Meet the GRIFFIN Teams: AllyOne

The GRIFFIN Accelerator is a three-month intensive program that gets startups moving fast and achieving sustainable business success. This year we have welcomed seven startups to participate, including AllyOne. Meet Joanne Rees, Founder and CEO.

 Tell us about your company. When and why was it founded?

AllyOne (formerly Procera) is a software platform that has spun out Allygroup’s legal project management and consulting business (since 2007). From many years in the legal industry it became apparent that legal process rather than the client’s desired outcomes was the main focus in most legal projects. This led not only to indifferent results for clients but also to major cost blowouts. Allygroup legal project management was founded to address this problem.

What products and services do you provide?

AllyOne is a platform that delivers control of legal spend by aligning budget with strategy and outcome. Our simple to use software tool provides a platform for its users to define the what success looks like on their projects, set a fixed/capped budget and provide data analytics for forecasting, reporting and benchmarking purposes. Our tool is supported by online training in order to facilitate the mindset shift required in order to focus on outcomes rather than process.

Would you like to introduce yourself, and your team?

Joanne Rees, our founder and CEO, is a lawyer and business leader who has managed some of the highest profile corporate collapse litigations in Australian corporate history. She has developed and refined informed purchaser and legal project management best practice methodologies saving clients millions of dollars in legal costs and ensuring clarity around what success looks like.

Emma Walters is our expert writer and training designer. She has worked alongside Joanne on all of Allygroup’s client projects since 2010. Emma will be the lead in designing the AllyOne training program that will be required to support the AllyOne platform.

Bruce Clarke, our Co-founder, brings extensive experience in law, government and public administration where he has worked at the highest levels advising chief executives, ministers and senior bureaucrats on high-stakes projects.

Marcus van Vugt is our COO and has extensive experience in developing SAAS solutions and supporting global users. Marcus is a former PWC CIO and Partner and has extensive experience in sales and marketing and leading global teams.

William Mackay, Project Support, is experienced training and managing high performance teams through changes that deliver better outcomes for stakeholders and has been recognised in global awards at the individual and team levels.

Paul Willoughby has over 30 years’ experience leading communications teams for Ministers and large corporations. Paul was responsible for communications campaign for the Sydney Olympics including the messaging required to get everyone out of their cars and onto trains.

Nash Khanal (IT systems and software development support) is our local Canberra app and internet expert supporting our platform development.

Brand and Matter is our branding and web design support.

MGI are our accounts and financial support.

What advice do you have for startups in your industry?

Bring your passion, energy and belief for solving the problems our industry faces. This is needed to help guide the transformation that legal tech is bringing to the industry. We are learning as we go but love the challenges and opportunities for us to shape the future as legal tech transforms and improves the efficiencies and success of legal projects.

What great shift/change would you like to see in your industry?

A focus on outcome over process at the commencement of legal projects as this will lead to a return of the trusted relationships between organisations and their law firms. Also fixed/capped fees instead of billable time charging.

What are you most proud of so far?

We are global industry leaders in how to be informed purchasers of legal services. Our powerful AlleyOne software platform will be a world first in supporting purchasers of legal services to control their legal services.

 What quote or philosophy do you stand by?

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

Why do think Canberra is a great place to do business?

Canberra has it all without the traffic jams. In addition, there are many talented and globally minded entrepreneurs who are willing to help start-ups to achieve success.

What are you most looking forward to in the GRIFFIN Accelerator?

The opportunity to be advised by and work alongside industry leaders and other local entrepreneurs.

Thank you so much for taking the time to tell us about AllyOne, we can’t wait to see your progress through the program!
GRIFFIN Accelerator applications are currently closed, the next round will open mid-2023. To find out more visit https://cbrin.com.au/griffinaccelerator