Luke Yousufzai 0:00:04.8:

Thank you very much for joining us. I'm very excited. I've had the pleasure of working with this team for the last three years since I've been with Anaplan. OMERS is on a fantastic journey, and we're excited to share this with you all here today, and maybe what we can do is start off with some quick introductions. Kristen, I'll let you go first.

 

Kristen Cornell 0:00:22.5: 

Sure, thank you. I'm the director of financial systems at OMERS. I've been with OMERS for about four-and-a-half years. The very first program that I worked on when I joined was our Anaplan and FP&A transformation, so we've been on that journey for a little while, but I manage our corporate finance technology platform.

 

Vivian Lian 0:00:38.6:

Hi, everyone. My name is Vivian. I'm a senior manager, FP&A at OMERS and I deal with the corporate team, so think of your data and tech functions in HR, and we are their finance business partners. Together with Kristen, we've been on this journey to implement Anaplan for a long while now [laughs], so it's been great so far.

 

Judine Allen 0:01:00.5:

I'm Judine Allen, I'm the senior manager of FP&A, [?supporting our 0:01:03.4] private equity and infrastructure groups. Had Kristen not said how many years she was at OMERS, I would've not said mine. I've been there for 20 years thus far, so I've seen quite a lot and gone through a lot of transition in OMERS.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:01:19.0:

Amazing, thank you very much. So maybe just starting off, tell us a little bit about OMERS. Maybe a quick snapshot and what role finance plays.

 

Kristen Cornell 0:01:28.4:

For sure. For those that don't know, OMERS is the pension plan for the municipal employees of Ontario. So we have 640,000 members in the pension, and those are focused on the police force, the firefighters, city workers, so people that you're interacting with every day, and I know that we all take a lot of pride in serving those pensioners every day. We have officers around the world, and we have four primary investment verticals. We have real estate, capital markets, private equity, and infrastructure. So those are the operating elements of OMERS.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:02:05.3:

Just going back, and looking back at the journey with Anaplan, can you share with us a little bit of the priorities for Anaplan?

 

Kristen Cornell 0:02:12.9:

Yes, for sure. So I did mention that I've been working on transforming our finance function since I joined about four-and-a-half years ago, and we started with FP&A. So we felt like that was something that we could tackle. It felt like it was a good foray into our broader transformation, and we were looking for an enterprise planning platform. So we had some different tools in place across those different pillars that I mentioned, and we got together to get everyone to a single platform and to choose and agree on a single platform. So that was the first step, but it was, I would say, unanimous support for Anaplan as the right choice for the group, and so that really took us forward in the maturity of our finance platform and the way that we do our planning.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:03:02.5:

With finance being a priority, what were specifically some of the use cases?

 

Kristen Cornell 0:03:07.2:

So we started out with our headcount planning, workforce planning, and then our general and administrative expenses across the organization. So those are the two models that we started with.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:03:16.8:

As part of that, what were some of the impacts around centralized planning, specifically supporting the leadership within OMERS?

 

Vivian Lian 0:03:27.1:

Once we had put in place that workforce planning and G&A, that built the foundations of our budget wall and FP&A, then we started considering, okay, what are all the other processes or reporting that we do that currently sit in giant Excel spreadsheets in somebody's desktop or someone's email, and how can we centralize that in Anaplan since it's the same - like Kristen mentioned, it was now the same platform that all of the FP&A teams across the business was going to use. So the first one was our central allocation, so that's basically the model that we use to allocate corporate cost out to the individual investment businesses, and so I think everyone from across the business was very keen to get that in one place as opposed to version 32 in somebody's emails as we're all trying to get through our budget process. So having moved that from an Excel spreadsheet into Anaplan has been very helpful in establishing a single source of truth because, this way, the corporate team could ensure that what we're sending out to the investment businesses as part of a corporate allocation is the latest and most updated numbers. The investment teams can also have confidence that what they're seeing on their side is also the latest and it's not that they've missed an email communication or they weren't included in the latest updates.

 

Vivian Lian 0:03:34.3:

So I think that was a really key benefit of bringing that into Anaplan, and then second would be obviously it cuts down a lot of time because the moment we make the updates on the corporate side, then it will show up on the investment businesses, so they'll know that if they need to include that in their reporting, they'll know that's the final that they'll be getting.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:05:44.7:

Okay, version 32, was that the final, final, final or final, final, final?

