A Toronto-based professional advisory firm has launched a separate technology arm in an effort to stay competitive in the consulting industry.
Global Governance advises businesses on corporate governance issues like executive compensation, pay-for-performance, and shareholder voting patterns. After acquiring Toronto FinTech company NovaShare, which develops cloud-based software to help businesses and corporate advisors manage their shareholder and proxy information, the firm has now launched its Global Governance Software solution.
“The consulting industry relating to governance, shareholder relations, and human capital at the executive and board level — what we call Stakeholder Capital Management (SCM) — is at risk of being seriously disrupted by technology in much the same way PeopleSoft did to consulting in the Human Capital Market (HCM) space in the 1990s,” said Luis Navas, founder and senior partner of Global Governance.
According to Navas, Global Governance Software’s cloud-based suite of data analytics and shareholder relationship management tools help companies make more informed corporate governance decisions related to executive and board compensation, compensation design, shareholder management, and investor relations strategy. While there’s still a need for traditional, in-person consulting, the firm said that this will enhance its offering as more customers expect technology solutions to streamline their processes.
“Clients want to work with an organization that provides consulting and technology solutions since every client has different needs and budgets — only Global Governance currently has the capacity to do both, and is the only firm in the world with a fully integrated SCM SaaS platform. Similar to what WorkDay has created for the HCM sector, Global Governance has done for the SCM sector,” said Navas.
With the software, companies of all sizes can build profiles of its shareholder base to better understand who owns the company, automate time-intensive board evaluation processes, and receive proxy voting data compiled by Global Governance’s analytics team.
“One of the biggest challenges for clients around corporate governance is the fast pace of inflow and outflow of information required globally; organizations have shareholders based all around the world that need to be serviced efficiently and that can be costly,” said Navas. “Global Governance has been able to meet these new needs by leveraging its new revolutionary technology and high-touch consulting services.”