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The founders of the company have been working in this field since the start of the BI industry in mid-90s, when a need for business information appeared in Russia and throughout the former Soviet Union.
‘Operational’ methods practiced by former law enforcement officers to obtain information were not always acceptable under these new conditions, and sometimes dangerous because most checks were done ‘head-on’ (for example, a visit to the studied object as a potential customer, gathering information at the place of residence).
We had to use other practices – ‘checks without contact’ - that others call analytical studies. They included a detailed analysis of the available sources due to which we identified business contacts, business history and possible risks to our Clients (at that time they included Gazprom, Norilsk Nickel, several Western companies, including some investigative ones).
All information obtained was carefully analyzed and supplemented with data from ‘live’ sources, that is former staff members of the studied objects and their partners.
In 2000 we achieved official recognition from our colleagues in the investigation business when the results of our work on checking a foreign retailer, which had just entered the Russian market, was compared with the similar report of a leading Russian investigative company (one of our competitors). As a result, this investigative company became our client.
In 2001, our business intelligence team prepared a report for a Western investor, who intended to invest 980 million euro in a Russian company. Our work defined the risks for the investor, and the client then gave us responsibility for a broad range of information tasks. This work served as a decisive starting point for bringing together our professionals into one team.
Over the following years we worked as the main subcontractor for several Western investigative agencies, including global leaders in this field. These customers typically required very deep investigation.
In the course of these investigations, according to the wishes of our clients, we checked half of the Russian Forbes top-100 list of owners of newly listed companies. The emphasis in these tests was on professional and personal reputation, political and business connections.
In 2008 the changing situation in the world financial market led to changes in the requirements of our inquiries. In accordance with our clients’ requests we started to check, in particular, Russian companies acting as dealers for Western suppliers.
At the same time we introduced our own methods for identifying the clients and suppliers of companies under investigation, this also enhanced our opportunities to obtain reputation information.
According to the needs of our customers on the content of documents, in particular the needs of investigative firms, our reports reached the standard of well-known world agencies.
The staff of the company grew. It was joined by two leading specialists from the top three international agencies working in the field of risk management.
Since 2009 we have had a number of new clients who came to us following favorable comparison with the leading Western investigative companies working in Russia.
In 2010, we intensified our efforts to work directly with a number of well known international clients, including two of the Big 4 auditing companies, several investment funds (we conduct audits of investment targets), and one of the largest car manufacturers in Europe.
The average work experience of our team specialists in the field of business intelligence is 15 years.
From the start we have followed an unchanging principle in our work – to deliver the best quality product. Through applying this principle we have earned a high degree of respect in the eyes of our customers in the field of risk management, and the reputation of the best Russian company engaged in deep checks. We continue to follow the principle of ‘making the best quality product’. |
