> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.holace.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Service Providers Overview > How HoLaCe firms and outside providers (investigators, expert witnesses, runners) work together through parallel Service Instances. HoLaCe is built so a law firm doesn't do every task in-house. **Service Providers** are outside companies — investigation firms, expert-witness shops, court-runners — that plug into your case work without joining your firm or seeing cases they weren't invited to. **Innate Fox Investigations** is the canonical example: a California habitability-investigation partner that takes on field work for HoLaCe firms across multiple states. Each service provider company has its own portal, its own login, and its own staff list. Field workers (like Innate Fox investigator **Vince Soria**) get a leaner, mobile-first **contractor** view that shows only the specific assignments they own. ## Two portals, two audiences For provider managers and ops staff (e.g. Adrianna at Innate Fox). Receive incoming requests, assign investigators, track SLA, manage the team roster. For the field investigator. See today's assignments, get directions to the site, complete the mobile form on a phone, submit the report. A third audience — **the requesting attorney** at the law firm — never leaves the main HoLaCe dashboard. Their view of the same investigation lives inside the journey under the **Investigations** tab. See [requesting investigations](/portals/firm-side/requesting-investigations). ## The parallel-services concept This is the most important mental model in this section. **Service Instances run alongside a journey, not inside it.** \[Screenshot: A journey detail page with a sidebar showing the Avenue stage tracker and, beneath it, a "Services" panel with two ServiceInstance cards (Investigation, Expert Witness) running in parallel] A client journey progresses linearly through a single Avenue at a time — Prospect → Pre-Litigation → Litigation → DNQ. That linear track is where the case status lives. **Services don't move the avenue forward.** They are parallel add-ons: * A journey can have **zero, one, or many** ServiceInstances open at once. * An investigation can be requested while the case sits in Pre-Litigation **and** keep running after the case enters Litigation. * Each ServiceInstance has its own status, its own provider, its own staged workflow (request → assigned → in-progress → review → complete). * Closing a ServiceInstance does not advance the journey's avenue. Advancing the avenue does not close active services. Think of avenues as the road the case is on, and services as parallel errands you dispatch from that road. ## Investigation lifecycle at a glance An attorney or paralegal opens a journey, picks **Investigations** in the inner nav, and creates a request — propertyAddress, tenant, priority (`STANDARD`, `URGENT`, `EMERGENCY`), and any context the investigator needs. The request lands in the SP admin's Investigation Requests queue with status `PENDING`. They see firm name, requestor, address, and SLA implied by priority. SP admin assigns an investigator (a `ServiceProviderEmployee` with role `INVESTIGATOR`). Status flips to `ASSIGNED` and that contractor sees it on their dashboard. Contractor opens the assignment on their phone, gets directions, fills the mobile investigation form (per-category save, photo capture with GPS, notes). Status `IN_PROGRESS`. Contractor submits. Status `PENDING_REVIEW`. The submitted form lands in the firm's Investigations review queue. Attorney approves the report (or requests revisions). Approval makes the report eligible for the [investigation demand-letter pipeline](/legal-workflow/demand-letters). Status `COMPLETED`. ## Where to go next