Factoring in mounting costs and the difficulty in locating a reputable provider in an unfamiliar jurisdiction, global entity management can quickly become an incredibly arduous and expensive task for businesses. Outsourcing your compliance needs to an experienced provider can greatly benefit companies with a global footprint.
1. Get time back
Correspondence with multiple firms is a substantial "time vampire" for international companies and increases the likelihood of missing vital information. Centralising your entity management to a single global provider can help to reduce haemorrhaging time dealing with multiple contacts. Engaging the services of an experienced service provider can also assist in monitoring compliance and notifying you of upcoming changes in international legislation to reduce time-consuming tracking for your internal team, leaving you to focus on business critical matters.At DWF, our Global Entity Management Team provide support by matching clients with a dedicated project manager with relevant industry experience, who acts as an extension of your team, understanding and anticipating your needs. Our approach increases efficiency, as the project manager is a central point of contact for all your global subsidiaries, reducing your inbox activity and ensuring that you receive the most relevant updates. For our compliance service, we start with implementation workshops to invest time understanding you and your business and the best ways to work together, establishing a strong central working relationship from the outset.
From the administrative side, a central engagement also saves you time as it removes the need to complete laborious due diligence checks on multiple international firms. Furthermore, you avoid entering into contracts with multiple companies and your internal finance team benefits, as they only need to set up and process invoices from one vendor.
2. Understand your spend
Unsurprisingly, cost is a major factor when considering outsourcing annual compliance, depending on the management of spend to date, there may not be a clear understanding of your regular outlays, and there may be hidden costs across different suppliers, invoices and budgets.The aim of any outsource model is to increase cost efficiency and deliver transparency of your spending. At DWF, our pricing model offers you a fixed fee budget, based on the services and number of entities that require support. As we work on a fixed fee basis, you can have peace-of-mind that there will be no hidden charges. Your project manager acts as the gatekeeper of your budget, agreeing all costs upfront and obtaining approval for any additional fees prior to the commencement of services.
Additionally, at DWF we build in two routine changes per entity, per annum covering common event-driven changes at no additional cost (which on a standalone basis can sometimes cost more than our annual compliance fee). For example, director changes are often within our scope, providing reassurance that time-sensitive matters are completed without the need for additional budget approval.
3. Increase global oversight
Managing entities on a global scale can seem daunting due to the sheer volume of work involved and it may be a struggle to keep track of corporate information. Utilising technology to record that wealth of information reduces time spent enquiring with multiple individuals to obtain key data, but creating and maintaining the data is another challenge. Turing to an external provider, applying their experience and knowledge, can take this burden from you while delivering the information you need.We have embraced technology to enhance our service offering, developing a technology dedicated to entity management. DWF EVO gives you instant access to the status of all instructions across your group, tracking compliance matters and delivering visual representations of key data on services. Your project manager maintains all your information so you can update your internal teams in real time.
EVO is our proprietary software so we have the ability to continually develop it and have already implemented specific features requested by our clients to increase functionality while remaining straightforward and easy to use. It can be the sole repository for your corporate records or can work alongside your existing corporate database, to maximise efficiency.
4. Access expertise across the globe
Locating suitable support in every jurisdiction that a Group operates in is another administrative task that can distract from urgent matters. Moving to a single provider for entity management services means you have access to a large global network of specialised providers experienced in delivering corporate secretarial services for multinational clients.
At DWF, we selected our local teams because of their expertise and many have worked with us for years, demonstrating a proven history of providing high quality service. In these uncertain times, our teams keep us informed of any new legal updates, which is especially reassuring given the increase in legislation development.
Because of this, we also offer bespoke directors' duties training programmes to ensure that your directors are equipped with the necessary toolkit to fulfil their obligations.
Company secretarial matters are often intertwined with more complex corporate projects; for example, incorporations may be part of a wider restructure. As DWF is a full-service law firm, we have the added benefit of seeking additional support from our experts in other specialties, who can assist on a variety of legal issues. For example, we can access support for corporate, commercial, employment, and real estate matters.
With all the benefits, it is not surprising that working with an external provider to overcome these challenges has become the increasingly favourable option for international companies looking for reliable support within a controlled budget.
For further information on how DWF can assist, visit our website Global Entity Management | DWF Group or get in touch with one of our experienced team members at GlobalEntityManagement@dwf.law
