“A new level of control”
From PDF proofs in email loops. To live editing of the annual report with ten logged-in people in dialogue. This is how the reporting process was streamlined when the listed company Sdiptech switched to Xplir.
– I have gained a new level of control,” says My Lundberg, Head of Sustainability & IR.
Sustainability and infrastructure are two key themes in today’s business world. It is at this intersection that Sdiptech operates, a technology group that invests in specialized technologies and solutions for the societies of the future.
But Sdiptech is not a venture capital company that constantly seeks to divest its holdings, My Lundberg emphasizes.
– Our business model is to be a perpetual owner. We allow our companies to continue to operate under their brands and carry on their business.
The focus is on specialized product companies, which operate in markets with higher barriers to entry and generate safe margins.
– These are well-managed companies and our role as a group is to help them grow. We can assist with industry expertise, expansion, generational changes or find partnerships with the other business units,” says My Lundberg.
The technology group has grown to almost 40 holdings, divided into two business areas. Therefore it is a complex business to describe when Sdiptech produces its annual report.
The work process used to be similar to that of many other IR departments: documents were sent to a production agency. Drafts in the form of PDFs were returned. And that’s how the communication continued until the annual report was completed.
My Lundberg therefore took the initiative to improve the process. Among others, an alternative based on giving the IR team some ability to edit text directly in the design tool was evaluated.
But then she saw the Xplir system.
– I realized that Xplir was an even smarter solution because it works in modules. I have been very hand on in the past in my role as a client, making finished design sketches and sending them in presentations to agencies. Now I realized that I would have the opportunity to make adjustments directly in the tool. That felt good.
Why is that important?
– I think it’s fun and maybe I have a bit of a need for control too,” says My, laughing.
But she underlines that the benefits of taking direct design control over the annual reports extend to the whole team. And the whole process.
This was clearly noticeable when work on the 2023 annual report began. Design and content were developed in parallel in the same version, with the agency and My working directly in the live environment with her colleagues at Sdiptech.
– When we sent our first drafts to the auditors and the board, all the proof and comments were collected in the same version. Participants could ask questions and I could answer them directly in the system. For example, two members of the audit committee had a lengthy dialogue with each other.
Unlike some other options, Xplir also has a finely calibrated permissions functionality, which allows many users to collaborate securely. Sdiptech was able to benefit from this in real time.
– At one point we were going to include an important activity for the company that was not yet official. It was very convenient that we could lock those parts for people who were not on the insider list. It is also reassuring that everyone can have the right to do just that for each part – comment, read, write, update data and so on.
Sdiptech’s first annual report in Xplir was published on April 19, 2024. In retrospect, My Lundberg looks back on a process where most things went faster and smoother, but where Xplir also had to act fast.
– Kudos to the team at Xplir who acted quickly when questions arose. I never felt worried,” she says.
Next year’s work will be even easier as the basic templates are created, allowing the team to roll the report forward and start drafting content and adding comments now.