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Redefining Corporate Governance

Innovative software harnesses the power of emerging technologies to drive better governance

Published: Thu 31 Mar 2022, 2:16 PM

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Yacine Gouich, MEA Managing Director at DiliTrust

Yacine Gouich, MEA Managing Director at DiliTrust

Good governance is steadily becoming a talking point in boardrooms across the Middle East, with recent regulatory and geopolitical developments putting renewed focus on issues such as strategic planning, risk management, and corporate responsibility.

The MEA market is predicted to flourish in 2022 due to rising oil prices, surging foreign investment, and greater economic diversification into non-oil sectors. This growth, alongside a push for more widespread uptake of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives as well as greater diversity and equity in corporate culture, puts corporate governance top of mind for many in the region.

Efficient board communication

A global leader in secure governance software solutions, DiliTrust launched its Middle Eastern hub five years ago to help clients from across the MEA region seamlessly embed sound governance into every aspect of their operations.

The DiliTrust Governance suite is an integrated platform, from which users can securely organise board activities, oversee corporate entities, manage contracts, ensure regulatory compliance, monitor ongoing client litigation, and more. It’s essentially a window into everything that’s happening at the corporate level, ensuring counsel and senior executives can strategically plan and align their activities.

For most Middle Eastern clients, the major draw of the platform is the board portal. This flagship module helps manage the meetings and documents of boards of directors and executive committees, as well as other governance bodies. Critical files such as board meeting agendas and the board pack can be shared between the board secretary and board members within the board portal, leaving bulky paper files and email entirely out of the equation. Users can log into the ultra-secure portal from anywhere — their mobile device, their office workstation, or their desk at home — to attend meetings, view documents, and send emails.

The board portal’s most obvious benefit lies in its efficiency gains, but this digital tool also makes it easy for companies to reduce costs, providing a seamless way for firms to transition to a paperless working environment.

Managing entities, contracts, and litigation

Corporate governance isn’t just an issue in the boardroom. Good governance should be embedded throughout an organisation, from subsidiaries all the way up to head office. Overseeing this kind of widespread adoption is a common stumbling block for MEA multinationals whose cross-border business is spread across multiple jurisdictions.

The DiliTrust Governance Legal Entity Management module ensures complete visibility into all subsidiary and shareholder activity to minimise legal, financial, and regulatory risk. The platform organises entities into clear and accurate charts, so users can see the structure of the entire group at a glance and monitor their documentation and legal activities in real-time.

Similarly, contract and litigation management modules allow for streamlined case processing, easing the burden from corporate legal departments by automating formulaic tasks, such as document archiving. Counsel can easily oversee the entire litigation or contract lifecycle, seeing instantly what actions are required and how it is progressing.

A history of service

All modules in the DiliTrust Governance suite are designed to work as a complete and cohesive toolkit. The board portal optimises board activity, the documentation library safely stores corporate materials, and the management modules assist counsel in the areas of contracts, litigation, and entity oversight.

The company’s first priority at DiliTrust is the security and confidentiality of our clients’ most sensitive data. With that in mind, all our systems adhere notably to the highest international security standards, and data is stored on local servers and ISO 27001 certified.

Headquartered in Paris, DiliTrust is a French company with a growing global footprint. The group first established its Middle Eastern business unit in 2017, in Dubai with Yacine Gouich, MEA Managing Director, overseeing operations. The branch opened a new data centre and established with an Arabic-speaking team. The MEA business unit now has a number of high-profile clients, including Sharaf Group, MBC Group and the Commercial Bank of Dubai. The Dubai branch has grown to encompass clients from across the MEA region, including the KSA, Oman, Qatar, Morocco, and the Ivory Coast. Serving public and private sector organisations for more than 25 years, DiliTrust is proud to be a leader in technology-driven governance solutions and looks forward to guiding more companies towards digital transformation.



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