Case Study: Omers
"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
OMERS
OMERS Business Challenge
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 cost effective 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.
Firmexhelped OMERS setup 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
OMERS has since expanded its use of Firmex to include more projects supporting their expansive
network. 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.
