IT consulting firm the winner of ANZ Social Impact Award for helping address unequal access to justice in Australia by leveraging the Microsoft platform including the latest AI technology
Barhead Solutions has won the 2024 Microsoft ANZ Social Impact Partner of the Year Award for its Consensus for Purpose solution (CFP), a legal practice management solution aimed at helping community legal centres (CLCs) provide legal representation in disadvantaged communities.
Every year, 154 CLCs across Australia have to turn away more than 368,000 people in need of legal help.
To meet higher demand for free and affordable legal services amidst a cost of living crisis, Marrickville Legal Centre, Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) and Women’s Legal Service Queensland collaborated with Barhead to build CFP, a solution that will enable CLCs to provide efficient services and stronger data security with Microsoft AI-powered legal practice management.
Marrickville CEO Vasili Maroulis said CFP will help CLCs provide more services and assist more people, amidst a cost-of-living crisis that has seen demand for free and affordable legal representation increase.
‘By automating basic administrative tasks and streamlining work processes, the Consensus for Purpose solution unlocks much needed people resources who can now direct their expertise towards addressing those that need legal support. We estimate there will be an immediate benefit to the thousands of people we help every year and limit the number of people we have to turn away due to resource constraints — so it’s a real gamechanger.’
Vasili Maroulis, Chief Executive Officer, Marrickville Legal Centre
‘We are proud at Barhead for winning the ANZ Microsoft Partner of the Year for Social Impact. If CFP is adopted by 80% of CLCs,’ said Barhead Co-founder John Orrock,’ the entire sector can save approximately $25 million over 5 years.’ More importantly, Orrock added, CFP provides CLCs with a secure and scalable platform that bolsters their AI readiness.
‘As part of our ongoing community involvement, Barhead is helping not-for-profits and CLCs with their AI readiness, and the CFP does exactly that, with a platform that leverages Copilot and can be easily implemented by community legal centres across Australia. Leveraging Microsoft’s technology platform, including AI and Copilot, CLCs can provide more services faster and with more confidence using a solution that’s designed to be built once and deployed to many.’
Grassroots community initiatives, such as CFP, are featured and recognised by the Microsoft POTY ANZ Social Impact Award and the POTY Social Impact category, along with the partners that have leveraged Microsoft technology to drive change and innovation and make an impact across the globe.
The award marks the 4th time Barhead was recognised at the POTY awards, after being named a winner in the Social Impact category in 2020 and 2022 and a finalist in the Power Platform and Social Impact categories in 2021.
‘Congratulations to the winners and finalists of the 2024 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards,’ said Nicole Dezen, Chief Partner Officer and Corporate Vice President at Microsoft. ‘The momentum generated by numerous AI & Copilot announcements this year fueled innovation from our partners, enabling groundbreaking services and solutions to customers. I am inspired by the capability and creativity in our partner ecosystem and this year’s winners beautifully demonstrate the best of what’s possible with AI and the Microsoft Cloud.’
‘Our close relationship with Microsoft has been key to developing innovative solutions built on Dynamics 365, Power Platform and now Copilot for the not-for-profit sector. The Microsoft ANZ Partner of the Year Award for Social Impact is an acknowledgement of all the wonderful work Barhead and our partner community legal centres have done, and we will continue to work with both Microsoft and not-for-profits to help address the most pressing issues in our communities.’
Ken Struthers, Barhead CEO and Co-Founder
