Hyperion Research was founded to bring greater clarity and insight to the Legal technology market. Our mission is to serve the collective best interests of consumers and providers by providing an objective resource for framing, studying and reporting on the market’s most important issues and opportunities.
Information technology in the Legal industry has matured greatly over the past 20 years –to the point where it is hard to imagine the practice of law without the benefits of technology.
As globalization and deregulation have redefined business as a whole, the legal industry has kept pace by adapting in nearly every aspect of its business. Today, both corporate law departments and law firms manage complexity across a broad range of legal issues, meeting the needs of their clients to manage risk and maximize business value. In no small part, legal technology has been a critical component of managing this change.
THE CHALLENGE OF THE LEGAL TECHNOLOGY MARKET
The technology market for the Legal industry is as complex as the business it supports. Both consumers and vendors struggle to understand the market dynamics that drive technology in the Legal industry.
For vendors, the market can be especially challenging. The Legal technology solutions market is highly fragmented. It may be more accurately described as a collection of market niches, defined by the various legal practice specialties and unique legal work processes. Understanding critical issues, positioning their solutions, and communicating differentiated value propositions, can be difficult for vendors where there is a relative lack of maturity and a dearth of reliable market information. Most vendors are forced to build their own market intelligence and messaging without the benefit of independent contributors, or outlets able to produce objective and credible market information.
Customers are likewise challenged to understand the market for Legal technology solutions. Unlike other technology areas where there is generally an abundance of market information, legal technology consumers are often forced to construct their own market views. Too often consumer understanding is based on dated experiences, second hand information and vendor created collateral. Consumers lack a reliable, intelligent source of insight to important Legal technology trends and solutions.
These challenges result in a suboptimal market, where both consumers and providers miss the opportunity to gain the greatest value possible in selecting and delivering technology solutions. Our view is that the lack of accurate, reliable and readily accessible market information negatively impacts the collective interests of consumers and providers.
THE ROLE OF HYPERION
The goal of our research is to create independent insight that is not just reliable, but actionable. To attain this goal, we have assembled a leading team of industry experts – well regarded as thought leaders in their respective specialties. Our team includes attorneys, paralegals, management consultants and technologists – who have worked for corporate law departments, law firms, legal consulting firms and legal technology vendors.
In addition to our expert team, we have also developed a highly structured research approach that assures our clients are getting the most reliable and best developed information possible. We continuously refine and add innovative new methodologies and tools, as well as maintain rigorous adherence to our policies of independence and objectivity.
With Hyperion Research, the Legal market now has a critical resource to understand and address their most critical issues and opportunities.
OUR RESEARCH AGENDA
The heart of Hyperion Research is our research agenda. Our research agenda is created through a highly collaborative process involving our clients, advisory council members and active participation in the Legal industry. Our agenda is well structured, but flexible, allowing us to remain at the leading edge of the issues that are most important to our clients.
Our overall research agenda is divided into research segments. Each segment addresses the major legal process and technology areas that comprise the solution landscape. Within each segment, a set of research focus areas are defined to identify the specific aspects of the segment that are considered within the scope of our research. The focus areas include the driving issues, opportunities and interests of our clients and the legal market.
Each focus area is supported by a research charter. The charter articulates the specific topics, issues and questions being covered within the segment and focus area.
In building and maintaining the research agenda, each segment is assigned to a segment leader. The leader is responsible for all aspects of that segment, including all market research activities, project definition, execution and report delivery. The segment leader is also responsible for managing segment-related advisory services to both corporate clients and vendor clients. The segment leader may be supported by analysts who contribute to specific focus areas or other aspects of the segment’s agenda. Contributing analysts may be internal analysts or adjunct analysts.
The research agenda is actively managed, with formal annual reviews by each segment leader and team. The segments are revised as necessary to ensure that our research is market relevant to our clients.
OUR APPROACH AND METHODOLOGIES
If the research agenda is our heart, then our approach and methodologies are the life blood that enables us to fulfill our mission in providing the best value possible to our clients. The highly structured way in which we approach the research process works hand in glove with our expert analysts. This ensures that our final work product is always highly reliable.
Our approach and methodologies are based on proven, long standing tools, and proprietary methodologies that we have developed specifically to meet our needs and requirements. The breadth and depth of our resources allow us to distill large amounts of information, and develop clear and concise insights and advice for our clients. We continuously review and revise how we work, introducing innovative new tools as we find better ways to approach the research process.
The following are our proprietary methodologies:
- MarketView Reporting
- TrendView Reporting
- VendorView Reporting
- VendorView Evaluation process
- VendorView Matrix
- Key Solution Components
- Market Insights and Surveys
In addition to our structured approach and methodologies, several other characteristics help us sustain our unique position and best serve our clients.
- An independent, unbiased approach – the Legal technology market suffers a shortage of actionable advice from a qualified, unbiased source. As an independent research organization, we’re not obligated to any external agenda—and we’re not shy about putting solid stakes in the ground about how technology is impacting the future of the Legal industry;
- A quantitative/qualitative blend – our insights and perspectives are a blend of both quantitative and qualitative research. We combine both facts and our expert opinion on what the facts represent to your business. We provide the story behind the numbers—the story others may not be seeing;
- Peer review and collaboration – all of our reports and presentations are subject to a peer-review process. Each document we produce is reviewed for objectivity, with both findings and conclusions fully vetted by our team;
- Finely tuned, role-based insight – as legal practitioners we understand the different perspectives that are important to our clients. In developing our research we always consider the important role-based dimensions which can be critical to truly understanding the topic.