Aderant Team Member Spotlight: Marquis Boyd

A Conversation with Marquis Boyd, Software Engineer for Handshake

Q: What do you do for Handshake at Aderant?

Marquis: I’m a software engineer on the Handshake team and have worked with the product since 2008, so I have a lot of familiarity with it. I started in customer service, then moved to consulting and support, and then transitioned into development. This progression has really helped me understand all elements of the product and how our clients use Handshake.

Q: What sorts of projects do you work on?

Marquis: I work on all kinds of projects. Recently I was focused on our Handshake Connect portal technology built upon SharePoint online. This is where a lot of our clients are moving to or have moved to. Handshake helps firms with both out of the box and custom portals within SPO by enabling the portal to display information acquired from Aderant Expert and many other applications including DMS, CRM, and more. In our current phase, our focus is creating a user interface that looks spectacular and matches clients’ expectations for a modern webpage.

Q: How much customization is done to Handshake Connect based on the firm’s unique needs?

Marquis: With portals, there is an understanding that each implementation will be fairly bespoke, and this element has helped us give clients what they need. However, we have realized that quite often, clients have the same exact needs so we can solve their problems in a similar way. We are using these synergies to create a more formulaic implementation process. This will be more efficient than a purely bespoke process, while still giving the firm what it individually needs within their time and budgetary constraints. Our recent flagship product, ConnectX, has brought us as close as we’ve ever been to being able to really accomplish this objective because we just have a robust set of deliverables that are seamlessly built to be functional soon after that installation is complete.

Q: Focusing on the future plans for Handshake Connect, what are you looking to accomplish?

Marquis: Aderant has ambitious goals around cloud transformation, and our team is aligned. We have a lot of great technology already that straddles that line between what is the future with SaaS and what is the current standard with on-premise setups. We also see a lot of firms trying to take advantage of all the new items within the Microsoft and SharePoint Online ecosystems, including Copilot, MS Fabric, and the MS Power Platform. Helping firms do this is a huge part of my role.

Q: What do you like best about working on the Handshake team at Aderant?

Marquis: I thoroughly enjoyed the Handshake team and the clients that I’ve worked with for the last 15 years. I have always felt appreciated and have been given a lot of autonomy to follow my interests and strengths to contribute to Handshake. Because I have worked in so many roles here, I have a unique, client-first, perspective. While I am on the engineering team, I get to interact with our clients often, which keeps me close to my roots and allows me to see how our product helps our clients firsthand. That is a great feeling!