I can see which partners are slower to change and provide them with additional coaching. And lastly, the most exciting thing, is that the data provided in these dashboards allows me to connect Activator behaviors with revenue generation, and so I really can quantify for the first time the impact to the bottom line,” she said. 

Intapp DealCloud Activator is currently only available for law firms, Tom Koehler, Intapp’s global managing principal for accounting and consulting, said in a later interview that there are plans to release versions for other professions, such as those in audit, advisory or tax in the future. He noted that it is not a matter of simply changing labels, as the specific type of nudges the software uses need to be particular to the profession. For instance, in countries that have mandatory audit partner rotation (done to preserve auditor independence), the software could nudge accountants on how to convert turnover into business opportunities. 

“When you leave your client you have a lot of relationships. So how do you leverage that, then into business development, into cross selling, so you turn it into more of an asset,” he said. 

While a specific date or timeframe was not mentioned for accountants, Kohler said that an accounting-focused version is “on our horizon as a next rollout.”