Harnessing Innovation: Peppermint Technology and our Microsoft Partnership Advantage
July 20, 2023 – Nottingham, UK
In today's fast-paced digital landscape, staying ahead of the curve is crucial for businesses. This isn’t news of course; it’s been the same narrative for a long time. However, some would say that innovation in legal tech has been too slow and has lagged the pace of other markets. Whether you believe this or not, it is certainly not the case today. Matt O’Callaghan, Peppermint Chief Sales and Marketing Officer talks about how Peppermint, in collaboration with its strategic partner Microsoft, is taking a leading role in driving innovation in legal tech.
Exactly how are you doing this I hear you ask and what makes Peppermint so unique?
Peppermint's competitive advantage lies in our commitment to harnessing the immense potential of the Microsoft cloud. As a Microsoft Independent Software Vendor (ISV), what truly sets us apart from our competitors is our approach of building solutions entirely within the Microsoft cloud. By doing so, we can quickly embrace and leverage their latest advancements.
Why does Peppermint's approach stand out compared to other legal tech vendors who are also Microsoft partners? Do they not receive the same privileges?
Good question and the answer in an important distinction between two approaches: developing within the Microsoft Cloud versus hosting legacy applications in Microsoft Azure.
As I’ve mentioned above, Peppermint's unique edge is building directly within the Microsoft cloud, enabling us to promptly leverage the latest innovations, ensuring that we deliver solutions that stay ahead of the curve and provide unparalleled benefits to our clients.
Traditional legal tech vendors on the other hand may also be Microsoft partners, but they often build their applications using proprietary, non-Microsoft software and then host these applications in Microsoft Azure. So while other legal tech vendors may have a partnership with Microsoft, Peppermint's advantage is in its direct development within the Microsoft cloud and that sets us apart in the legal tech market.
So let me provide a few examples and explain how Peppermint is able to instantly take advantage of the cutting-edge innovations such as Copilot, Viva Sales and Viva Goals and seamlessly bring them to life in our core applications:
One of the major benefits of being a Microsoft ISV is gaining early access to ground breaking technologies like Copilot. Copilot is an AI-powered coding assistant that goes beyond its developer benefits and serves as a versatile business tool fully integrated throughout Microsoft 365 and now Dynamics 365 also. It provides features such as email summaries, suggesting email responses, and summarising data to prepare for meetings. Combined with Peppermint’s legal ready applications, Copilot enables our clients to streamline their daily operations, enhance productivity, and make data-driven decisions more efficiently.
In addition, our developers are recognising a transformation to the way they work also. By leveraging Copilot's advanced capabilities, our development team can accelerate the development process and create innovative solutions more efficiently. In fact, we are going one a step further by developing Copilot plugins specifically to help law firm marketing and business development professionals.
And sticking to the marketing and BD theme, another great example of how we can uniquely harness the Microsoft cloud is in our ability to provide immediate access to powerful Microsoft 365 applications such as Viva Goals and Viva Sales within our legal ready CRM application, Client Engagement.
Viva Goals is a valuable tool for goal setting and performance tracking. It aligns to individual and team objectives, tracks progress, and provides real-time insights. Peppermint Client Engagement seamlessly works with Viva Goals, empowering our clients to set clear goals, foster a culture of continuous improvement, and drive their success with comprehensive performance management capabilities.
In addition, Client Engagement natively works with Viva Sales, a comprehensive AI-driven sales solution designed to boost productivity and drive revenue growth. Viva Sales provides our clients with intelligent analytics, client insights, and helps streamline business development processes – perfectly complementing our modern legal CRM solution.
Peppermint Technology, in collaboration with Microsoft, is spearheading innovation in the legal tech market with technologies like Copilot, Viva Sales and Viva Goals. And the most exciting part? This only scratches the surface of the technologies we are working on. The future holds even more exciting prospects as Peppermint continues to explore new possibilities in partnership with Microsoft. It’s exciting for us, it’s exciting for Microsoft, but most of all it’s exciting for our clients. Stay tuned for upcoming announcements!