Frequently Asked Questions

Last Updated: July 2023

Please note that this document is for informational purposes only, and that beqom’s customers are responsible for making their own independent assessment of the information presented herein. All of beqom’s obligations and liabilities to our customers are outlined in our agreements, and this document does not form part of, or modify, any agreement between beqom and our customers.

Contracting with beqom

What is beqom?

beqom is a subscription-based, multi-tenant, cloud-hosted, web-based, software as a service (SaaS) platform. Our services enable our customers to streamline compensation and performance processes, cut costs, aid compliance, reduce errors, and provide operational and strategic agility. beqom's fully configurable compensation cloud platform integrates natively with Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM, and other common HR suites, enabling you to manage the reward and performance of your people without compromise.

What are the key characteristics of beqom’s model?

Subscription-Based: Our customers purchase multi-year access subscriptions to our platform. Subscriptions are commitments by both parties to maintain the relationship through the full term of the applicable order and cannot be terminated for convenience during the term. The beqom platform is made available immediately for the implementation team and customers to upload data, start configuration work, unit and UAT testing along with frequently delivering security and functional updates, providing integration and infrastructure support. A single upfront annual payment is easier to administer for both parties and allows beqom to invest in continuous enhancements to our products.

Multi-Tenant: This means a single application stack of the software and support infrastructure serves multiple customers. While each customer’s data is isolated on a dedicated single-tenant database and no data is shared or visible to other customers. beqom’s infrastructure (incl. ISO certified industry standard security controls) and services are the same for all our customers and cannot be customized on an individual customer-by-customer basis. Every customer receives our 99.5% system availability SLA.

Third-Party Cloud Hosted: This means we use third-party cloud service providers such as Azure to host our platform so we can provide high-availability, enterprise-grade services to our customers. We also engage other third parties to assist us in providing our platform and support to our customers. A full list of our third-party providers is available upon request.

Web-Based: This means no part of the beqom’s application is required to be installed or stored on the customer’s network or infrastructure. beqom is accessible via a web browser.

Software as a Service: This means that you do not need to worry about versioning, updates, or maintenance. We make continuous improvements to our platform, and every customer gets the benefit of these improvements. As a single platform, continuously improved service offering, the concepts of deliverable and acceptance in connection with your use are not applicable. beqom deploys new features into the web application using a mechanism called "Feature Flags", a function to toggle the activation/deactivation of targeted features before you decide to use them.

What services are included in beqom’s platform?

beqom is continuously adding new services and functionalities within the platform. Here is a list of all our general categories of functionality which manage a multi company, multi-division, multi-currency, multi-language application:

Salary Management
Bonus management
Long-term incentives and Bonus deferral
Sales Incentives and Performance Management
Equal pay and transparency
Executive compensation management
Individual compensation planning
Planning, budgeting, and forecasting
Analytics and reporting
Continuous Performance management
Total Rewards Statements
Benchmarking

What do I need to know about the data we send to beqom?

Data Integration: You manage the extent and nature of any data that is sent to beqom. beqom supports 4 data integration methods. The most appropriate option depends on the project, but beqom prefers and recommends Azure Data Factory with integration through APIs.

Types of data: Most of the data processed through beqom contains personal data including HR Job and compensation information for which the terms and conditions in our contracts cater for. Such personal information requires additional contractual obligations to meet regulatory requirements, we provide a data processing agreement.

Exclusion of data: For non-production environments beqom requires that personal data be pseudonymized. More details are available in our handling of personal data processes, which are available upon request.

Location of data: Your team selects the Azure region where your data will be hosted. Other than for business continuity purposes that might require falling-over to another region within the same region, beqom will not change your data’s hosting location. Data may be accessed from any non-sanctioned country by your personnel. Access is not possible from sanctioned countries.

Security of data: Privacy, security, and confidentiality are part of the design of beqom’s platform and each service we offer and included in our annual employee training. Beqom holds ISO 27001, 27017, 27018 certifications and fulfills controls requirements set by AICPA for ISAE3402/SOC1 and SOC2 Type II. Detailed documentation relevant to the security of beqom’s platform, including copies of our independent third-party audit certificates are available upon request. Audits and penetration tests may also be requested in accordance with the terms of your agreement with beqom.

Access to customer data: Only a limited number of beqom’s Operations/Site Reliability Engineers have monitored privileged access to the platform hosting your data. Other beqom resources such as Customer Support may gain temporary access subject to your formal approval.

beqom's contracts

Our online Master Agreement consists of three sections, with terms applicable to:

the multi-year Cloud services;
the Professional services for the one-time implementation project and a Customer Success Package (if purchased); and
General Terms applicable to both of the above.

Within our online agreement there are hyperlinks to other key areas of the contract, namely the SLA, Functionality Description, Data Processing Agreement , list of approved sub processors and our Technical and Operational measures.

As the following documents need to be populated specifically for each customer they are not online, but also form part of the suite of Contract documents:

Order Forms (Cloud and Professional Services)
Statement of Work for the implementation project
Data Processing Form to record specific details of the customer data we will process.

Why use beqom’s contract?

beqom’s Master Agreement describes what our platform does and how it does it. Our contract is mature, balanced and reflective of global SaaS contracting standards.

Using our ‘standard’ SaaS contracts do not lend themselves to describing the specifics of beqom without significant amendments. Hence, contracting consumes considerably more time and resources; shorter cycle-times allow beqom to your next compensation cycle and further solidify the business case behind your the investment.

You will find the suite of contractual documents here and your Sales Executive will be happy to answer any questions you may have and facilitate a meeting with beqom’s legal team if necessary.