About Engie

Engie is a key provider of low-carbon energy and services, present in 27 European countries and 48 globally. The group is active across the entire chain of energy supply, beginning with production, purchasing, operation, and maintenance down to waste management and obsolete installations dismantling.

With headquarters in La Defense, Paris, and 170 thousand employees, the company, its shareholders, and partners are committed to environmentally-friendly solutions that result in carbon-neutral world and lower energy consumption. Coordinating global power transformation with positive impact on the planet, Engie offers innovative solutions that benefit millions of their customers worldwide.

Factors driving the need for a change to a professional Total Compensation Management software

Engie, as a company committed to introducing new solutions in energy transformation, set out to update and digitalize their own internal processes.

In the past, Global Energy Market (GEM) department, one of Engie’s division’s employing over 1300 people in 16 different countries, had to manually handle all the documentation related to the salary review and bonus management. This included all the steps in the compensation review rounds such as creation and processing of the total remuneration statements, deferred bonus statements, and individual reports. All of which had been processed in Excel spreadsheet up to this point.

This rendered the entire process extremely time-consuming, repetitive, and prone to errors. Moreover, the real challenge was posed by the multiple review schemes, in which compensation managers had to process documentation with respect to the different countries and local customs, different legal environments, and different local specifications.

Another major concern was security. This type of documentation includes sensitive data, which needed to be accessed hierarchically and in a traceable way. Excel spreadsheets could not provide such level of protection, organization, and ease of management. Hence Engie chose to transition to beqom Total Compensation Management software. This professional solution answered all of Engie’s needs and would have afforded the required level of safety, automated document creation, calculations, and processing, as well as data trackability.

Our GGS team was selected to complete the already-begun implementation and was able to successfully finish the project.

Identifying Challenges

After studying the materials prepared by the client, hours of discovery sessions, and on-site visits, GGS solution architects and consultants gained full awareness of the needs and challenges posed by the project. This would not have been possible without the excellent collaboration and communication on part of Engie’s product owners, comp and ben executives, and subject matter experts, with whom we really formed one team focused on delivering a valued product.

This is a crucial step in any large-scale software implementation undertaking. Our team at GGS always makes sure that both sides have a full understanding of the comprehensive view as well as minute details and challenges associated with the upcoming transition.

Hence, we identified the following challenges associated with Engie’s particular case:

1. Project take-over

The GGS team was selected by Engie to complete the already-begun implementation process. Therefore we needed to learn about all the steps that were taken by the previous system integrator. After the technical review of the solution, we found out that the processes as prepared ran too slow, so our team had to adjust the implementation, making sure its performance is effective and high.

2. Working under time pressure

Additionally, Engie’s yearly comp-round review was approaching, and our team had to make sure that the Total Compensation Management software is launched and runs smoothly before the internal audit takes place.

3. Data integration and management

The data stored by Engie in Excel sheets up to this point were not ready to be transferred to the Total Compensation Management software. Prior to that, all the compensation plans had to be integrated and reassessed with respect to consistency. Additionally, Engie also had to identify and fix all the errors, and organize the data into clusters. All this required a significant amount of labor both on part of Engie’s as well as the GGS’s implementation teams.

4. Complex compensation plan structure

GGS had to take over the implementation and run the beqom software with respect to the intricacies associated with the compensation plans structure and management, including sophisticated deferred bonus schemas.

This involved calculations of complex KPIs and compa ratios for each recipient, updating paybands and merit matrices, calculating eligibility, triggering validations and approval workflows, handling mobility and pro-rata, balancing the budget with pay raises, and simultaneous reporting to HR administrators, managers and recipients alike, to name just a few. All the data and their changes had to be also easily tracked for internal and external audit purposes.

5. Handling exceptions

Since Engie’s GEM division employs over 1300 people in 16 countries, the GGS implementation team had to adjust the compensation software to comply with different local laws and requirements prescribed by each country. We also had to handle multiple exceptions to the standard schemas due to the differing tax laws, locations, and compensation plans themselves.

