In a major win for community legal centres (CLCs) across Australia, Marrickville Legal Centre (MLC) has entered into an agreement with Sharing Minds, a leading Microsoft technology consultancy.
Sharing Minds has agreed to take the reins of the AIIM Community Legal CRM platform to ensure its long-term survival, sustainability, and ongoing enhancement for the benefit of CLCs across the country.
Built for purpose and powered by Microsoft, the AIIM platform is a next-generation case, contract, and client management platform designed and by and for mission-driven organisations.
Built on Microsoft’s Power Platform and developed in collaboration with Australia’s community legal sector, AIIM helps legal, nonprofit, and public service organisations streamline service delivery, reporting, compliance, and volunteer management so they can focus on the work that matters.
Designed by the sector, for the sector, AIIM was previously known as Consensus for Purpose (CFP). AIIM is the result of many years of planning and development by CLCs to address the unique operational needs of their sector.
By integrating modern cloud technologies, automation, and optimised workflows, AIIM delivers significant productivity gains and administrative efficiencies for legal practitioners. Unlike generic systems, AIIM was purpose-built with the community legal sector in mind, ensuring every feature directly supports the real-world challenges faced by CLCs.
The transfer of AIIM to Sharing Minds, one of Australia’s leading Microsoft business productivity specialists, will ensure the platform continues to evolve and thrive. Sharing Minds’ deep expertise across Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Azure – combined with its client-centric approach and strong consulting and support capability – make it the ideal long-term steward for the solution.
As part of the agreement, Sharing Minds has also committed to supporting the sector with price stability, providing certainty and continuity for CLCs planning their technology budgets.
“Marrickville Legal Centre has a proud history of innovating for the public good,” said Vasili Maroulis, Chief Executive Officer of MLC.
“From the launch of the Client Referral Network in 2019 to our AI-powered legal chatbot NALA in 2020, we have consistently built tools to empower our sector. AIIM is the culmination of this innovation journey, and we are confident that Sharing Minds will take it even further.”
Maroulis continued: “The purpose-built AIIM Community Legal CRM solution has helped Marrickville Legal Centre automate basic administrative tasks and streamline work processes, which has enabled us to unlock much needed people resources who can now direct their expertise towards addressing those that need legal support.”
“We estimate there has been an immediate benefit to the thousands of people we help every year and reduced the number of people we have to turn away due to resource constraints – so it’s a real gamechanger.”
Sharing Minds is known for helping organisations of all sizes improve collaboration, information management and business outcomes through tailored, intelligent technology solutions. With a commitment to customer partnership and excellence, Sharing Minds will ensure that CFP continues to deliver value to CLCs for years to come.
“We’re thrilled to take on the future of AIIM development and support,” said Bill Angelidis, Managing Director at Sharing Minds.
“Our vision aligns perfectly with the intent behind this platform – to empower people through the thoughtful use of technology. We look forward to working closely with community legal centres to further develop and expand AIIM capabilities.”
“I am also excited to welcome key AIIM staff who have transferred across to the Sharing Minds Team such as Jimmy Atkinson in IT Project Development, Meghan Kemp in Business Development, and John Griffin in IT Operations Management. These people have all made valuable contributions to developing and supporting AIIM to date”.
This new agreement ensures continuity of service for existing AIIM users, with plans already underway to invest in new features and improvements tailored to sector feedback.
ALL MEDIA ENQUIRIES: Sean Wilson (sean.wilson@sharingminds.com.au)
