Diaphane non financial reporting software eng 2017
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The document describes a tool called Diaphane that was created to help companies improve their corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting processes. It struggles that companies often used inefficient tools like spreadsheets for CSR reporting previously. Diaphane aims to provide an easy-to-use platform that allows companies to collect, analyze, and communicate CSR data in an organized and engaging manner throughout the reporting process. The tool is designed to be flexible, scalable, and accessible anywhere via the cloud or on-premise installations. It seeks to provide an end-to-end solution for managing the entire CSR reporting lifecycle.
Diaphane non financial reporting software eng 2017
- 2. The inspiration 2 The inspiration to create Diaphane was born as a result of observing non-financial reporting processes. We have seen companies struggle with CSR reporting processes because they were using standard office tools such as spreadsheets, calendars and e-mails. Files, documents and questionnaires in those companies were circulating in different versions, filled out in many conflicting ways and rarely coming back on time to the person asking for given information. All that raised frustration among data providers and leaders in CSR. In our team, we had been solving these kinds of problems for more than ten years, and we knew it could be done better.
- 3. With a little help Non-financial value determines the valuation of companies and the effectiveness of governments. In the end, it determines the quality of our lives. Measuring and communicating non-financial values is not easy. We need to create plausible stories, supported by facts and data, to let stakeholders compare organizations and make the right decisions. At Diaphane, we have created a tool that will help you collect, aggregate and present data in an engaging way so that you can focus on telling your story. 3
- 4. How can using a tool help you report? (1) Discover data It is not always obvious where you can find relevant data, especially in your first reporting cycle. Best reporting structures are built by controlled trial and error. Demonstrate audit trail Make sure every answer and every change can be tracked back to the reporting person. Standardize metrics Different parts of an organization measure data differently and store them in different reporting databases. Make sure your questions are understood, and only one answer is possible, then reconcile data automatically across your organization. Avoid data aggregation errors Large, cross domain team engaged in reporting on various organizational levels increases risk of data aggregation errors. Mitigate it by automating the process. 4
- 5. How can using a tool help you report? (2) Manage reporting proces • Make sure your data are gathered on time. • Proactively manage and automatically escalate issues before a delay occurs. Attain integrated reporting As your organization matures, merge your financial and non-financial datasets into a single unified view of your organization’s performance. Transparently migrate GRI versions Never worry about changing a GRI version again. We will do that for you. Flexibly adjust your process, questionnaires and formulas. Manage change • Understand KPIs and goals. • Receive frequent feedback throughout the reporting year. • Test and prioritize different management approaches to achieve optimal results. 5
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- 7. Product: Easy Our idea: To create beautiful, easy to use tool. Easy to deploy Diaphane will provide a product that will be configured out-of-the-box. We will also set up a reporting standard to get you up and running quickly. You only need to roughly map your organization’s structure, select the scope of reporting and start collecting data. You do not need to know where exactly your data are – you will still be able to discover that in your first reporting cycle. Different access rights – the same great experience with just the right information presented in a user-friendly way. 7 Easy to modify What happens today if you want to change the scope of your reporting process or use new version of reporting standard? Most likely you hire a consultant to explain new aspects or indicators. Do you need to ask him to modify spreadsheet? Perhaps you have a custom-built solution and need to hire a software development agency to refactor hardcoded solution? With Diaphane Software it is different. CSR Manger with respective access rights can configure new users, modify the structure, adopt the new version of reporting standard or adapt and/or add questions with easy to use dashboard interface. You do not need to worry about standard upgrades, we will take care of this. Diaphane is the last CSR reporting platform you will ever need.
- 8. Product: Intuitive (1) Users demand an intuitive, easy-to-use, enterprise application experience on every device, because that is what they are used to in their personal life. Anything less will result in a lower engagement and productivity, which will, in turn, lead to poor-quality data delivered late or not delivered at all. Diaphane offers an unparalleled user experience, with the latest front-end and back-end technologies making it happen behind the scenes. Our primary goal was to make our reporting solution self-explanatory. If our users needed extensive training to use the system, we would have redesigned it from scratch. 8
- 9. Product: Intuitive (2) CSR Manager A CSR Manager is the non-financial reporting process owner in the organization. The role of a CSR Manager is to plan the report, identify the stakeholders and the materiality of given aspects, choose forms for data collection, select/modify questions, and finally manage users and their rights. A CSR Manager can track the progress of data collection, current report completion progress and the report’s final shape. There are 3 primary roles in the application: Unit Leader A Unit Leader is the line manager responsible for a location, department, business process, or any other aspect of data you need to collect. Unit Leaders are responsible for the timely data collection and aggregation in their areas. They can either fill out forms by themselves or delegate it to other people. Once a Unit Leader gets the data, they can verify, approve, reject, or adjust them manually if needed. Depending on the size of your organization you may have multiple levels of unit leaders or get by without using this role at all. Reporter Everyone in the organization is a potential reporter (including the CSR Managers and Unit Leaders). A reporter’s role is to fill out questionnaires delegated to them by a respective Unit Leader within the requested timeframe. We designed Diaphane in such a way as to help reporters understand questions clearly and provide answers for the relevant period in just the right format, using the right measurement units. There are other roles supporting full CSR/ESG report lifecycle: Auditor, Stakeholder and CSR Consultant. Each of them has different access rights having the same great experience with right information presented in a user-friendly way. 9
- 10. Product: Engaging (1) The organizations that do sustainable business successfully have one thing in common – everyone in the organization works towards the socially responsible success. Before you are successful, however, you need to make people excited about sustainability first. Making people excited comes from good communication. You have a story to tell. We give you the means to do it. 10 Corporate Social Responsibility is a team sport.
