Investing in Diligent Entities: Building the business case for digital entity management
Digital transformation continues to be a major corporate priority, but it isn’t easy. Our 2023 “What Directors Think” business barometer saw it top the list as the most difficult challenge to oversee.
Companies may be acutely aware that their business processes and the infrastructure supporting them are ripe for digitisation, but investing in software and choosing the right solution for your business is difficult at the best of times. Doing so in an uncertain economic climate is even harder. As budgets shrink and urgency for efficiency and productivity grows, you need to know that the software you choose will deliver a clear return on investment. Today’s businesses simply cannot afford to take a gamble on software that — at best — doesn’t deliver the level of benefits anticipated and — at worst — ends up as shelfware due to low user adoption.
Digitising Entity & Subsidiary Management — Delivering clarity and consistency on corporate data
Entity and subsidiary management is a clear example of a business management process that benefits from digitisation, especially in complex, multi-entity organisations.
Effective entity management requires complete accuracy with constantly updated information collated from hundreds of diverse sources, ideally into a single source of truth that can be relied on absolutely as the definitive corporate record. It should deliver a real-time picture of the business’s organisational structure and regulatory compliance position.
When entity and subsidiary management is done well, it delivers clarity and control for the enterprise. It puts the business in the best possible position to capitalise on opportunities such as mergers and acquisitions. This is especially relevant in the current climate. After a subdued 2022, M&A activity shows signs of accelerating in 2023 as businesses seek to stimulate growth, strengthen global supply chains and reposition their business for the current climate. M&A tracking company Datasite’s EMEA CRO, Merlin Piscitelli, writing in the FT Adviser, even notes that M&A is now a “strategic tool for energy and resource companies looking to improve their ESG practices and meet international carbon commitments.”
Strong entity management also reduces corporate record compliance risk by automating workflows to prevent entities from falling out of compliance.
Historically, organisations have relied on manual processes for entity management. This is not only very heavy on administration, but it can also allow errors to creep in. But the main disadvantage is that entity data often gets stuck in siloes and there is no way to gain a complete, company-wide picture of what is going on. Reporting is slow and labour-intensive, consuming resources and expertise that would be far better allocated to higher-value activities.
So, when building a business case for digitising entity and subsidiary management, decision-makers want to know that the proposed solution will deliver:
- Performance improvements: Adopting the solution should deliver a reduction in errors and greater accuracy; increased visibility of key data; better efficiency through a lower administrative burden; and greater clarity and control.
- Reduced risk: Greater visibility should cut the risk of entities falling out of compliance and limit the risk of fines. Any digital solution should also deliver improved security; entity data is highly confidential and must be protected from malicious exfiltration or inadvertent employee error.
- Reduced costs: The business case should detail the reduction in costs the solution will deliver. These might accrue through time saved by legal teams, avoidance of fines, or reduction in subscription costs compared with incumbent solutions.
Organisations should also consider the cost of change when implementing a new software solution. Teams can be surprisingly wedded to administrative processes and unwilling to adopt new tools, especially if they perceive there is a learning curve involved. The proposed solution’s usability and the support available during onboarding and embedding should also be factored into ROI calculations.
The Diligent Entity & Subsidiary Management ROI calculator
We know that building the business case for software investment can be complex and time-consuming, and that — in today’s economic environment — they must be as watertight as possible.
To help organisations gain fast insight into the value Diligent Entity & Subsidiary Management Software can deliver, we have created an Entity Management ROI calculator.
The calculator is based on independent customer reviews, primary and commissioned third-party global research. With just a few clicks you can tailor the business case to your organisation and get rapid insight into the estimated total financial benefits from investing in Diligent software.
To get the most from the calculator, you should have an idea of the number of information and reporting requests your team receives per month; the number of edits to organisational or structure charts required each month; the number of document requests per year, and the average time spent completing, reviewing, filing and updating data per week. On this basis, the calculator will show the estimated savings — from cost, risk reduction and efficiency perspectives — you can make by implementing Diligent Entity & Subsidiary Management Software.
A transparent, evidence-based breakdown of the benefits the software will deliver is key to helping build a robust business case for any new solution. Try the Diligent Entity & Subsidiary Management ROI calculator today, and check out our entity management software buyer’s guide for more information on what you need to look for in an effective solution.
