Quick Scan of companies: Following the money

The SOMO Quick Scan is a comprehensive investigation into a company and is one of the key research specialisations that SOMO Services can offer. The methodology used in the SOMO Quick Scan is also the basis of SOMO’s approach to investigating how companies are organised, how they operate and how they are financed.

Researchers at SOMO Services “follow the money” when investigating a company. This means digging into the details of who owns what to determine who really makes the business decisions and who should be held to account, regardless of whether the company is big, small, public, private or an empty letterbox.

Information is key

Many civil society organisations, public interest groups, NGOs and governments have connections with companies when they establish partnerships, select suppliers, campaign against a company’s business practice or when they enter into talks and negotiations in the form of a stakeholder dialogue. Increasingly, SOMO Services clients want more useful and strategic information about the companies they are connected to or have relationships with, which is why the tailor-made Quick Scan investigation is so useful.

Depending on the specific needs of the customer, the Quick Scan research can focus on labour and human rights, the environment, tax avoidance, corruption, corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate governance. When research into these areas is combined with scandals reported in the press and red flags revealed in financial reports, the findings are used by SOMO Services as the basis for developing a risk analysis.

Gathering data

Here at SOMO Services we use corporate databases including three financial terminals (Reuters Eikon, Bloomberg and Orbis), a global media and legal database (LexisNexis), local trade and financial registries, open source databanks as well as drawing on our global network of CSOs and NGOs to help with our investigations.

Depending on your organisation’s needs, we can provide you with a short report that includes analysis, conclusions and recommendations. SOMO Services also offers variations of the Quick Scan targeting specific areas of interest. This includes the SOMO Controversy Scan, which hones in on scandals and controversies linked to specific companies and directors, and the SOMO Tax Scan, which identifies offshore and tax haven subsidiaries.

If you have any questions or would like more information about SOMO’s Quick Scans or other Company Research, please contact Roberta Cowan.