Modernizing a Legacy Collections Platform for a SaaS Company in the LegalTech Industry

The Challenges

A leading SaaS provider in the LegalTech Industry partnered with Kelley Austin to modernize their legacy platform and transition to Salesforce.

Their software helps community association law firms and management companies navigate complex legal, financial, and workflow challenges related to assessment collections — supporting thousands of HOAs and 25 of the top law firms in the U.S.

As the industry continues to grow and regulatory demands increase, the company recognized the need to replatform in order to reduce technical risk, enhance usability, and create a scalable foundation for long-term growth. Before partnering with Kelley Austin, the company faced several key challenges:

Aging Tech Stack: Our client’s legacy system was difficult to maintain and not easily extensible, resulting in increased costs and technical risk.

Fragmented User Experience: Both internal teams and customers struggled with usability issues that slowed productivity and created barriers to transparency.

Complex Workflows: Legal and financial workflows required customization by jurisdiction, making automation and scalability difficult.

Lack of Real-Time Visibility: Association Management Companies (AMCs) and HOAs had limited self-service capabilities and relied heavily on manual updates from the collections team.

The Solution

The first phase of this project focused on rebuilding the company’s system for one of their longest-standing clients — paving the way for a repeatable solution that can be deployed across their broader customer base. This included implementing a full-scale Salesforce solution leveraging Sales Cloud, Experience Cloud, custom workflows, and third-party integrations.

Sales Cloud

At the heart of this transformation was a fully custom implementation of Sales Cloud, designed to support the legal and financial intricacies of HOA assessment collections.

Kelley Austin worked closely with our client to rebuild their data architecture and create a scalable workflow framework tailored to jurisdiction-specific rules and operational processes. These foundational elements allowed for smarter task management, better financial tracking, and a more streamlined user experience across the board.

Custom Data Architecture: Rebuilt the back-end data model with over 40 custom objects to support legal and financial collections workflows across jurisdictions.

Configurable Workflow Engine: Developed a dynamic engine with up to 14 stages, sub-stages, reminders, and milestones that guide users through legally compliant collection processes.

Ledger & Financial Tracking UI: Implemented a robust ledger component for tracking assessments, fees, payments, and judgment balances with interactive UI elements.

Paralegal Productivity Dashboard: Designed a centralized work queue to help paralegals manage tasks, deadlines, and follow-ups with improved clarity and accountability.

Experience Cloud

To improve transparency and reduce manual workload for both internal teams and customers, Kelley Austin implemented a secure Experience Cloud site.

This customer-facing portal empowers AMCs and HOAs to manage cases, access account data, and view real-time updates — all without needing to engage the collections team directly. The result is greater autonomy for end users and fewer bottlenecks in day-to-day operations.

Self-Service Customer Portal: Delivered a secure Experience Site for AMCs and HOAs to access account details, upload files, and manage cases without relying on manual updates.

Real-Time Status Reporting: Enabled partners to generate and download up-to-date status reports directly from the portal, reducing support requests.

Case Communication Transparency: Integrated account history notes and external comments into the portal, ensuring stakeholders stay informed throughout the collections process.

Custom Integrations

Recognizing the importance of preserving key functionality from the legacy system, the project included several custom integrations to support core business needs

By connecting Salesforce with tools like Endicia and Outlook, Kelley Austin ensured that critical tasks like document delivery, correspondence tracking, and account syncing could happen seamlessly within the new platform. These integrations allowed the business to retain the power of its existing tools — now embedded within a more modern and efficient system.

Mailing & Delivery Integration with Endicia: Built a custom component to allow customization of addresses pulled from account prior to sending API calls to Endicia, replicating and enhancing existing functionality.

Outlook Integration: Set up Outlook integration to log and manage correspondence in Salesforce, improving case context and documentation.

Custom API Integration with External Systems: Enabled secure syncing of accounts and invoices with a key third-party partner using REST APIs and custom endpoints.

Managed Services Support

Our team supported the rollout of a scalable app package that can be deployed to additional law firms, ensuring repeatability and long-term value.

Post app launch, Kelley Austin provided Managed Services support to help our client maintain momentum and build on early success. With thorough documentation and tailored training for both administrators and end users, the transition to Salesforce was smooth — and the foundation was set for continuous improvement. 

Customer Impact

Over several months, Kelley Austin worked closely with our client to modernize a platform that has served this industry for decades. By transitioning to Salesforce, they’ve ensured its relevance and viability for the next generation of community association professionals.

The outcome is more than just a technology upgrade — it’s a strategic foundation for long-term innovation and customer success.

With these solutions, the company has laid the foundation for a modern, secure, and extensible SaaS platform tailored to the unique needs of the community associations industry. Key outcomes include:

Reduced Maintenance Costs & Risk: Migrating to Salesforce eliminated the burden of supporting a legacy codebase and enabled scalable, future-proof infrastructure.

Improved User Experience: Both internal teams and external partners now benefit from intuitive interfaces, automated processes, and self-service capabilities.

Faster Time to Value for Clients: Legal and financial workflows are now more efficient and standardized, helping law firms operate with greater speed and transparency.

Scalable Solution: With a Salesforce-based solution and deployment-ready package, the company is now well-positioned to bring the same benefits to their entire customer base.

This project marks a pivotal moment in the company’s evolution — from a legacy platform built over decades to a modern, flexible solution built for the future. 

By partnering with Kelley Austin, our client not only improved operational efficiency and user experience today but also unlocked the ability to scale their impact across a broader customer base. With a Salesforce foundation now in place, the company is equipped to lead the industry forward with confidence, agility, and innovation.