Compliance at Inex One: The 3 Lines of Defense

Inex One serves the leading market research, private equity and strategy consulting firms globally. Our clients require the highest standards of integrity, discretion, and adherence to regulatory guidelines. As the global marketplace for expert networks, Inex One defines the best practices for expert network operations, standardizing compliance frameworks, operations, and policies across all networks.

Inex One provides a platform where clients can connect with the best experts globally, confident that the expert networks and survey firms are continuously monitored for compliance and operational excellence.

Inex One is your central hub for primary research, streamlining access to all expert networks and survey firms under one contract and compliance framework. Compared to engaging a patchwork of separate firms, Inex One users have central compliance oversight of their primary research.

The three lines of Defense

Inex One centralizes and standardizes primary research across your entire firm. Our robust compliance framework is built on three lines of defense:

Vetting, due diligence and standardized compliance across all suppliers
Compliance control tower - tools to empower your central oversight
Global monitoring and industry leadership

Line 1: Vetting & Standardized Compliance across our Supply Partners

Inex One has curated a selection of the world's best expert networks and B2B survey firms, each rigorously evaluated for their independent compliance capabilities. Under one contract with Inex One, you can access them all with standardized compliance rules and pricing.

All Inex One partners must annually recertify their adherence to our compliance framework. This includes:

Regular employee compliance training. Covering topics of anti-corruption and anti-bribery, conflicts of interests, ethical rights and obligations, privacy violations, treatment of confidential and material non-public information.

Internal whistleblower programs, to promptly address any compliance concerns.

Comprehensive Expert Vetting: Each partner must implement stringent processes for vetting their experts, including identity verification, professional background checks, and assessment of potential conflicts of interest.

Mandatory Expert Training: Our partners are required to provide their experts with ongoing, mandatory training on critical compliance topics, including but not limited to:
- Prohibition of discussing Material Non-Public Information (MNPI).
- Strict adherence to confidentiality agreements.
- Rules regarding current employer affiliations and sensitive industry topics.
- Managing conflicts of interest.

Robust Compliance Frameworks: We assess our partners' internal compliance teams, policies, and technological infrastructure to ensure they meet the highest industry standards. Partners must adhere to all applicable legislation and industry standards. We think of these in three tiers:

Firstly, there's general legislation applicable to all market research, e.g.:

Secure data processing, minimization, anonymization and deletion of data (e.g. the EU GDPR, CCPA, Chinese CAC measures).
Not giving or soliciting advice (medical, investment, legal).
Not breaching any NDAs or confidentiality agreements.
Not disclosing any material non-public information ("MNPI"), including but not limited to MNPI related to clinical trials, publicly traded companies or IPOs.
Declaring incentives to tax authorities if above applicable thresholds (e.g. US W9 forms).

Secondly, there is legislation specific to healthcare market research, e.g.:

Declaration of studies (e.g. Loi Anti-Câdeaux in France).
Declaration and limitations of payments as per Loi Bertrand (France), The Physician Payments Sunshine Act (US), and similar requirements imposed by self-regulation (e.g. EFPIA member disclosure).
Adverse events reporting obligations.
Fair market value compensation.
Secure treatment of patient information (e.g. the US HIPAA).
Practitioners must be duly licensed and may not be on any debarment/ excluded individuals list.
Prohibiting clients from using the market research as a means to solicit any medical services/advice or promote any product or service to a HCP.
Limitation on market research targeted towards children (e.g. the US COPPA).

Finally, market research associations worldwide have guidelines and codes of conduct relevant to their geography and sector building upon the legislation. These associations range from general to sector-specific, e.g.:

general market research (e.g. ESOMAR, CRIC, AMSRS, UK MRS).
general healthcare (e.g. the BHBIA).
medical devices (e.g. AdvaMed), and
pharmaceuticals (e.g. EphMRA and ABPI).

Line 2: Your Compliance Control Tower

Inex One gives you the tools to monitor all your firm's expert network and survey interactions. You can implement specific compliance protocols across all your expert engagements, regardless of the underlying expert network. This includes:

Customizable Screening & Approval Flows: Tailor screening questions and automated rules to flag experts. Implement automatic approvals/rejections, or notifications to the compliance team about experts based on predefined criteria.
Centralized Expert Profiles & History: Review expert profiles, detailed biographies, and responses to screening questions from all networks in one unified dashboard. Maintain a comprehensive audit trail of all expert interactions, including optional recordings/transcripts.
Communication Oversight: All communication between your team and the expert networks, including project details and expert profiles, is centralized, providing transparency and control.
Real-Time Monitoring & Alerts: Set up notifications to alert your compliance team when experts meet specific criteria or require review, ensuring timely oversight.
Secure & Compliant Data Handling: Our platform is designed with robust data protection and privacy measures, ensuring that all personally identifiable information (PII) and sensitive project data are handled in full compliance with global regulations (e.g., GDPR).

Read more about the Inex One compliance infrastructure here.

Line 3: Global real-time monitoring and alerts

Compliance is an ongoing commitment, not a one-time check. We monitor expert interactions and surveys done by more than 500 customer organizations worldwide. We collect quantitative and qualitative feedback on service quality, pricing, and compliance. Through automated monitoring and continuous client feedback loops, we are the first to know if the service levels are deteriorating at any expert network or survey firm. In such rare cases, we can swiftly contain risk to our clients by stopping that vendor from engaging on new projects until investigated.

As Inex One has grown to become one of the largest buyers of expert network services globally, we’ve been able to enforce our compliance rules and checks across all vendors.

Inex One is your Digital Research Management Assistant

With Inex One, you access the best expert networks and B2B survey firms with a robust, centralized compliance system that protects your firm, streamlines your workflows, and controls costs. You get peace of mind to focus on gaining insights, being confident that every interaction adheres to the highest ethical and legal standards.

Want to learn how other firms use Inex One? Check out our case studies, or contact us!