Issue 2 2019

Acquisition International - Issue 2 2019 5 News : from around the world Ideagen in Strategic Partnership to Enhance its Customer Success Programme UK software firm, Ideagen, has entered into a strategic partnership as it looks to enhance its ‘Customer Success’ programme for its expanding client base. The Nottingham-based Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) leader will work with Natero, a leading, global provider of customer success software. Ideagen will adopt Natero’s dedicated customer success management application to provide it with live and accurate intelligence, predictive analytics and workflow management. Mark Fuller, Ideagen’s Head of Customer Success, is excited by the partnership with Natero, which will provide Ideagen with a central view of customer health and trends. He said: “We are delighted to be working with Natero, an innovative and knowledgeable leader in the global customer success software arena. “This is an exciting move by Ideagen and one that will enable us to provide our clients with a best-in- class service while being able to analyse live, up-to- the minute customer health data. “Working with Natero will provide us with a Customer Success Management platform which will plug into our existing software suite and, through automation, allow us to focus on improving customer outcomes, onboarding, adoption, time to value and health.” Ideagen currently has over 4,700 customers globally using its suite of GRC software, but that figure will expand due to the company’s strategic ‘buy-and-build’ acquisition strategy. Mr. Fuller continued: “As we are a rapidly growing software company with an ever-expanding client base and increasing global footprint, it becomes increasingly important to be able to nurture and support our existing clients as we scale. “For example, following an acquisition we need to be able to quickly establish an accurate picture of health for new customers joining the Ideagen community. “This project is about aggregating what we know about customers within Natero, enabling us to understand customer health to provide a better all-round proactive service for our global customer base. Providing staff with a single central view of customer health is a vital mechanism so they can truly understand how their own role directly contributes to customer success.” Customer success is a relatively new concept but is becoming an increasingly business critical function as organisations look to enhance knowledge of performance and health. Ideagen launched its Customer Success function in 2017 and the implementation of Natero’s system is the latest development in that ambitious project. Natero is a next generation Customer Success platform that helps B2B software companies reduce churn, increase user adoption, and maximise customer lifetime value (CLV). Craig Soules, Founder and CEO of Natero, said: “We are looking forward to working with Ideagen, which is one of the most ambitious and rapidly growing technology firms in the world. “Ideagen and Natero share the same fundamental beliefs in that the success of the client is of paramount importance to the success of the business. We are absolutely delighted that Ideagen has chosen to work with Natero and we look forward to playing an important part in its Customer Success programme.” John Kelly, VP of EMEA for Natero, said: “It is great to partner with such a forward-thinking and customer-centric organisation in the form of Ideagen. “This project is especially exciting because it combines cutting-edge Natero technology with our Customer Success training services to amplify and accelerate value.” Earlier this month, Natero acquired Irish firm, CustomerLink, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition strengthened Natero’s presence in Europe and created high-skilled jobs in sales, customer success and software engineering. The UK-headquartered software firm will work closely with Natero to increase customer satisfaction, adoption and health via a new software system Accountancy Professionals Urged to Share Best Practice in Support of UK Government ‘Flag It Up’ Campaign Accountancy professionals are being encouraged to share best practice in order to eliminate money laundering in response to the UK Government’s ‘Flag It Up’ Campaign. David Redfern, managing director of DSR Tax Claims Ltd, called upon those within the financial services sector to share anti- money laundering resources and methodology in order to ensure that the sector is not complicit in illegal financial activity costing the UK economy billions each year. The National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates that the scale of money laundering within the UK is as high as hundreds of billions of pounds each year, with the illegal funds fuelling further societal ills such as modern slavery, human trafficking, fraud, corruption, drugs and terrorism. The ‘Flag It Up’ campaign is aimed at professionals within the accountancy, legal and property services, saying that the authority of these professions can give an air of legitimacy to criminal activity. Redfern warned professionals within the accountancy sector that they played a vital role in protecting the UK economy by reporting any suspicions they might have regarding money laundering. He stated that “Money laundering could be seen by some as a victimless crime but that perception betrays the human misery which hides behind illegal financial transactions. It is essential that all members of the accountancy sector play their part in eradicating the ways in which the criminal economy aims to launder its proceeds”. The ‘Flag It Up’ campaign urges accountancy professionals to report any suspicious activity to the NCA, using a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR). Redfern gave further guidance on what might be classed as suspicious activity, stating “As an accountancy professional, you might have unanswered questions regarding the source of your client’s income and funds, or there may be financial transfers without any apparent business relationship underpinning them. Maybe your client has made a request of you that is out of character, or wants you to make financial arrangements on their behalf that just don’t make commercial sense - you don’t have to have solid proof of illegal activity, you just need to have a sense of misgiving or mistrust that something is not quite right about your client’s financial activities. However, that suspicion might be the last jigsaw piece of the puzzle required by the NCA”. He added that although the very nature of suspicion could be hard to define, it was crucial to both the industry, and to the UK economy as a whole, that suspicions were flagged up appropriately. Financial Sector Encouraged toWork Together to Eliminate Money Laundering