- 11. Product: Engaging (2) Enjoy a beautiful app Diaphane’s founders have a lot of experience building and selling e-commerce software. In e-commerce, poor user experience will inevitably turn a great idea into a total flop. Nowadays, users always compare the experience they get with their business applications with the state-of-the-art consumer app. Needless to say, they expect the same standards from both kinds of apps. The app must be consumer-oriented. It must offer easy data entry from any device, a streamlined interface that presents the right information at the right time, quick access to key functions and simple navigation. These factors combine to facilitate smooth workflows and exceptional productivity, and Diaphane has them all. Engage your stakeholders Non-financial reporting is a conversation. It is only authentic when every participant of the process can speak freely and listen to the other side. The way you frame this conversation is key. • Engage your stakeholders and let them speak up. • Make sure they feel listened to. You need to listen to their feedback and take into account their priorities to properly align your business activity. 11
- 12. Product: Engaging (3) Personalize your communication • Use the collected data optimally for each group of stakeholders. • By using the GRI report, assure your shareholders that the investment in the company is secure. • Publish infographics to build your customer awareness. • Promote the corporate culture among employees to make them proud to work in your company and genuinely share the company’s values. • Communicate information that is relevant to given stakeholders. Gamification Noone likes extra work. Especially when it is new and unknown. This is a major concern for companies starting to report. Best way to feel more confident is… well doing that together! And this can be fun. Cheer team competitive spirit. Get people excited and set examples. And yes, toss some prizes in at the end to show recognition. 12
- 13. Product: Flexible (1) Diaphane is developed with flexibility in mind. It is a business application, and the business user is in control. You can manage everything: the scope, users, structure, aspects, and questions. Leave the maintenance to us and focus on your reporting process. Configure on your own Configuring Diaphane does not require special skills or training. The configuration options depend on a given user’s role in the application – different users types will see different options. As long as you know what you want to achieve from the business perspective, building this into the tool is a piece of cake. It is our commitment that the application will adapt to your organization not the other way around. If you would like to have any part of the tool modified, you can always talk to us. 13
- 14. Product: Flexible (2) Adapt to changing standards Reporting standards change over time – that is just the way it is. If you want to remain competitive, you need to be on top of them. Changes in reporting standards can easily ruin a custom-built tool or a workflow, and then you will have to develop it from scratch. It also means that you will have to train your reporters on how to use the tool again. On top of that, a new tool is likely to cause errors in data collection. What if you could outsource this burden? Diaphane constantly monitors reporting standards for any changes and implements them into the system. You just focus on producing your report. Modify questions Reporting standards contain aspect templates and indicators that are supposed to allow you to differentiate between businesses such as banks and manufacturing companies, but their granularity is limited. A furniture factory and tire plant will have very different processes, cause a different impact on the environment and use different terminologies in their communication. With Diaphane, you can easily modify the questions, reporting units and languages used. Manage change As data are being collected, the CSR Manager has a live preview of KPIs and their trends. The data allow the manager to take corrective actions and/or influence the management policies. Multiple standards Diaphane implements and maintains the most comprehensive of non-financial reporting standards: the GRI. The application is not limited only to GRI though. Any other standard can be implemented with (or without) our support because all form and report builders are accessible to the business user. Flexibly decide what to collect and what to report Upon collection, data are aggregated into an OLAP cube. The CSR manager is free to slice and dice it as need, in order to determine which dimensions should be presented in the final report. Moreover, introducing additional dimensions to the collected data (e.g. extending GRI forms to understand employment KPIs in relation to nationality) will not disrupt your default report. You can safely experiment with data collection and only modify the report if the experiment proves successful. 14
- 15. Product: Scalable The size of the organization does not matter, but maturity and complexity of the process do. The more precise, quantifiable information you plan to collect, the more employees you will need to ask for the information, and you will have to do it more often. This can eventually increase the effort you have to make to get the right data on time. Performance Diaphane was designed with latest technologies working behind the scenes to deliver great in-browser and backend performance as well as infinite horizontal scaling so that you do not have to worry about many users accessing it. We know the more hands you get on deck, the better the results will be.. Scalable reporting structures In Diaphane, you will not need to design your organizational structure(s) upfront. The Unit Leader at each level can divide their piece of organization further. Each leader just needs to know their n-1 data providers. This approach scales well from small teams to global organizations, greatly simplifies planning, and aids data source discovery during the first report. Reorg Friendly Things change. We know that reporting needs continuity and explainable data trends, but we also know that large organizations undergo reorganizations. These reorganizations will not usually wait for a reporting period to finish. We are proud of how our organizational structures are not only easily adjusted to your organization at the beginning of our co-operation, but also how they can be readjusted during a reporting year in the event that a change occurs. 15
