Galenica digitizes Employee Share Scheme using ShApp

Approximately 7000 Galenica employees can purchase shares at a discount. A bespoke electronic solution makes processing easy and fast and significantly reduces administrative work. The Galenica Group’s Employee Share Scheme strengthens the bond between the company and its staff. For a long time, share subscriptions had been processed using a complex paper-based process involving letters, responses and manual data entry. Thanks to a cooperation with Nimbus, this process is now fully digitized and automated: employee information, subscription of shares, settlement, and recording in the share register.

From paper-bound process to digital solution

Nimbus has been managing Galenica AG’s share register and Annual General Meetings for many years. When the client wanted the time-consuming and costly Employee Share Scheme process to be digitized, Nimbus was on board right from the start.

The solution is based on the NIMBUS ShApp platform that was specifically expanded and adapted to Galenica’s Employee Share Scheme. The fact that Nimbus has its own local Software Engineering Team proved again to be a decisive advantage: customer requests can be implemented flexibly, quickly and with no unnecessary detours.

The result is a ShApp platform that meets the specific requirements of the employee ownership scheme, with a particular focus on usability: the entire process needed to be straightforward and easy to navigate while ensuring absolute security, reliability and seamlessness.

Overview of the digital process

• Employees are sent an email invitation to participate, including a link for them to access Galenica’s ShApp platform.
• They register using their business email and enter the required information, for instance their IBAN or deposit number.
• Then the employees can subscribe shares. Prices and the total amount are displayed immediately.
• Once the binding subscription is done, the platform automatically generates a standardized Swiss QR code for settlement.
• After receipt of payment, the shares are allocated and automatically recorded in the share register.

High employee participation despite the transition

Reaching employees who access their mails only occasionally was a special challenge. Digitization was therefore announced via several distinct communication channels. The success became apparent very quickly: in the second year, participation already achieved the same level as when the previous paper-bound process was in place.

As an additional advantage of digitization, a feature enabling daily data synchronization between ShApp and Galenica’s accounting shows nearly in real time how many shares were bought and paid.

A close cooperation between Galenica and Nimbus Engineering

Heinz Schneider, Head of Tax, Board & Shareholder Services at Galenica, praises the competent, effortless and always constructive cooperation with Dominique Ulrich (Nimbus Software Engineering) and Stefanie Müller (Nimbus Service Team): “I highly recommend the process we developed together with Nimbus: it is absolutely fail-safe! The good user guidance has enabled us to largely eliminate many error sources, such as incorrect numbers of selected shares or payments in the wrong currency. This is a huge administrative simplification for us. At the same time, cooperation with our experts at Nimbus was very professional. They both know exactly what they’re talking about and have provided us with competent and courteous advice at all times.”

The result at a glance

• an easy, quick subscription process;
• fewer hurdles for employees;
• no duplication;
• no mailing costs;
• no errors due to manual entries;
• successful participation with 1305 subscribers

The project serves as an example of how Nimbus cooperates with clients to develop customized solutions: efficiently, flexibly and precisely tailored to specific requirements.