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In conversation with… Van Oord
In 2024 Mercator® by Citco (Mercator) introduced a new ‘Ownership Chart’s module on Entica® – our custom-built entity management platform.
As part of the development process, we consulted and continuously sought feedback from our clients along the way. This ensures our technology and our services grow with our clients and evolve to support their specific needs.
We speak with Raili Taaraste, Legal Counsel at Van Oord, and Vonny Quak, Senior Paralegal at Van Oord, to discuss their partnership with us and their contribution in the testing and development of Entica’s new Ownership Chart module.
To start, can you summarise how your team at Van Oord use Entica? What efficiencies does it generate or what problems does it help solve?
Approximately 140 users across our global business units around the world regularly use Entica to access entity data, retrieve documents, and track corporate changes and upcoming deadlines. This has significantly reduced the administrative burden on our legal department. Our team can directly obtain information anytime, regardless of their time zone or location, and easily submit task requests online. This self-service capability has greatly improved efficiency and responsiveness throughout our organization.
Our legal team benefits from simplified task request submissions and values the up-to-date legal information available on the platform. Entica’s user-friendly interface and comprehensive features have made it an essential tool for managing global entity data and ensuring compliance across jurisdictions. It has enhanced our corporate governance practices and empowered our teams to work more effectively in an increasingly complex legal landscape.
Van Oord were of great assistance in the testing and feedback of Entica’s new Ownership Charts. Can you talk us through this process and Van Oords involvement?
In 2022, Van Oord decided to consolidate our corporate legal services and technology with a single provider, transitioning all subsidiaries to Mercator’s maintenance and adopting their Entica platform. This strategic move was driven by our belief in the added value of an integrated solution.
We were particularly impressed by Entica’s customization potential, which aligned with our specific needs such as comprehensive organization charts and historical entity data integration. Learning that Entica is Mercator’s proprietary, in-house developed system further reinforced our confidence in their ability to tailor the platform to our requirements.
Mercator’s willingness to collaborate on system developments to meet our business needs was crucial. We established ongoing communications with their team, including Entica developers, to ensure the platform’s evolution aligned with our expectations. This collaborative approach has been instrumental in creating a solution that truly supports our global operations and enhances our corporate governance practices.
How did we respond and evolve the final product in line with feedback?
Since partnering with Mercator, Van Oord has submitted approximately 20 update requests, with the majority implemented within two years. Key enhancements include detailed, customizable organization charts, comprehensive reports, and integration of historical entity data.
These improvements have significantly streamlined our operations, providing instant access to up-to-date information and recent corporate changes. This efficiency eliminates the need to manually search through corporate files, saving considerable time and improving our overall productivity.
What do you think of the final product? How does it meet your needs?
We’re pleased with Entica’s user-friendly development and its evolving capabilities. We’re currently expanding our usage to include branches and enhance Ultimate Beneficial Ownership compliance. Looking ahead, we anticipate Mercator’s bringing further automation to the platform and straight-through processing improvements.
Overall, what is the main reason you would recommend Mercator to others? What made us stand out from other providers you had a chance to work with?
Mercator’s comprehensive offering, including a true single point of contact, coverage in over 180 jurisdictions, and an integrated technology platform supported by legal professionals, were key factors in our decision.
After two years of collaboration, we’ve found Mercator to be an invaluable extension of our legal team. Their responsiveness to our feedback and continuous improvement efforts have solidified our partnership, enhancing our global corporate governance capabilities.
Mercator very much welcomed our feedback and improvement points to Entica. Due to this close collaboration with the Mercator’s service team coupled with the Entica technology tool, we note a greater understanding of the local legal requirements a legal entity needs to meet. This has further facilitated our more proactive approach to some of the legal obligations, such as local UBO requirements. We see an upward trend of enhanced compliance of our entities with corporate obligations. Entica technology tool is playing an instrumental role in managing our entities globally and ensuring that they remain in good standing.
