If there is one sentence to describe OptInsight, that would be “Creating business value with regtech”, according to Tjeerd van der Stroom, one of the founders of the company.
Coming from a business and financial background, Tjeerd has gained his in-depth understanding of regulatory compliance through his work in financial institutions. The advent of the GDPR motivated him to focus on data protection and privacy. Martijn van den Corput, also one of the founders, is a former management consultant who has primarily been motivated by the commercial opportunities of GDPR in deciding to launch OptInsight.
Tjeerd begins by making a few clarifications about what they do. “We are not a one-stop-shop GDPR compliance company”, he states. “Our focus is on consent and its underlying business opportunities.” OptInsight offers an application which enables registration of customer/ client consent, that is one of the six lawful bases of processing personal data under the GDPR. This is done through an omni-channel software tool which registers evidence and consent centrally and combines regulatory data with commercial data in business intelligence dashboards.
Higher opt-in rations, reductions in compliance cost, and commercial insights
On their website, three main benefits of OptInsight are represented including increased opt-in ratios, reducing the cost of compliance, and reinforcing business relations. When asked about the first, Martijn explains that the software enables companies to coordinate the relevancy of their information offered to customers, so that companies become aware of the preferences of their customers, with their permission. In that way, companies have the ability to communicate with their customer, and in line with the preferences of their customers. This has a positive effect on “perceived value”, which increases the opt-in ratio.
Regarding the second point, Martijn explains the fact that companies would rather put their efforts toward setting high numbers of effective customer interactions than finding out whether they are compliant or not. The software of OptInsight offers a simple solution to alleviate the burden of such administrative steps via a single portal gathering the six grounds for lawful processing according to the GDPR. Since the software separates different communication channels for opt-in and opt-out preferences into one centralized platform, less time is needed to search and collect the preferences of customers, and the costs that may be related to it. “We have a system for processing data centrally.’’ Tjeerd says, ‘’So in case that either a data subject or governing authority has an inquiry, the company can easily fulfil their needs.’’ That practice can also reveal which communication channel is more effective for which parties.
Tjeerd is clear about the link of commercial aspect to their software. Explaining the third point on reinforcing business relations, he gives the example of an article authored by a company concerning a certain topic. The commercial head could see how many people have opted-in to be informed about that certain topic, and ‘’that says something about the value of the content you produce. It can give a lot of info about the progression of your commercial goals.’’ Furthermore, OptInsight provides insights in effectiveness of commercial actions. For example, commercial people are able to gather personal preferences during face-to-face interactions through the OptInsight app, which enables companies to use the functionality of online interactions in the offline world.
The main challenge with the GDPR for many companies arises from a client- focused orientation, Martijn says. ‘’GDPR is everywhere during the customer journey. It’s not only the responsibility of the Data Officer, but also of the ones who deal with the delivery and transaction, namely, commercial and marketing people.’’ According to him, companies can reflect on their own company, and focus on more customer-oriented ways to take advantage of privacy.
On the regtech industry
Tjeerd says that many companies within the regtech industry approach software solely in terms of adopting regulatory compliance and regulatory measures. However, in his experience, clients of regtech companies are interested in treating the GDPR as a business opportunity.
OpInsight’s approach to regtech uses adoption as a baseline and encourages companies that may not view the GDPR as a business opportunity to consider it as such. “The definition of risk is the same as opportunity,” he says, “the same static formula calculates them both.”
Near future plans
Tjeerd is enthusiastic about their latest focus on the analytics side of their software. Martijn adds that they are also busy working on their technology to enable their clients to obtain more insights for strategic purposes. Finally, they mention that OptInsight is working on a whitepaper concerning consent for direct marketing. For this sophisticated task, their partner is a renowned international law firm.
By Asli Seven, Research Analyst
