Sandrine Asserafwas the linchpin of the LBO operation that saw GBL succeed KKR in Webhelp's capital, valuing the company at more than EUR 2.4 billion, and led one of the largestEuropeanprivateequity deals of the last twelve months. While this transaction mobilized many of the best advisory teams in the market, it also provided an opportunity to bring in a new player, the technologyplatformLegalcluster.
Sandrine Asseraf gave us this interview in 2020
Why did you choose Legalcluster?
Sandrine Asseraf: Webhelp has always widely associated its
managers with its success. As a result, even before the
implementation of this new operation, our "manpack" involved a very large number of employees around the world. When the operation
took shape, I made four observations: the management of this
manpack, due to the number of people involved and the number of interactions it involves, was a major operational challenge that we absolutely had to secure.
I also noticed that since we had relied quite naturally on the logistics of our various boards during the previous round, I did not control the Manpack's information on a daily basis as I would have liked. Wanting to optimize the efficiency and the cost of the daily management of the Manpack, I had to take advantage of this new operation to take control of our information, even more in the context of the GDPR.
The third observation is that with this new operation, the new Manpack would involve even more players and would make the first two observations even more acute.
Finally, Webhelp is a company that believes in the power of innovation and in the need to entrust the right people with the right actions in the interest of efficiency. I made the bet that it would be good management to entrust the Manpack "logistics" to a tech company that would then be at the service of all the players involved in this extraordinary project.
Why did you trust Legalcluster?
SA : I know Jean-Marie Valentin, the founder of Legalcluster, for many years having shared a few good years with the law firm Willkie Farr.
Curious to see him leave the dress to create Legalcluster, we quickly exchanged our respective news. And I immediately noticed that we were aligned: in Jean-Marie's vision, a cluster is a platform strategy dedicated to a legal or compliance issue, concentrating in a single place all the stakeholders, all the data, all the flows and workflows, in the hand of the "data owner or manager" and at the service of all the players. As part of a platform strategy, a cluster is intended to be a long-term solution. I considered that this approach, adapted to my issues, could help me to solve the challenges of the Webhelp Manpack.
So we trusted each other to build this new route together. The existing technological base, Jean-Marie's in-depth knowledge of complex M&A operations, and the high quality of Ghislain d'Aramon and Ahmed Abdelghani's tech and customer success teams enabled us to bring out our Manpack cluster in time to tackle our new operation.
What is this Manpack cluster?
SA : It is a digital platform that has three dimensions: a back-office dimension that allows us to develop all our documentation in a collaborative way. A front office dimension that allows each manager to access his or her own data, information, and documents through a personal and secure interface. This interface is also a data collection tool that we have been able to enrich as we have gone along to gather useful information. The third dimension is the heart of the cluster. This is the "data collector" and the associated workflow engines. The data collector structures synthesize, reports and historizes all the data and flows created under the Manpack.
It is from the data collector that we can feed our document templates and initiate our mailing, validation, and signature workflows.
In concrete terms, what is the volume of data processed by your
cluster?
SA : In fact, it's huge. To give you an idea of the scope of the subject, today the "manager" data stock structured by our platform represents more than 100,000 personal data collected and processed in compliance with GDPR rules! We have generated more than 10,000 documents, including more than 3,000 signed documents. There have been more than 9,000 connections to the platform over the duration of the operation. On average, 300 documents were consulted per day, with a peak of more than 1,700 documents on the main closing day.
It was also through the platform that we managed the entire underwriting process.
What value did that bring you?
SA : In concrete terms, Legalcluster enabled me to meet the challenges I had identified and was one of the decisive players in the success of our operation.
In terms of operational efficiency, this platform changed the parameters of the file: the platform's processing capacity saved us a lot of time and made it possible to secure many deadlines.
And finally, I now have control over the information, its qualification, and processing.
After a period of adaptation that was finally fairly rapid, the Legalcluster teams and our counsel worked hand in hand to make the processes ever more efficient and effective in the general interest: the lawyers concentrating on the core of their added value and Legalcluster providing stewardship. I believe that this has been to everyone's credit.
What follow-up do you intend to give to this fruitful collaboration?
SA : I am happy to have contributed to the creation of this beautiful course. I believe that with us, Legalcluster has attacked the subject from the "north face" ! And I look forward to seeing other companies adopt this solution to manage their shareholder relations and complex M&A deals.
Our Manpack cluster will continue over time to facilitate day-to-day management. Now that I have mastered information and its flow, it is much easier for me to manage my interactions with all stakeholders.
This information will also be valuable for future operations.
Next, we are continuing to work with Legalcluster on more internal issues such as the management of our contracts and I remain very attentive to the value propositions they can offer us, particularly in terms of compliance.
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