Celebrating 35 Years of Abacus!
The year was 1983, and the personal computing revolution was shifting into high gear. Apple released the Lisa, Microsoft had just announced Windows 1.0, and a San Diego based software start-up called Abacus Data Systems set out to transform the way lawyers work. Our first product was AbacusLaw, a pioneering legal case management application that remains an industry leader to this day. AbacusLaw helps law firms to digitize and streamline their day-to-day, paper-and-pencil operations, saving them time and money as a result.
Over the next 35 years, we’ve continued to innovate and push the boundaries of what practice management software can do. In that time, we learned how professional services firms operate, where the inefficiencies are, and how the right technology can be a catalyst for firm success. In 2013, under the leadership of a new visionary CEO, Alessandra Lezama, we raised our sights from focusing solely on software to confronting the entire IT equation facing businesses of all kinds. AbacusNext was born, and with it a radical new approach to empowering professionals with technology.
We call it Technology-as-a-Service (TaaS), and its centerpiece is Abacus Private Cloud. APC allows us to offer our clients a fully virtualized, cloud-enabled IT experience that is secure, compliant, and eliminates capital expenditure so they can pay as they grow. Where AbacusLaw freed attorneys from the inefficiency of analogue processes, APC frees professionals everywhere from the analogue office. Now your entire IT infrastructure, including the apps and files you use every day, is virtual, scalable, and accessible wherever you are.
But we didn’t forget about software. Today, through continued innovation and expansion, our software portfolio now includes case management, practice management, document automation, and client relationship management applications. Coupled with APC, we’re able to offer our clients a complete TaaS solution with the software, IT infrastructure, and support they need to build a thriving business.
Since 2013, we’ve grown from less than 30 employees in one small office, to more than 500 employees spread over six offices in three countries. We’ve gone from a niche software developer focused on the legal profession, to a global technology leader that’s disrupting the Cloud Computing industry. AbacusNext now services over 1.5 million professionals across the legal, accounting, finance, banking, and public-sector markets.
The success of the last few years is just the beginning, we are setting our sights even higher, and are confident the next 35 years will be even more successful than the last.