CUSTOMER SUCCESS
OMERS Business Challenge
"Good Corporate Governance starts with ensuring everyone is aware of the most current policies." Kevin Kozak, VP of Corporate Projects at OMERS
OMERS is one of Canada's largest pension plans, managing over $53 billion in net assets on behalf of over 400,000 municipal employee members. They have a clear overriding commitment: paying the pensions of their current and future retirees. Corporate Governance is an important fiduciary responsibility in the fulfillment of this commitment, now and in the future. OMERS needed to provide its employees and associated entities with access to the most accurate version of their 900+ governance documents to ensure they were able to follow the most up-to-date policies and procedures. Their manual paper-based process did not ensure the accuracy, security, timeliness or cost-effectiveness they wanted.
Corporate Governance - An Online Document Sharing Solution OMERS evaluated a number of online solutions and even considered managing an online document exchange solution in-house. Going with an outsourced document sharing provider was more costeffective and allowed them to begin using the system right away. "Building your own system is one approach," says Kevin Kozak, VP of Corporate Projects at OMERS, "but it takes time to implement and requires a lot of support. Corporate Governance is a serious fiduciary responsibility so we needed a solution that we could use immediately and that provided 24/7 support for our extended network of users." OMERS partnered with Firmex to deliver the cost-effective, secure, timely access they were looking for. Firmex helped OMERS set up the first document repository and it was available within hours. Policy documents are now managed online and shared across the associated entities according to access controls. When documents are updated, users are automatically notified of the change to the policy document. Administrators can also track when users have viewed new policy documents, giving OMERS the confidence that changes to governance policies are being reviewed in a secure and timely manner. "This solution has saved us countless hours in governance administration," says Kozak, "and given us added transparency into the governance process."
Firmex: Delivering Cost-Effective Document Exchange and Collaboration "Firmex provides us with a cost-effective, secure solution to give our extended network the access and support they need." Kevin Kozak, VP of Corporate Projects at OMERS
OMERS has since expanded its use of Firmex to include more projects supporting their expansive network as well as their virtual data rooms. The product flexibility meets their many document sharing and collaboration needs. Their investment groups share strategic investment information and the Pension Admin group tracks internal projects. This has allowed employees easy and immediate access to records as needed. "By going with a subscription pricing model, we are able to increase our value of the Firmex solution within the organization without any extra cost surprises," Kozak remarked. "This is particularly important in meeting our budget requirements." OMERS went with the Firmex solution because they liked how easy it was to get started and that Firmex so effectively supported all of their users on a 24/7 basis. With a growing extended network, removing the need for costly training and support was a key success factor. "We evaluated a number of solution providers, and when we considered price, functionality and vendor relationship, Firmex was the clear leader. They are very easy to do business with and their on-going customer support is second-to-none," commented Kozak. Firmex was recommended to OMERS by one of its largest investments. Kozak noted, "They had such a positive experience with the Firmex solution they encouraged us to take a serious look. As a customer now, I would recommend Firmex to my colleagues, without hesitation."
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