In January this year, Ian Atkinson took over the reins from Bert Boerman as the CEO of Governance.com, Luxembourg’s leading data governance and process automation company. Ian shares his vision for “Governance.com 2.0,” which aims to generate rapid value for the industry by fostering a culture of innovation and supporting its clients on digital transformation journeys.
What’s on the agenda for you and for Governance.com for 2024?
“Governance.com 2.0” is about consolidation and optimisation to provide a springboard for further growth. The “2.0” reflects that we are in a new phase, building on our company’s solid decade-long foundation.
In 2024, we want to work incredibly closely with our existing client base, which includes some of the largest and most established firms in the financial industry. We also want to work more with the broader market to nurture the right approach, mindset, and way of working together to support true innovation.
We have a number of clients now looking to broaden their use of their existing Governance.com solution, either across other business areas or other jurisdictions, to further improve efficiency, reduce costs, mitigate risks and enable future growth.
We also see a huge appetite from the market to move towards Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). So this year, we are heavily focussing on a further rollout of our SaaS solution to meet that demand.
“Our mantra is to continually look for and to implement incremental improvements and to drive our optimisations down the value chain to our clients.”
Ian Atkinson, CEO of Governance.com
What does this imply for how you see Governance.com’s role in the industry?
One thing I’ve talked about in the past is the clash of digital cultures. The shared goal with our clients is to create value for the end client while increasing efficiencies and staying regulatory compliant. Technology can facilitate this, but banks and corporations have a very different approach than fintechs when adopting new technologies.
The asset management industry now knows that it must adopt financial technology to remain efficient and resilient. Our growing number of projects with tier-1 clients is a testament to the industry’s journey to achieve this. That said, we have learnt some hard lessons along the way and still have work to do as a market to improve our collective behaviours, values and characteristics of innovation, the barriers to which are still holding the industry back.
Governance.com is also about leading by example and cultivating our own innovative approaches and implementations. Our mantra is to continually look for and to implement incremental improvements and to drive our optimisations down the value chain to our clients. At the moment, we are focused on how we can improve our approach to project implementations by iteratively applying our modular building blocks of value.
Change can be complex, difficult and at times painful. So, we will continue to support and work very closely with our clients on their digital transformation journeys, co-creating solutions by breaking large, multi-faceted processes down into much more digestible bites. This way, the industry can benefit from automation fast. This is an agile approach, rather than adopting a “big bang” plan to digitalise everything at once, which can lead to delays and high costs.
What does this mean in practical terms for your clients?
Of course, it’s easy to talk theory but far more difficult in practice. We really must continuously listen and adapt to market feedback, understand and drill down into what has already worked and what has yet to work.
One conclusion is for us to take a more consultative and partnership-like approach to work with clients to imagine what can be done and then roll up our sleeves to fulfil the vision. When it comes to digital transformation, we lead our clients as the experts in change. But to improve our client partnerships, we need to keep working very closely with clients to understand their culture, their ways of working and their business language.
Meanwhile, our product is evolving. One key message from our clients is that they want to understand how they can drive scalability through automation. The consensus is that we need stability and standardisation as a launch pad for further optimisation and growth. Innovation is as much about standardising what works best as designing from scratch. Our key theme here is the further modularisation of our product and implementation approach.
How does AI fit into this strategy?
We’re taking a considered approach to AI, and we know that the potential to combine AI with automation can be powerful. Our existing process automation software already empowers businesses, but vast amounts of data often remain untapped. AI integration is the key to unlocking this hidden potential.
By leveraging machine learning, we can streamline data analysis, enabling clients to extract meaningful insights directly from their existing data. Our end goal is for AI to empower clients to achieve unprecedented efficiency and data-driven decision-making.
“Being CEO gives me the platform to do that and drive change at our company and the broader market and cultural levels.”
Ian Atkinson, CEO of Governance.com
What about “hyperautomation”? What is this and how does Governance.com relate to it?
Hyperautomation goes beyond simple process automation. It’s the strategic orchestration of multiple tools – RPA, AI, machine learning, and advanced data analytics – to unlock exponential value. Our strength lies in being the central hub, the “glue” that seamlessly connects and integrates these solutions.
However, navigating the hype around buzzwords isn’t the goal. We want to bring realism to the buzzwords. Governance.com focuses on pragmatic implementations – turning hyperautomation concepts into actionable steps that drive real results. We help businesses achieve digital transformation through achievable, incremental wins.
How tied do you see Governance.com’s future to that of the fintech industry?
We were born out of a need for fintech, but our product can continue beyond fintech. To me, a process is a process. AML and KYC requirements can be met in real estate as much as they can in the legal sector. Much of what we’ve built and what we have on our platform is versatile enough to apply to other sectors.
What went through your mind when you heard that you would be the CEO at Governance.com?
I’m a “people and change” person; what motivates me is driving change and optimisation – and optimism – in people. Being CEO gives me the platform to do that and drive change at our company and the broader market and cultural levels. I am excited to lead this fantastic company. I cannot wait for further discussions with clients, other fintechs, and broader stakeholders to help build and boost a culture of innovation.
