Our services include:

• Providing outsourced management and secretariat services to industry associations;

• Advising not-for-profit industry bodies on their establishment and ongoing governance issues.

Examples of our recent work with cross-industry bodies include:

• Running of the Voice on the Net Coalition Europe, which comprises members such as iBasis, Google, Microsoft, Skype, etc

• Heading the Public Affairs Working Group of the European Interactive Advertising Association, which includes members such as Yahoo!, eBay, Microsoft, Orange, etc.
  

More and more sectors in all geographies are shaped by regulation, with varying results depending on the maturity of the liberalisation process and on the approach taken by policy makers and regulators.

N² has a global track record of providing policy and regulatory advice in telecommunications, an experience it is now also using to advise in other sectors (energy, post, transport, etc.).

Areas of Expertise

Our advice covers:

• all regulatory aspects related to liberalisation, regardless of the sector: universal service obligations, licensing conditions in an opened market, competition issues, etc.

• Internet governance, Internet content regulation (advertising, DRMs and copyright, eMoney, etc.) and network neutrality issues
• Telecoms policy and regulatory frameworks, including regulation of access and interconnection, number portability and carrier selection, VoIP, next generation networks and access…

Our Support to you:

We assist you to understand the impact of regulatory issues and the effect these have on your strategies and revenues.

We advise you, either in a back office role or a front office capacity or even as an outsourced function.

Legal

N² believes that its clients are best served by legal solutions, rather than legal advice. Producing the best “never read” legal advices in a complexe and non committal manner is definitely not our philosophy!

N² can rely on the very diverse legal experience of its Founder, Caroline De Cock. This experience includes both general legal matters (commercial and corporate law) in an international environment and more sector-specific legal expertise.

General Legal Solutions & Training

Many companies do not necessarily require a full-time legal counsel but it is undeniable that in our current society, legal assistance is indispensable. N² does not replace a law firm but takes a different approach to legal solutions, by focussing first on its client’s needs and available resources, and providing the client withsolutions that make sense to him.

This implies that, for example, if faced with a request to draft standard agreements for a specific company, we do not only draft such an agreement but also allocate some time to (1) explain to the various sales and marketing forces what the various provisions of the contract entail, (2) provide alternative clauses in case the said standard agreement is negotiated with partners, so that the people negotiating have fall back positions.

Similarly, we provide trainings to non-legal staff to explain some legal basics to them. In the past, we have for example trained research engineers in how they should behave when exchanging research information with third parties and what the implications of bilateral and unilateral Non-disclosure agreements were. Such a training diminished considerably the number of NDAs signed by that client, creating much less liability and follow-up burden.

Finally, we assist clients in handling contractual negotiations, an activity in which our international expertise and business focus is an asset.

Sector-specific Legal Expertise

We have substantial expertise in legal matters pertaining to the ICT sectors, including:

• Commercial contract drafting and negotiations, including outsourcing agreements, software development and software licence agreements, OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreements, service level, support and maintenance agreements, infrastructure contracts (co-location, interconnection, dark fibre, etc.), etc.

• Data protection and date retention issues

• Website reviews and audit to check for legal compliance

• Handling of disputes and complaints.

As a preliminary remark, N² wants to stress that, if it believes it can run a Government Relations Strategy or handle your Public Affairs needs in Brussels, we do not necessarily pretend that we can do it at the same level in all countries.

We will inform you of our limits and eventually refer you to other firms we believe work with the same high quality standards as we endeavour to achieve.

Re-inforcing our Clients’ impact on the policy- and regulatory decision-making mechanisms

We believe that, to achieve this, Companies should:

• Stop hitting decision-makers cold by adopting a pro-active approach which establishes on-going contacts even if there are no pressing issues or immediate concern.
• Ensure that their lobbying approach allows them to both (1) influence public officials on behalf of or against (proposed legislation, for example) and (2) influence (an official) to take a desired action.
• Position their Company as a resource to policy decision-makers, e.g. by providing them useful information, evidence, data, etc.
• Develop and maintain effective relationships with key influence bodies (e.g. industry and other interested parties) in order to create partnerships and synergies when influencing policy.

The key questions in developing a Public Affairs Strategy

1. What have we got? (internal resources; current existing contacts; strengths)
2. What do we need to develop? (challenges; gaps)
3. What do we want? (goals)
4. Who can help us? (audiences)
5. How do we begin? (first steps)
6. What do they already know about us? Do we need to educate locally? On a pan European basis? What messages do we need to convey? (education; strong Company messages and industry messages)
7. Who do they need to hear it from? (messengers)
8. How do we get them to hear it? (delivery)
9. How will we know it’s working, or not working? (evaluation)

N² can assist you during each phase of the process or you can outsource your Government Relations needs entirely to us.

In providing strategic advice, N² help clients evaluate and scale the potential risks and rewards associated with relevant policies as they relate to the client’s business plans.  In addition, it enables us to craft creative solutions and new approaches to minimize risks and demonstrate leadership during this period of change.

The firm also helps clients develop strategies for responding to compliance obligations and external pressures.  In either case, our emphasis is not just on helping clients “comply” but on assisting with strategies that make sense for their bottom line.

Some examples of how the firm assists clients in developing and implementing liberalisation strategies include:

Strategic Business Planning

• We analyze scenarios for potential future policies and resulting impacts on clients.
• We help clients build their own capacity in this area by designing and providing training for company employees, boards of directors, and others.

Identification and Implementation of Options

• When facing liberailsation or working in a liberalised environments, our clients have a range ofoptions: expansion in other territories and/or beyond the core business, preparation for opening of market in a defensive or offensive manner, etc.
• We help clients to evaluate these options and implement those that fit best the business requirements of their company.

Development of a Strategy for Public Outreach

• N² believes that the constraints and opportunities stemming from regulation require in some cases that communications at an internal and external level be reviewed.
• N² works with clients on developing new corporate position statements that support their strategic vision.

Development of a Public Advocacy Strategy

• N² works with clients on the development of strategies for public advocacy, including reaching out to key non-governmental organizations, policy-makers, and other stakeholders.
• We assist clients in engaging in the policy process, developing testimony, drafting position paper and other submissions, and analyzing legislative proposals.