There’s something energizing about spending a few days with people who understand each other’s day-to-day operational and strategic realities.
At Ascend 2025, Resolver’s annual security & investigations summit, I had the privilege of connecting with Resolver customers from around the world. Teams who spend their days managing regulatory complexity, handling corporate investigations, and working behind the scenes to build cultures of trust.
These roles don’t always get the attention they deserve. But the conversations this year made one thing clear: When it comes to technology tools that support their processes and goals, ethics & compliance leaders are no longer settling for “it’s good enough.” They want tools that fit their workflows and scale with their programs.
Whether we were talking about whistleblower intake, complex investigations, or the practical use of AI, the message was consistent: “We need better systems, more visibility, and fewer workarounds.”
Here are five takeaways from the conversations that stuck with me.
1. The reporting gap is real — and growing
One theme that keeps coming up when I chat with E&C teams is: “We’re not getting as many reports as we expected.”
It’s a quiet red flag. When report volumes are flat, it doesn’t always mean everything’s on track. Often, it signals that something’s off — maybe the intake process feels too complicated, maybe people don’t believe anything will happen, or maybe they’re worried they’ll be exposed.
Three common issues surface in conversations:
- Forms that are too rigid or frustrating — people drop off before submitting.
- Lack of follow-up — employees never hear whether anything changed.
- Ongoing fear of retaliation — even when reports are technically anonymous.
These are fixable problems. But you can’t fix them if your system treats compliance like a checkbox. The concern is amplified by how lean most E&C teams really are. Some global organizations are managing thousands of employees with just a handful of investigators. That reality makes it even more important to eliminate friction.
One customer shared how they track reporting maturity by analyzing reports per 100 employees across sites. It’s a simple but powerful way to see where education or support is needed.
At Resolver, we help teams build trust through better intake, secure anonymous follow-up, and reporting that highlights impact — not just activity. Transparency isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s essential infrastructure for a credible program.
2. AI: Everyone wants it — few are ready for it
If I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned AI at Ascend, I’d be writing this from a yacht. But the conversation has matured. Most teams aren’t just asking how to add AI anymore — they want to understand what it means for risk, defensibility, and control.
That’s especially true of ethics & compliance teams under pressure to modernize. But they want to proceed with caution, which makes sense. You’re dealing with sensitive reports, legal exposure, and real human impact.
In hallway chats and breakout sessions, I heard questions like:
- Will I be able to explain the AI’s decision-making if we’re audited?
- What if a serious issue gets missed or misclassified?
- Does my team know how to validate or override what the system recommends?
At Resolver, we’re harnessing AI that supports case triage, not replaces it. It’s fully transparent, audit-friendly, and configurable to match your process. You stay in control — we just help reduce the noise and surface what needs attention faster.
3. Your board doesn’t want a PDF. They want a pattern.
One theme that came through loud and clear at Ascend: the pressure to move faster and report smarter. Compliance leaders are spending weeks pulling data for quarterly board meetings, only to deliver reports that recap what’s already happened.
In one session, someone said: “I don’t want to just tell the board how many cases we closed. I want to show them what those cases mean — what changed because of them.”
That hit home.
Boards want context, not just counts. They want to understand trends, outcomes, and where the program is making a difference.
Resolver’s dashboards help make that story clear. Teams can highlight:
- Repeat violations by region or department
- Outcomes tied to terminations or training
- Time-to-resolution trends that signal capacity issues
These aren’t just operational metrics — they’re signals of program health. And when reporting is tied to real change, leadership pays attention.
4. Migration fear is real — but manageable
Let’s address the elephant in the room: most teams already have a system — even if it’s no longer meeting their needs. Yet one of the biggest sources of hesitation we hear is about switching platforms.
Here’s what I hear most often:
- How will we manage BAU while switching over?
- What happens to our historical data?
- If we change hotline numbers, how painful will that be to update everywhere?
- Is this really going to be worth it in the end?
Short answer: Yes. And we’ll walk you through every step.
At Resolver, we’ve guided teams through dozens of transitions from legacy systems like Navex and Conversant. Our process is structured, scoped, and handled by people who’ve done this before. You’ll get a visual roadmap, data mapping support, and hotline continuity (yes, your number legally stays with you).
But here’s what teams find most valuable: what happens after the switch.
Customers tell us reports that used to take days now take minutes. Case data gets connected to patterns and outcomes. Dashboards reflect what leadership actually wants to see — risk exposure, repeat issues, and the impact of the program over time.
One customer told us, “We couldn’t keep retrofitting a system that wasn’t built for where we were going. Resolver didn’t just streamline our workflows — it gave us the structure to rethink how we manage case management.”
Migration isn’t the goal. Modernization is. And the right system makes it possible.
5. Culture change needs a system
One customer shared how they grew from 200 to over 1,400 reports annually—a shift that reflected more than awareness. It was the result of clear training, internal communication, and the right tools to capture and act on trends.
Scaling a culture of reporting takes more than a hotline. It takes infrastructure. You need a platform that supports your team as it grows and adapts. You need automation, translation support for global teams, permissions that reflect your org chart, and real-time dashboards and reporting to keep leadership informed. You need configurability that doesn’t require a dev team every time your process changes.
Resolver helps teams move from effort to impact—without needing an IT ticket every time your process evolves. That’s where we help teams win.
What people felt — not just what they learned
One of the most powerful parts of Ascend wasn’t just the sessions, but the conversations that happened in between them. As one attendee put it, “Over the past two days, I’ve built new connections with people I can learn from and lean on.”
That sense of shared purpose came up again and again. From keynote stages to roundtable discussions, three themes stood out:
- Everyone is feeling the pressure to do more with less. The risk profiles may differ, but the resource strain is universal.
- Community matters. E&C leaders may be responsible for internal oversight, but they shouldn’t work in isolation.
- The world is changing fast. From political volatility to online threats and emerging ESG pressures, no one’s operating in a static environment.
When our CPO Joe Crampton asked each table to share their “peanut butter & jelly” takeaways — the sticky and the sweet — here’s what stood out:
- Surprise at just how much complexity and configurability Resolver can handle.
- A deep appreciation for how customer feedback is actually shaping the product roadmap.
- A recognition that the platform’s flexibility isn’t just theoretical — people left knowing how to configure reports, workflows, and permissions on their own.
- And most importantly, a sense of being supported — by both Resolver and our wider customer community.
As one of our customers said, “It felt like I was your only customer.” That’s the level of partnership we aim for.
Final thoughts
If Ascend 2025 taught me anything, it’s that teams are tired of good-enough tools that weren’t built for the work they do.
Checking boxes isn’t enough. This work protects your people, your reputation, and your ability to surface risk before it becomes liability. You deserve a platform that helps you do that — not one that slows you down.
Thanks again to everyone who joined us at Ascend. I left more energized than ever — and if we didn’t get a chance to connect, please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.
Let’s keep building systems that people trust.
— Rebecca
PS: If you missed our webinar on smarter whistleblowing and compliance investigations and case management, it’s now on-demand. We walk through what a complete whistleblower investigative platform actually looks like, grounded in what matters: clean workflows, better outcomes, and fast resolution. 
About the author: Rebecca Anker partners with ethics & compliance, risk, and security leaders to strengthen internal reporting, investigations, and governance programs using Resolver’s centralized platform. She works with smart, forward-thinking teams who challenge her to anticipate industry needs. Passionate about empowering workplace culture, she ensures companies have the tools to foster transparency and accountability.
