Group View generates visualizations of the ownership structure of multi-entity organizations or investment funds. With complete automation, it seamlessly generates group charts based on imported ownership data, such as Excel files, with just a few clicks, all tailored to your chosen criteria. Primarily catering to Legal, Tax, and Finance professionals, it presents an exceptional opportunity for delivering value-added services and enhancing productivity through improved analysis, reporting, forecasting, and auditing capabilities.
Background
In an era where legal and tax professionals grapple with increasingly complex corporate structures, Askival Systems introduced Group View to streamline entity management and simplify the generation of graphical representations of intricate corporate relationships. Co-founder Chris Hall, the Technical Director and Chief Solution Architect of Askival, is a British citizen who was born in Zimbabwe but has been a longterm resident of the Netherlands. After working as a developer in industrial process control, he joined forces with a friend to develop software for entity management. This pivot led to the creation of Group Vision, the precursor to today's Group View. Initially focusing on legal entity management, the product rapidly gained traction for its ability to visually represent complex company structures and shareholdings through dynamic, informative graphics. This innovation appealed not only to lawyers but also to tax professionals, broadening the product's scope and utility.
Launched in the early 2000s and migrating to the web in 2013, the entity management system garnered attention from global clients like Ikea and Kuehne & Nagel. However, it was the specific functionality of Group View, a component of the larger system, that captured the market's interest. Recognizing the demand for a more focused solution, Askival launched Group View as a standalone product in the fall of 2023.
What Problem Does it Solve?
Group View addresses the critical need for "what-if" scenario planning and complex structure visualization, enabling users to generate intricate diagrams of corporate structures with ease. Unlike traditional methods that often result in oversimplified or manually intensive diagrams, Group View provides clarity and insight into the multifaceted relationships and shareholdings that for large companies can “look like spaghetti”. Group View is able to create diagrams of these structures automatically, in spite of the complexity, without any need for manual input.
The software can also create subsidiary charts at the click of a button, allowing users to move easily from graphical representations of the holding company to any subsidiary or company underneath it, or to any sector. Users particularly like the ability to represent the effects of shareholding changes across a corporate group, a task that previously consumed significant time and resources. As Chris says, the head company of a large multinational will want to be able to produce 40 or 50 charts all at once to show all of its holdings – it’s a book, not just one diagram. If you change one shareholding up at the top level of the structure, it can have a flow-on effect on the rest of the company. Group View is able to automate this so that the ramifications of a change are automatically reflected in the rest of the charts.
What are the Use Cases?
The product finds its application in a variety of use cases, from detailed step diagrams and regional holdings to comprehensive analyses of complete shareholdings across countries. It facilitates understanding and planning for tax strategies, such as transfer pricing, by allowing users to visualize and manipulate data related to corporate entities and their international operations. Group View's ability to incorporate financial data into these charts adds another layer of depth, aiding in strategic decisions and regulatory compliance.
Group View also has a separate module available that allows users to securely attach important corporate documentation to each entity in the database: contracts, articles of association, minutes of shareholders’ meetings, excerpts of the Chamber of Commerce, annual accounts, and so on, making it easier to relate rich data and content to various companies or holdings of a structure.
Target demographic
Since Group View started as an entity management solution, corporate legal departments and their outside counsel firms were the initial target demographic. As usage expanded with additional features, tax professionals, auditors, and tax lawyers have become another key user base. Even outside the corporate legal department, large corporations use Group View to enhance strategic planning.
What differentiates Group View from competitors?
Group View distinguishes itself through its flexibility and innovative features, as well as through its ability to illustrate changes within corporate structures and the implications of those changes. The product is also able to compare corporate structures at two different points in time, a unique features in the market, addressing a clear market need for efficient and accurate analysis of corporate evolution.
As Group View continues to evolve, it represents not just a tool but a paradigm shift in how professionals approach entity management and corporate structure visualization.