 

Vivian Lian 0:05:51.4:

I'll leave that to your imagination [laughs].

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:05:51.4:

When you guys went ahead and built a solid foundation of finance, how did that set you up maybe for a broader transformation in the organization?

 

Vivian Lian 0:06:04.1:

Yes, I'm sure if anybody is in the process or has done any form of finance transformation, you'll know that it's very important to first build trust, both within your internal stakeholders, meaning within the finance team, and as well with your external stakeholders, so your leaders, other people across the organization from, let's say, HR or other functions. So by starting this in finance, I think it was more so that we as a finance team could get comfort and familiarity around Anaplan as a tool, what we can actually achieve. I'm sure many of you know that Anaplan is very, very customizable, so it was really, we needed to figure out how we could bring our original processes, reporting, all that stuff into Anaplan and make that streamlined, because the flip side to being able to do everything is that you can do everything, and then it's just like [laughs] - so it was really about first establishing that confidence internally, and then once we had done the base build], done our central allocation model, our long-range planning, we now have that expertise to say, 'Okay, if you're bringing an existing process or model or what have you from Excel or a different platform, these are the sorts of considerations you need to make before you actually put pen to paper and start building in Anaplan.' Then the second thing was, once you've had a couple of reporting cycles or a couple of budget cycles using Anaplan, you start to establish that trust with our external stakeholders.

 

Vivian Lian 0:08:00.2:

So it could be leaders, it could be other people in the organization that use our reporting. A lot of times, you'll get that question - I like my Excel reports. Where is my Excel report? We're like, actually, no, you can go to this page now, and this is how you'll enter your budget. We don't need to send Excel reports back and forth. Being able to slowly build that trust with what we've already built was very important to be able to bring new people on, and I think Judine will talk about it later as well. When we start bringing HR into the Anaplan tool, we can show them, like, hey, this is what we've done for our budgeting process. It's a very big model. This is also what we've done for our central cost allocation model. So we think that you will be able to benefit from bringing your incentive model into Anaplan as well for such-and-such reasons, and these are the benefits that we're seeing from what we've got.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:09:06.5:

Okay, great. Judine, based on the success within finance, what was the vision to scale Anaplan beyond - into the broader organization within OMERS?

 

Judine Allen 0:09:06.5:

Yes, so OMERS is a complex organization but with a simple expense planning. The biggest cost is compensation, and as we looked through and we thought about a cross-enterprise, how is that being calculated, how is that being pulled together, we've recognized that it's all done in Excel. We, as FP&A, the recipients of this model from Excel have seen a lot of errors, have seen a lot of issues with our planning on compensation, so we thought it would be great to have it on a scalable and a single platform. So that's the reason why we recommended having the compensation analysis done in Anaplan. Our compensation or incentive modeling is rather complicated. We have a number of plans. With the implementation of the incentive planning in Anaplan, I think FP&A has come to appreciate the number of different plan codes and models and different things that HR was working with, and the fact is, when we're asking them for a number, though we expect it very quick and seamless, it's not as seamless as we anticipated. So what this has done now, it has standardized the calculations across all the businesses and ensures that the same process has been applied.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:10:44.4:

My takeaway from that is finance is easy, compensation is hard.

 

Judine Allen 0:10:49.0:

I would think so.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:10:51.9:

With the complexities in compensation planning, what challenges did you face with salary, with headcount, with incentive modeling?

 

Judine Allen 0:11:04.7:

So, yes, it goes back to, Excel is our favorite tool. We are accountants by nature, and we love Excel, but it goes back to finding those errors. HR, even in the process had complained and mentioned the number of times their models break, their Excel files crash, or we have a versioning issue where I'm looking at one version and they're looking at version 32. So we have found that bringing them into Anaplan has really given that consistency and ensures that we have accurate detail. It also has given us a little bit of versatility in the change - if there's a future change in our planning or compensation design, that has also been factored in. In foresight, our leader or VP of total rewards had known that there potentially could be a change to the compensation plan, so the way the model was built was that futuristic view that, in the event that the compensation plans change, that it's just a change in one number. So that has been quite helpful to us.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:12:12.0:

Okay, and with that specifically, as things change, how has HR and finance worked together as part of that change?

