Customer stories
Abletech has brought more transparency to its employee share scheme thanks to Orchestra
We recently caught up with Pam Ramsay, Payroll and Shareplan Coordinator at Abletech, to learn more about how Orchestra has brought transparency to its employee share scheme and streamlined workflow.
About
Abletech is a technology consulting firm founded in Wellington, New Zealand, in 2006. What started as a team of three has grown to 30 Wellington employees who work across Abletech (software consulting service) and Addressfinder (an email and address verification service established in 2010).
We launched an employee share scheme plan in 2016 to allow employees to own a stake in the business and enjoy the rewards of all their hard work. Nearly 30 current and past Abletech employees are now shareholders in the company.
Thanks to Orchestra, our employee share scheme feels much more transparent and accessible than our previous system, which relied on manually emailing documents to shareholders
Pam Ramsay, Payroll and Shareplan Coordinator at Abletech
The Challenge
Prior to shifting over to Orchestra, we managed our employee share scheme via a lot of spreadsheets. Every time something needed to be signed or updated, we’d have to manually update multiple documents and spreadsheets, which was time-consuming.
It was pretty scary every time we communicated with employee shareholders, as we’d send multiple individual emails with shareholder information attached. There was stress attached to this as you didn’t want to send the wrong information to the wrong shareholder.
Before Orchestra, our employee shareholders also found it difficult to easily access information about their shareholder or employee shareholder loans. They would have to manually search through their emails to find the correct information and attachments, and there was also the risk that they had deleted the email by mistake. Or they’d get in contact with me requesting that shareholder information be resent, which was time-consuming.
With the help of Orchestra, all our employee share scheme information is saved securely in one place. When we communicate with shareholders, we have peace of mind that the correct information is being sent to them via Orchestra rather than manually attaching spreadsheets to send out via email.
Pam Ramsay, Payroll and Shareplan Coordinator at Abletech
The Solution
Once we made the decision to shift over to Orchestra we found the onboarding process easy. The Orchestra team were very good at getting back to us quickly and helping us with the set-up.
Now, with the help of Orchestra, all the employee share scheme information is saved securely in one place, Orchestra. When we communicate with shareholders, we have that peace of mind that the correct information is being sent to them via Orchestra rather than manually attaching spreadsheets to send out via email. Shifting over to Orchestra’s platform has definitely reduced the time that I spend managing our employee share scheme, freeing up my time for other tasks.
I also love being able to communicate easily with shareholders via Orchestra. One of my favourite Orchestra features is being able to update the records in one place and then action a task like dividend payment or share issue, rather than sending out individual emails to shareholders. It saves a stack of time checking the correct document is going to the right person. I also enjoy the shareholder report functionality and easily and quickly managing share transfers within Orchestra.
Our employee shareholders love the transparency that Orchestra provides. They can easily access their shareholder communications and loan documents within Orchestra’s platform rather than emailing me their questions and requests. Another benefit of using Orchestra is that shareholders can update their own details (e.g. bank account details) without me needing to confirm and update details regularly.
Thanks to Orchestra, our employee share scheme feels much more transparent and accessible than our previous system, which relied on manually emailing documents to share information with shareholders.
