As a financial knowledge partner, supervises VGD daily companies and their entrepreneurs in various areas. 'The fact that openthebox centralises all relevant business data gives us a global, current and accurate picture at a glance. '
For more than forty years, VGD has been assisting companies in areas such as accountancy, taxation, audit, acquisitions, grant applications, environmental permits, succession and estate planning. Around 400 employees, spread over 14 workplaces throughout Flanders, are ready to do this every day. “We have a wide range of diverse services,” says Arne Coeman, VGD partner. “Examples include our CFO Services, which guide companies from a financial point of view, and our HR Services, which approach both the hard and the soft side of human resources.”
“Our customers are often family businesses and their entrepreneurs. But everyone is welcome at VGD: sole traders and SMEs, large companies and multinationals, liberal professions, associations and non-profit organizations,... In cooperation with accelerators Birdhouse and ReCap we also support start-ups and scale-ups with specific, practical advice. So we are every entrepreneur's financial right hand in the broadest sense of the word. And for all our services, they can always go to one trusted point of contact.”
Spiderweb speeds up the KYC process
“When accepting new customers, we must comply with certain legal obligations,” says Thomas Machtelinckx, VGD's IT manager. “That means: requesting all kinds of data. Such KYC process (know your customer, nvdr) is time-consuming and administrative, but since 2019, fortunately, we have been able to fall back on openthebox. This solution helps us with our enriching your own data with data from various public sources. This way, we quickly get an overall picture of the customer, and we don't have to start from a blank sheet.”
Openthebox also graphically maps the interrelationships between companies and entrepreneurs. This Spiderweb feature According to Arne Coeman, is an important added value within the due diligence services of his organization. “When we assess a company for a potential buyer, we immediately see via the Spiderweb whether there are affiliated companies that can have an impact. This allows us to detect any standardizations.”
“An additional advantage is the fact that openthebox not only shows a snapshot, but also allows you to history of a company to watch,” says Thomas Machtelinckx. “Within the Spiderweb, you can also filter certain data. That's an extra advantage.”
“Such a KYC process is time-consuming and administrative, but since 2019, fortunately, we have been able to fall back on openthebox”
Thomas Machtelinkx, VGD IT Manager
Help with acquisitions and valuations
From the business itself, VGD uses openthebox on a daily basis as part of, among other things, acquisition guidance and valuations. “We exporting public data from openthebox into an Excel spreadsheet and then unleash our own valuation model”, illustrates Arne Coeman. “This gives us a first insight right away, without too many manual actions.”
“But also the extensive search options and filter options within openthebox are useful. For example, when a customer wants to take over a colleague who must meet certain criteria (in terms of structure, number of employees, turnover, region,...), all relevant company data is neatly centralized in one place. Without this tool, our corporate finance department would have to manually open each financial statement.”
“Those centralization we consider one of openthebox's greatest strengths, together with the accessibility of the data and the fact that you get a global, current and accurate picture of a company's financial situation at a glance.”
Our own API bridges the gap to other software
With a view to maximum integration of the openthebox platform, VGD even developed its own backend application, called Walter. It forms the bridge between the underlying database and the various software packages in the workplace. “We import all available data into a central data layer”, explains Thomas Machtelinckx. “Walter visualizes this data layer so that all our internal software programs can use it. Our self-developed API is thus the gateway to all other applications within our organization.”
“In addition, this tool helps us to make things easier detecting customer inconsistencies. Suppose our billing package states an address that does not match the address in the openthebox database, the user will receive a notification.”
The advantages of openthebox according to VGD:
- Data is accessible, up to date and accurate
- Quickly provides an overall picture of companies
- Extensive search options & filter options