 

Judine Allen 0:12:21.5:

So we are doing baby steps right now. We have just implemented this incentive planning model, and I think the relationship has become quite close because we are digging into a lot and we're able to analyze the detail more than check the calculation per se as we had to do in Excel. So we are doing a lot of analysis. We are depending on HR as the source, the SME, more than the calculator of the information. So they will give us the reason why certain compensation plans are as they are, the multipliers, the impact of all these inputs, and we've found that that has given - left HR in their world where they are the expert of the HR, the compensation side, and we are the expert of finance. So it has really segregated our business but also brought us back together.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:13:20.9:

More specifically, what has been the impact around the scenario-based modeling, and how has that affected the relationship between the employees and leadership with that?

 

Judine Allen 0:13:31.4:

I wouldn't say it has affected the employees just yet because I think the numbers that we're going to provide is just for the budgets. We're not going to hit their compensation statement, so we're not going to hear from the employees, but as it relates to the scenario planning analysis, it's quite helpful that the model that we've built, we have the ability to assist C-suite in making decisions on, what is the impact of the change in the multiplier, what is the impact of the change in the compensation plan, what is the impact of changes on divisional scorecards, for example. Our model right now, our compensation is built on a number of different factors, and oftentimes, it's quite difficult and takes quite a while for HR to come back with a change in the multiplier or a change in the return, so this has really helped us and given us that flexibility to flex our numbers and give C-suite real-time data rather than waiting on processes from HR. We also found that, in this process, we had the data at our hands right away. So, for example, if we wanted to add a position, or if we wanted to promote someone, I don't need to pick up the phone and call somebody in HR and say, 'Can you add a position, can you remove that position?' I do it on the fly in Anaplan because we have the model available to us.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:14:49.1:

Okay, how did you guys take what was built in finance and extend it to the broader organization?

 

Judine Allen 0:14:57.9:

So we are looking at potential future opportunities, so we are looking at potentially doing work with procurement as an example. We haven't yet gone down that road. As I said, HR was the first one. Although we are working with HR on the compensation analysis, they are going to continue doing what they have been doing with their system. However, as it relates to the finance piece of it, they'll work with us, but procurement, because the contracts or expense planning depends a lot on procurement, we need to standardize that. We need to have the data coming through and be able to do analysis on that, and I think that's how we're going to look to implement it going forward.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:14:57.9:

Okay, is there an example around how agility, responding faster today - how does that show up in practice for you guys?

 

Vivian Lian 0:16:01.1:

So I think it's again to Judine's point around scenario analysis. As we were going through the budget plan, it's been very helpful if you get an ask from C-suite or even a leader to say, 'If I make this decision, what does our cost look like?' Like Judine talked about, people cost is the biggest component of our G&A cost, so what might seem like a small change in a comp decision would actually roll up to be quite a big number, and so being able to quickly go back to your leadership with accurate numbers was very, very helpful. Prior to Anaplan, we would still get back to them, but it would take many, many hours, and so being able to do that within an hour or so and have confidence that that number is correct without having to go back to HR and say, 'Are you sure this is correct?' and that back and forth, I think, was very helpful.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:17:12.7:

Okay, any other efficiencies?

 

Judine Allen 0:17:16.6:

Yes, I would also say we have the long-range planning that has been implemented that also gives us the view on, what is the change if we make a change today, and the multiplicative impact of that, depending on whatever scenarios or assumptions we put through. So that's also available in Anaplan, and I'm so excited and looking forward to how that also works for our incentive modeling. Potentially, that could be our phase two, to just understand the impact five years down the line on whatever decision we make today. In addition to that, our Anaplan tool, yes, is our planning tool that we use, but it also helps our FP&A reporting, so in the event that we need to go back to what was presented in the past, we have a couple of years that's available to us that we can do a look back and a look forward.