- 16. Product: Available anywhere (1) Our development team has taken all its front-end application development experience to give you the confidence that the functionality and experience will remain identical regardless of which deployment model you prefer or what mobile devices your users will use. Available on any device Diaphane is a responsive web application, which means that you get the exact same functionality and ease of use on a smartphone, tablet or computer. Good user experience on mobile devices is crucial, as it drives adoption numbers nowadays. Having a consistent experience across a range of devices will pay off with more users using the application, submitting the data you require faster. You only need to focus on the business value – the rest is just choosing a deployment model. 16
- 17. Product: Available anywhere (2) Available in the cloud Diaphane is available from the cloud by default. • It takes minutes for you to obtain access to your instance in the cloud after applying for a subscription. • Your instance is secure, separated from other instances, and only you can have access to your data. • The data will always remain your property, so if you decide not to renew the subscription for any reason, you will get all your data back. Available on premise Cloud is convenient and flexible, but some companies still prefer on-premise versions. If you need such a solution, we have it covered – you can have an identical application installed in your data center. In case you decide to migrate to the cloud in the future, you will only need to export your historical data from the on-premise system and import into your cloud instance. The two models differ in how the access to new versions of Diaphane and reporting standards are managed: • In the cloud option: new versions are available to all users as soon as they are released; • In the on-premise system: you have the right to use new version as soon as it is released, but it will require installation by Diaphane Professional Services. This is why we encourage all clients to consider the cloud version in the first place. 17
- 18. Product: End-to-End (1) There are many existing tools which can be helpful during reporting. Starting with simple back-office tools all the way up to domain systems managing EHS, GHG or just additional ERP modules. None of those tools, however, will carry you through the whole report lifecycle. Diaphane is different. It is a dedicated tool built from ground up for a single purpose: to help you manage and communicate CSR/ESG aspects. Diaphane is the last non-financial reporting tool you will ever need. 18 Data collection • Collect data in a predictable and manageable process. • Demonstrate audit trail. • Proactively remind reporters about coming deadlines and automatically escalate the deadlines they miss. • Use visual heatmaps to understand the risk of not getting the data on time. Analytics & reporting • Analyze data as it is being collected. • Observe yearly and year-over-year trends. • Manage any change that should occur to make sure that when the reporting time comes, your data will shine.
- 19. Product: End-to-End (2) Report planning Diaphane is delivered with process documentation and readily available content to help you plan the reporting process from day one. We can also provide consulting services to kickstart the process in the first year. It is our commitment that everything will be running smoothly regardless of how much experience you have had with non-financial reporting. Stakeholder identification & engagement Diaphane does not limit the number of people that you can grant access to the platform. This includes external stakeholders – identify and engage them in meaningful, asynchronous, bidirectional communication and understand where their priorities are. Materiality assessment Once you know which aspects are material and worth reporting on, Diaphane will automatically find right questionnaire templates for you. 19
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- 21. Benefits (1) 21 Manage non-financial KPIs Increase the frequency of data collection throughout the year to analyze the trends for your important KPIs to have a chance to eventually improve them. It is also crucial to be able to compare KPIs year to year to show the progress and to increase the company’s value. Mitigate risk Control the process throughout the year, see the progress, identify bottlenecks, manage the change if needed, and have an audit trail for all the data you collect. Always be fully confident that your data are correct and relevant. This will minimize the risk of potential stakeholders’ complaints, a drop in company value, or the need of paying penalties or fines. Increase process transparency The very idea of CSR is based on transparency. You cannot have a transparent business without transparent processes, nor can you build trust among stakeholders with data you cannot validate or prove. Do not waste your time on manual data collection, escalation, validation, etc. Trial your workflow, audit data, and show that your reporting process is transparent.
- 22. Benefits (2) 22 Engage stakeholders Use an automated process and a user-friendly application to help your stakeholders voice their opinion about various questions, and eventually help you get exactly the information you need. Show in the report that you are having a meaningful dialogue with stakeholders. Reduce team stress levels One of the biggest headaches of every CSR manager is how to collect data without making people frustrated with hundreds of unclear process explanations, questions, requests, and spreadsheets flying back and forth. Ask the right questions to the right people, and let them take advantage of contextual help so that they give you the exact information you need. Own the data With Diaphane Software, you own the data. We will export them for you whenever you need, and we will also run a final export when your contract is over.
- 23. Contact 23 Diaphane Sp. z o.o. phone: +48 786 121 230 e-mail: contact@diaphanesoftware.com Gliwice Office: ul. Zygmunta Starego 13 44-100 Gliwice (Poland, EU)