Lack of Entity Management Software Creates Operational Barriers and Silos
Commvault is a multinational corporation that provides cutting-edge data solutions. With 31 subsidiaries across 24 different countries, it has a complex corporate governance structure. But the company had not implemented internal business entity management software, which created multiple headaches for the legal operations team. When Commvault hired a new legal operations manager, Deanna Venello, she immediately saw an opportunity to improve the flow of information within the organization.
"Our entity management was unorganized," Venello said. "Teams came to Legal all the time asking for information, and I often thought there had to be a more scalable way to manage our entities. Cross functional teams should all be able to access these documents." The information silos kept Commvault's tax, finance, and legal operations teams from collaborating smoothly.
Commvault's operations also require numerous corporate compliance processes, often with short timelines that require speedy delivery of sensitive documents. Unfortunately, fragmented systems and documentation led to ongoing frustrations for the legal operations team.
"We would have the document, but Tax and Finance wouldn't, or vice versa. We would go on scavenger hunts to find particular documents," Venello said. "And if our subsidiaries needed a time-sensitive document, it could put operations at risk. They couldn't pull the information themselves, and we couldn't get them what they needed efficiently."
Implementing entity management software was mission-critical for the legal operations team.
A Seamless Transition to a Highly Customizable Business Entity Management Platform
Venello had worked alongside others who previously implemented Athennian and was impressed with the capabilities and structure. "Coming into Commvault, and seeing what the corporate governance structure looked like, I knew we had to implement Athennian," said Venello.
Commvault began transitioning to Athennian four months ago, quickly streamlining company-wide processes and data access. The implementation was rapid and seamless.
"The biggest piece that impressed me was the migration process,” Venello said. “Athennian had a team of paralegals scrubbing our documents. It saved us so much time and the information put into the system was accurate and up to date. I can't praise Athennian’s support during that process highly enough."
When the transition was complete, Commvault's dedicated Athennian trainer created a custom training program to help onboard stakeholders throughout the company.
Athennian Streamlines Legal Processes and Information-Sharing Company-Wide
In the few short months since Commvault implemented Athennian's business entity management software, the legal operations team has received tremendous positive feedback from across the company. "Teams in other countries can go in, pull documents and do not have to wait on email responses or time zone differences," said Venello. "Anything they need, it's all right at their fingertips. That's a huge win."
The legal operations team has also significantly reduced the time they spend searching for information. "For one subsidiary, it previously took two hours to find the documents we needed," said Venello. "There was a recent question on that same entity, and it took five minutes to pull the document I needed from Athennian. We have all of the information we need for any subsidiary at any moment."
Commvault also leverages Athennian's organization charts to sort subsidiaries by entity, quickly showing key facts that are often difficult to find in documents, such as ownership percentages and management structures.
Commvault Plans to Expand Use of Athennian's Multi-Layered Functionality
Commvault will soon begin using Athennian's customizable reports to replace spreadsheets of business entity data. The team anticipates leveraging the feature to track meetings, directorship changes, and subsidiary uses.
"Athennian allows us to customize any report," said Venello. "We're looking forward to utilizing that functionality." The finance and tax teams will soon use Athennian for metrics and other information on share classes and entities for Commvault's many annual reports and filings.
Athennian’s Integrated Features Will Create Cost Savings for Commvault
The company will also roll out Athennian's embedded e-signature capabilities, generating substantial cost savings. Venello anticipates the switch to Athennian's integrated signature capabilities will both eliminate costs spent on outside counsel and also streamline the process for the legal operations team.
"Because e-signatures are integrated into the platform, any document we send for signature is saved within the platform itself. It will save us hours of uploading and sending documents," she said. Commvault will also use Athennian to create templates for common signatory documents and plans to implement Athennian's date reminder function for legal filing deadlines.
Athennian's sophisticated entity management software has already more than proven its worth. "We used to spend so much time trying to find information," said Venello. "But with Athennian, there's no more scavenger hunting. We have a single source of truth, and that's Athennian."
About Athennian
Athennian is a modern business entity and subsidiary governance platform that powers teams to be transaction, audit, and compliance-ready. Legal, finance, and tax professionals use Athennian to automate workflows for ownership, governance, tax, and corporate compliance.
