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FIDES SUCCESS STORY

Globally Connected, Locally Optimized: Digitalization in Materna's Legal Department

Materna has become a leading provider of customized IT solutions over the past 40 years, supporting companies worldwide in optimizing their business processes and enhancing their competitiveness. Materna has been a pioneer in recognizing that, in an increasingly digital world, the efficiency and reliability of IT systems are crucial for any business.

As someone driving digital transformation in other companies, it’s essential to examine one’s own processes as well. Together with Fides, Dr. Jan Bünnemeyer, Group General Counsel of Materna, has embarked on the digitalization of his legal department.

Walking

Main Use Cases Materna is Managing with Fides

Management of 39 Entities Worldwide

Interactive Display of the Collaboration Framework

Independent Execution of Group-Wide Resolutions

From Complexity to Efficiency

Dr. Jan Bünnemeyer and his team predominantly manage the legal processes of the Materna Group centrally from the Materna parent company. Consequently, the topics that arise from the 39 subsidiaries across four continents are quite complex. Numerous emails from various stakeholders regarding many processes led to naturally inefficient workflows and delayed transparency in collaboration with local contacts.

“To avoid having to answer the question 'Who is authorized to decide what and in what manner?' each time, we needed a solution that provides quick answers and optimizes collaboration,“ explains Jan Bünnemeyer.

Fides promised immense efficiencies in this area, particularly relieving me as General Counsel, so I was quickly convinced to advocate for its implementation at Materna. A central platform where all decision-making authorities relevant to the management of the group are mapped, and where all stakeholders can obtain the necessary approvals and decisions for their work in real-time, was a game changer for me.“

As a family-owned business, Materna has experienced significant growth since its founding in 1980 and has acquired several subsidiaries in recent years. Due to rapid M&A processes, it became increasingly difficult to maintain an overview of the numerous corporate legal documents, which, due to their varying origins, were often not aligned with each other.

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Tracking approval-requiring transactions with Fides is now simpler, faster, clearer, and, most importantly, more transparent for all stakeholders. It allows me, as the General Counsel responsible for governance, to sleep more peacefully – a win-win for everyone!

Dr. Jan Bünnemeyer

Group General Counsel

Dr. Jan Bünnemeyer

Transparent Decision-Making Thanks to the Collaboration Framework

For this reason, Materna developed a Collaboration Framework based on all company contracts and bylaws. This framework clearly outlines which decisions in the entities require approval from the holding company. Fides integrated this Collaboration Framework, along with other contents from the articles of association and bylaws, into the Materna account to enable interactive use for all stakeholders. This ensured that all corporate legal documents are accurately represented, allowing for efficient and transparent decision-making.

Benefits

  • Time Savings

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    Anyone needing to check whose approval is required for a transaction can skip searching through scanned PDFs or outdated Excel sheets and instead benefit from an intelligent search function.

  • Clear Responsibilities

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    Responsible executives for each department are already integrated into the tool, clearly identified as decision-makers. It's immediately visible who needs to sign off.

  • Efficient Communication

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    Fides automatically forwards resolutions to the appropriate individuals, ensuring that no errors occur.

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    Since implementing Fides, we’ve been executing resolutions with it almost daily.

    Dr. Jan Bünnemeyer

    Group General Counsel

    Standardization and Optimization

    All company contracts of the entities were reviewed by in-house lawyers during the Fides onboarding process and cross-checked with the existing Collaboration Framework. If discrepancies were identified, the Materna legal department systematically adjusted them to ensure legal compliance. This ensured that all qualified majorities and approval requirements were correctly reflected in the tool.

    Thanks to this thorough process, the rollout and active use of Fides began during onboarding. Dr. Jan Bünnemeyer sums up the detailed onboarding phase: “No law firm could have provided us with that level of support.“

    Empowering Entities for Greater Autonomy with Fides

    The local contacts in the entities are typically the managing directors themselves, their assistants, or other enabling functions like Finance or People & Culture. Since there are no plans to establish dedicated legal teams in the smaller and mid-sized subsidiaries anytime soon, a solution was needed to empower the companies to independently initiate resolutions and relevant approval requests.

    With Fides, they can efficiently access the correct templates from the central Materna legal team and coordinate seamlessly. “Thanks to the templates stored in the tool, I feel much more comfortable handling legal matters and now, for example, draft resolution proposals myself that Jan can adjust,“ says Duygu Atalay, an HR team member at a Materna subsidiary. As a result, the size of the group-wide legal team remained unchanged while the workload was significantly reduced.

    Additionally, all Materna companies now benefit from Legal Customer Success Support through Fides and can directly reach out to Fides for questions about processes or the Collaboration Framework, further easing the burden on the central legal team.

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    Since we introduced Fides, the process of getting signatures at Materna has completely transformed! With Fides, documents can be signed within hours, no matter if the executive board, supervisory board, or managing directors of our subsidiaries are at the Materna headquarters in Dortmund or anywhere else around the globe.

    Norina Gerlach

    Executive Assistant to the Board

    Norina Gerlach

    The Benefits of Using Fides

    Standardization of Company Contracts and Bylaws

    Maintaining Transparent Decision-Making Processes

    Group-Wide Single Source of Truth for All Stakeholders

    Optimized Collaboration Through Standardized Digital Workflows

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    In Fides, there's a support chat where you can ask questions. I thought I’d have to wait 24 hours for a response, but I was amazed when our Fides Customer Success Manager got back to me in just 10 minutes. It’s incredible to get such fast and thorough service at this price!

    Dr. Jan Bünnemeyer

    Group General Counsel

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