 

Kristen Cornell 0:18:07.6:

Maybe I'll say something here just about the platform. So you can see behind us the journey that we've been on, and we talked about starting with G&A and workforce, and that took us quite a while even just to stabilize and get where we wanted, so it hasn't been - it wasn't incredibly fast at the beginning. We've taken a couple of years, but this year felt like a different year for us in terms of our comfort around the platform, I would say, more broadly within the enterprise. So it was really amazing that the HR team came to the table this year and said, 'We want to put this Excel file in.' We had it on our radar when we first put in the tool, and we thought it was a really good opportunity, but they weren't interested, so now Anaplan has, I'd say, more credibility. They didn't come just to the table with the idea. They came to the table with people and dollars to make it happen, and so I think that's something else. When you're rolling out an enterprise tool, how do you support it? How do you fund it? Those things can get a bit tricky once you start to expand, so it was great to see them as a willing partner, and I think we're really now starting to live in that connected world that Anaplan always talked about, right. Connected planning, and now we're starting to add in different hooks, and I think that that will start to expand for us, and with all of the capabilities coming to the platform that we saw this morning, I think that's really going to open doors and make it even more accessible to other parts of our organization that it really hasn't been before.

 

Kristen Cornell 0:19:31.1:

So I think George from the last panel was talking about, when you're using Anaplan really just for consolidation, it's not that interesting or exciting, or that valuable, and honestly, we started at that place, so now we're getting a lot more value out of the platform with being connected that way.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:19:49.4:

I remember joining Anaplan three years ago, and connected planning was something obviously that was ingrained into us here at Anaplan. How has the alignment changed, or how has the alignment been between finance, HR, investment at OMERS?

 

Judine Allen 0:20:07.7:

Yes, so I would say, as Kristen had said, and I think I mentioned this before, it's not necessarily to stay in your lanes, but I think HR is now not stepping over in the finance side, and they're very much focused on providing the expert information on their side. I think they're more confident with that approach because the incentive planning, as an example, and the outputs that we receive from HR is specifically for finance. The HR team does not use a review for anything else with an exception of our budgets and our forecasts. At the end of the day, they'll come back and they'll say, 'That's your number,' because they don't look at compensation in the view that we look at an expense view. What is the impact to this year, next year, and the year after? Their view is more so managing the compensation plans and ensuring that employees are being paid in the right bonus plans. What has happened now that Anaplan has been implemented, and now there is this connectivity, now HR is appreciating the finance view. They understand what's needed, and it's almost like a baton change. It's a relay now, right. They put their inputs in, we continue driving on and develop our budgets. So I think it does give HR a level of comfort that they can defend what they have put in without uncertainties on, was that the right expense number, did I calculate it properly? I'm an HR person, not an accountant. So I think that's what they appreciate.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:21:46.7:

I love that. If you look at beyond 2025, what's next for OMERS, and what are the biggest opportunities?

 

Vivian Lian 0:21:59.2:

So I think we're very excited about the new Polaris engine and what we can really do with that. So I think, for us, our priority would be if we're able to move our workforce planning and G&A on to the Polaris engine, and just make use of all those great, great features that you've had before we continue on, and bringing more models or Excel spreadsheets into Anaplan.

 

Kristen Cornell 0:22:29.9:

I know Judine mentioned the procurement use case. I think we're also looking at maybe some capital expenditure use cases there, and I think maybe looking at the way we use the platform and enhancing the workflow capability and some of the other wraparound features that are available there. It doesn't always have to be a new, big model, right. It can be, how are we leveraging some of those new enhancements that are coming out? I know that reporting has matured a lot from the early days when we were in the platform, so those are some other things too that we're keeping an eye on and we'll see, does that make sense for us to bring into our processes as well?

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:23:07.5:

I know a lot of conversations that I have with organizations that are exploring Anaplan, there's always the thought around putting in governance, and how do we do this, how do we do that, and what sort of barriers do we have to put in place for that to go live and to move forward with? Based on the journey that you guys have gone through so far, is there anything you can share around governance structures that you guys are looking to put in place as part of the next phase of Anaplan?

 

Kristen Cornell 0:23:07.5:

I'd say we have pretty well-established change management processes in place today. We have intake for enhancements, and those go through a review process. So, I think, for larger investments, if we were looking to bring some of the other parts of the business into the tool, some of the investment organizations, for example, there would need to be probably a pretty keen eye on the benefits, so I thought that conversation from [unclear words 0:24:00.5] as explained earlier was also really interesting about that, and how they're thinking about it. So I think there is a lot of opportunity to streamline the process and the steps that are there.

 

Luke Yousufzai 0:24:12.5:

You've shared quite a bit around the OMERS journey, thank you.

 

[END OF TRANSCRIPT]