Huron Consulting Group has announced that it will acquire legal analytics and software company Sky Analytics to support and enhance the services which Huron Legal provides to clients.

Sky Analytics has a suite of web-based solutions whose purpose is to help enhance legal teams’ ability to keep an eye on what they are spending on outside lawyers, vendors and other projects.

The tools do more than merely track expense. One feature which sounds particularly interesting is the ability to benchmark costs to help identify which outside provider (such as a law firm) is handling a specific type of matter more efficiently than others.

There is more to this than merely comparing two law firms. Increasingly, the components of legal services are offered by companies which are not law firms and which do not give legal advice, but which support the legal function. GCs are wanting – and getting – more granular information about matters which enables them to see which component of a matter (such as eDisclosure / eDiscovery) might be a candidate for outsourcing.