Amadeus Case Study

Name: Amadeus
Headquarters: Madrid, Spain
Industry: Technology and software focused on the travel industry.
Top 10 software companies in the world according to Forbes 2019 global rankings. Present in 190+ countries

Read how Global Shares onboarded close to 10,000 participants for Amadeus with a seriously tight deadline.

Amadeus Team in Numbers  

Employee stock plans can be complex beasts – especially plans that span continents and that have complex transactional data attached to them. But when Amadeus agreed to join Global Shares in January 2019 and wanted us to implement more than 9,300 participants onto three global plans in less than nine weeks, we stepped up to the challenge.

The Challenges

 The three plan types in question were an Employee Share Purchase Plan, a Performance Share Plan and a Restricted Share Plan. Along with the aggressive go-live timings our team had a number of challenges that included:

– Participants were spread across more than 30 countries – which meant different laws, different tax brackets and different rules and regulations that had to be adhered to.

– Complex transactional data – we’re talking 200,000+ transactions spanning seven years across three different plans that had to be imported.

– With global compliance being a key factor, complex reporting requirements were needed across the board.

So Why So Soon?

Amadeus has annual events that run mainly from May to July, so when we started our implementation process in February, a go-live date of May 20th was quickly agreed to as the only possible date. It was critical to have all participants live on the Global Shares platform before this date. Amadeus wanted simplified global enrolment processes for their employees, as well as simplified account activation. So Global Shares set about delivering this.

What was needed?

The key ingredient in the entire project was a strong partnership ethic between Amadeus and Global Shares. Cooperation between the two teams was key to the success of this project. Planning, communication, flexibility and pragmatism went a long way – as did the can-do attitude of everyone involved.
We had a goal and working together, we achieved it. Global Shares has developed its own software in-house and has experienced, qualified equity professionals across various teams that ensure any potential problems are flagged before they happen and resolved before go-live.

Plan Events

Because we had no soft launch, all processes were agreed upon and rolled out as part of the implementation process.

What did success look like?

From mid-February to July, we achieved:

• Full implementation of three complex plans with more than 9,000 participants.
• More than two-thirds of participants activated their accounts within the first couple of weeks.
• ESPP enrolment was completed with more than a 40% take-up.
• There was matching share vesting for more than 5000 participants
• The main grant for the Performance Plan occurred.
• Key global executives had their performance plan’s main vesting.
• AGM voting occurred
• We carried out dividend processing.

Lessons Learned

We thrived on the success of the Amadeus onboarding and subsequent administration of their main events. Our tips for a successful implementation process?

• Question everything and ask questions you might think are “too stupid” to ask! There’s no such thing as a stupid question and if you are unsure of something, it’s always better to bring it up and get clarification. Our team has seen it all – we are there to help and because each plan is different with its own complexities,
• we’re always learning and growing too.
• There’s no such thing as going into too much detail. The more detail you have, the clearer the picture will be for everyone involved.
• It’s always more complicated than you think it will be – so leave a little wriggle room – if you can.

“A breath of fresh air and trust; while it has had its moments, a journey well worth taking and striving to get the better experience to our employees.” – Jost Meye, Amadeus.

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