Governance: Intercepting Technology and Support

Pause for a moment. Furthermore, pose some basic questions you probably don’t consider every day. Why do we innovate? Why do we build companies? Why do we think about making new inventions, products, and solutions, when we could essentially leave things as they are? At first glance, the appropriate responses may appear to be misleadingly simple. For example, a few people want to make money. Others like the thrill of the chase, similar to a type of legalized betting. What’s more, others like the independence, the freedom.

Be that as it may, those answers appear to be deficient. In case you’re an entrepreneur, you definitely know there’s more to it. There are significantly simpler approaches to make money. There are significantly less demanding approaches to get a thrill. And, there are considerably easier approaches to feel independent. Thus, we innovate and build organizations for reasons that are more profound. To contribute our share in making the world a better place.

One such company that is contributing its share to the market is Governance.com, which originated from a personal frustration. As a former banker in charge of Alternative funds oversight, Bert Boerman needed an efficient system to connect data and control workflows. A fitting solution did not exist on the market, so he decided to build it along with his twin brother Rob. Bert’s first aim was to provide a solution for fund governance, but today, Governance.com has moved well beyond that. Bert proudly says that he has seen the natural evolution of Governance.com into a solution for regulated clients from multiple industries. What Governance.com does for financial institutions applies equally to corporations, ONGs, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, oil companies and other companies dealing with regulatory control.

Connecting data and documentation in a simple and smart way

Governance.com is an instantly deployable platform with the expertise and technology needed to organize and structure any data, documents and controls. At the core of the platform sits a technology solution that connects data and documentation from across the organization in a simple and smart way, and that can be deployed on-premise or in any cloud solution. As a result, Governance.com’s clients have instant access to all information and processes instantly. The team at Governance believes it is very important to generate a return of investment of 300 to 600% for their clients.

The company was founded in 2011 by the twin brothers, initially as a custom software development business. In 2014 the bothers decided change the direction of the company and start building Governance.com. Bert quit his job as a banker and joined the company full time. Today, the team of Governance.com consists of 22 talented people and is constantly growing. The company’s culture is based on excellence, dedication and passion. And Bert doesn’t hesitate to attribute company’s current success to perfect complementarity of the founders and the superb alchemy within the company’s teams.

Solid motivation and dedication to your idea is vital!

Bert says launching a company from scratch is much harder than what you might think, so you must have a solid motivation and dedication to your project. His motivation was to create a sustainable, flexible, high-performing and user-friendly system to simplify the regulatory burden and costs for his clients. The hard things was that when Governance.com launched in 2014, nobody was looking at this yet, and RegTech wasn’t even a thing yet. But the regulatory burden already existed. As a reader, you’ll be surprised to know that Regulation and Compliance yearly spending exceeds 220 BN USD worldwide? Thus, bringing a quick to implement and cost-effective solution to this issue was a key aim for Governance.com!

Governance.com was started with investment funds because that’s where the brothers saw the biggest need for innovation. It’s all spreadsheets. They typically have little technology in place even though there’s an enormous amount of regulation pushing on them.

“What we’ve found is that if you want to take people from the Stone Age to something organized, just offering technology is not enough. You also need to provide the regulatory expertise, which is what we have built with our partner network. You can throw technology at a complex problem, but if you don’t have the right processes in place then it’s not going to work. The same is true in reverse,” Bert affirms.

A fully customizable and flexible architecture

“We believe each company has a unique way to manage its business. This is why, Governance.com adapts to our clients’ structure and processes thanks to a fully customizable and flexible architecture. Instead of imposing a rigid structure and way of working, we adapt the system to each our clients’ specific needs,” he further adds.

Bert also believes the main challenges in the industry are the heavy procurement and lengthy adoption process of financial institutions for Regtech solutions. “We understand however that this is part of their risk management culture as they need to select superior and secure solutions for their organisation. This is why we focus on showing the concrete utility and added-value of our platform quickly,” Bert shares.

As a technology company, Governance.com strives to continuously enhance its platform with additional features. Some of their latest developments are Visual workflows & process management and an interactive Meeting management module. Governance.com’s Roadmap is full of exciting new solutions, based on the evolving needs of its clients and the industry. Stay tuned!