6. Security and data access

Our GGS team had to fulfill highly complex security requirements with respect to the data visibility and access. We had to implement a system that allowed hierarchical entry points to the sensitive data and was traceable. In addition, GGS developers had to make sure that the process of associating new data with the already existing information - data enrichment workflow - is protected as well.

7. Change in implementation leadership

The implementation of a professional compensation management software is a process requiring cooperation and coordination on part of all the teams engaged in the project. One of the challenges we had to face while working on this task was the change in the leadership position in Engie’s team. Thanks to the excellent communication skills and open, proactive approach of Engies’ and GGS’s team members, we were able to quickly on-board the new leader into the project and successfully continue the implementation.

The Solution

Once we identified the challenges associated with the project, we were able to propose the suitable solutions. Our GGS team continued the constant communication with Engie, making sure the propositions are well-understood, accepted, and the details of the implementation worked out. Then, our testers confirmed that all the apps and programs are up and running.

Here is what we offered:

GGS as the partner

Our GGS team as an experienced preferred beqom partner has completed numerous compensation software implementations in the past. This rich and substantial experience helped us tremendously in assuring a smooth assumption of the project half-way through the implementation stage. The knowledgeable and seasoned GGS solution architect and project manager together with dedicated Engie crew made sure that the project was completed on time with success!

Implementation of beqom Total Compensation Management software

Prior to contacting GGS, Engie had already chosen to transition to beqom Total Compensation Management software. We took-over and continued the implementation and adoption of beqom’s cloud-based platform for administering all the compensation processes. With beqom software, Engie is now able to track and perform salary reviews for multiple profiles, follow the KPIs, monitor the eligibility, allocations, and approvals.

Moreover, the compensation processes are now auditable, each change trackable and explainable. The risk of errors, e.g. such as sending the wrong spreadsheet to the wrong person is minimalized (as there are no spreadsheets shared anymore), and the processes and the data are available in a single centralized system. With the obsolete and liable to mistakes Excel sheets now gone forever, Engie made another step on the road to digital transformation!

Azure-based cloud solution

GGS implemented beqom, which is based on the Azure Cloud, in order to easily manage the infrastructure, access, and security with respect to the administration and seniority hierarchy. Beqom is a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution that removes the hassle of tedious application maintenance and administration. Therefore, it allows Engie Comp & Ben department to focus on C&B processes rather than on IT infrastructure and maintenance. All in the secured, auditable, and friendly environment of the Azure Cloud.

Project Management with Agile and Scrum components

At GGS, we believe in efficient project management. Drawing upon the most current but dependable practices in the field, we kept in touch with Engie on a sprint by sprint basis promoting close collaboration and making sure we deliver valued product and exceptional service.

As avid practitioners of the Agile principles, we leveraged daily stand ups, checks, and demos with constant focus on business value and attention to service quality to anticipate our client’s needs and exceed their expectations.

Achievement: Arriving at Success

Dedicated effort and outstanding communication skills combined with excellent cooperation and Engie’s proactive approach result in the project’s success! Thanks to the mutual effort, we were able to provide a smooth transition during the project’s take-over and change in the leadership. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of the relationship we have built with the Engie’s executives and managers, who prioritized the project and were always ready to collaborate.

That outstanding partnership and the implementation of the professional beqom Total Compensation Management software resulted in:

• automation of the processes such as
• 50% manual labor reduction
• 50% spreadsheets reduction
• time saved
• significant stress reduction compared to usual comp round
• substantial increase in managers’ and end-users satisfaction
• significant increase in comp & ben department’s satisfaction
• rise of accuracy and submissions being on time
• likelihood of recommending the solution and service - very likely to recommend

We can help you as well! Schedule a consultation with GGS and learn how the Total Compensation Management software can benefit your company.