The New Era of Governance from a Distance
Deploying Tactical Technology to Streamline Entity Compliance
The pace of change which corporate secretaries and the office of the General Counsel deal with is mind boggling. Yet while the world changes all around us, some things stay constant—like the need to keep entities in good standing and your entity compliance data readily accessible. In fact, it’s getting more challenging as regulatory and onsite access policies become more prohibitive.
You may be feeling the struggle of accessibility challenges whether you operate globally with offices in multiple countries or do business exclusively in the U.S. Either way, with multiple locations, challenges are certainly presenting themselves. As one of the largest registered agents in the U.S., Computershare witnesses how companies try to tackle challenges associated with widespread corporate governance where deadlines vary and requirements are constantly changing. For example, many companies rely on multiple vendors and/or local law firms in various geographies, all using different approaches and tools to manage siloed volumes of entity and subsidiary data.
Or perhaps the even more woefully outdated approach of paper and filing cabinets located in offices you can no longer visit due to travel bans. Or maybe you currently manage all that data manually with spreadsheets. Sound familiar? These approaches provide little to no process continuity and introduce unnecessary risk into your organization—to say nothing of accessibility limitations.
Challenge: The New Reality of “Remote”
The most current and obvious pressure point that has accelerated the necessity of remote governance is the COVID-19 pandemic. Work arrangements are shifting to a new set-up where team members can work from anywhere.
Many companies have adopted “work from home” policies that didn’t exist even before the ongoing digitalization trend. Even the definition “work from home” has evolved to mean “work from anywhere.”
Now that companies are likely to be more dependent on managing entity compliance data remotely, they’ll need to bridge the gaps where disconnections have existed in the past. The chaos of having essential corporate governance data in multiple places can be a real issue. Without a true audit trail redundant systems and effort can introduce the potential of unnecessary risk to your organization.
Deploying tactical technology can help streamline your global governance framework to help you overcome the complexities — and distance — to enable true governance from a distance. Because, let’s face it, no matter where you may be located, where your team may sit, or where your subsidiaries operate, you need to keep close governing control on your entities.
74% of companies plan to permanently shift 5% or more of their workforce to remote work post-COVID 19.1
Technology such as Computershare’s Global Entity Management Solution, or GEMS™, can help you extend your reach. By centralizing all your entity and registered agent data together in one place, you can access and monitor your entity compliance anytime, anywhere. You’ll be able to see the compliance status of every subsidiary virtually while collaborating and communicating effectively through a digital platform with multiple parties in any part of the world.
Solution: You and Governance from a Distance
This might sound bold, but companies pursuing a path to deploy a centralized solution to manage corporate governance remotely stand an administrative and cost-savings advantage. What’s the upside to centralizing your corporate governance data?
Eliminate redundancies
You’ll want to centralize all your entity information across your global locations. When you centralize, you won’t need to worry if a spreadsheet is updated or if data in separate systems matches. Centralizing your entity data onto a single source truth gives you confidence and allows you to work more efficiently — especially during stressful times when being able to stay focused is so important. A centralized portal, like GEMS, also gives you 24/7 access to entity data from any device with a web browser — even your phone.
Turn insights into action
With a platform like GEMS, you can immediately spot risk and have key analytics at your fingertips. This includes heat maps, a compliance tracker, reporting, historical snapshots, and organizational views. With a centralized entity compliance solution, you’d be able to monitor entity status or track filing dates — without the need to be in the office.
Global reach and expertise
Partnering with a registered agent and entity compliance vendor, such as Computershare, means you can gain access to the most forward-looking technology in the market, and you’ll also have a highly regarded, experienced global team of governance, company secretarial and technology professionals who become a natural and flexible extension of your internal resources. You’ll also have a partner to manage all your entity compliance data on your behalf, so you can focus on more important priorities.
Streamline workflows and approvals
With decentralized operations, traditional, paper-based workflows make monitoring the approval process almost impossible. Administratively heavy processes need to be streamlined to help you maintain transparency and mitigate risk. With a web-based, collaborative technology that includes builtin DocuSign APIs to obtain signatures, automated annual reports, and dashboards to monitor your approval process, you can easily encourage follow-up and follow-through between your colleagues, no matter where they are located.
A Global Compliance Partner
Only Computershare can provide you the governance framework and compliance services you need to effectively and efficiently govern your entities worldwide. Let us help you centralize your entity and registered agent services data, so your team can do a better job managing it. Or — even better — maintain visibility and accessibility to your data via GEMS, and let Computershare do the work of managing your corporate subsidiary data for you, including state and local filings and service of process.
Close that spreadsheet. Say, “Arrivederci!” to those old, paperstuffed filing cabinets. And start governing from a distance with confidence today.
What’s unique about a global compliance framework powered by GEMS?
- Customizable screens, including dashboard views with compliance heatmaps
- Integrated registered agent services
- Flexible reporting
- Data verification and attestation
- Data approval and workflow management
- Email alerts and reminders
- Entity life cycle management
- Contract management lifecycle (unlimited contracts)
- DocuSign integration
- Annual report filing