Alberta Pensions Services

Completed: 2018

Services: Change Communications, Public Relations, Content Creation, Cyber Security Communication, Strategic Planning & Leadership

Is your organization undergoing massive change?

APS guides the pension experience for Alberta’s public-sector pensions plans, providing services to over 500 employers, and 370,000 members, managing the administration of $6 billion in pension plan funds. When they launched major technology transformation project Next Generation to replace their entire pension administration system, it was a huge undertaking. Multi layered communication was fundamental to its success. The Adams Agency was given the role of External Communications Lead Consultants. We thrive in complex stakeholder environments, and embraced the challenge head on.

Highlights & results

Our experts were successfully integrated into the APS team, handling all external communications, risk management, messaging, expectation management, and crisis planning. The project spanned five years with a $65 million budget and we were tasked with helping bring the project over the finish line.

This was an extremely technical and advanced task, requiring forward planning, on-the-spot thinking, and creative yet transparent communications tactics both internally and externally. The new system would succeed or fail based upon how it worked for clients and how they would be supported during the fundamental change.

The Adams Agency successfully steered the structured, yet holistic communications approach, designed to deal directly and proactively with human behaviours, attitudes, and technological hiccups – every step of the way. The project went Live with minimal fanfare and is the working pension administration system that is used today.

“In a time when everything was on the line, The Adams Agency brought in a team of three to help us fill the gaps in our execution roll-out of a major transformation project. Extremely technical for even the most senior pension industry enthusiasts, Jenny and her team were able to come in and immediately hit the ground running. Their output was that of a team of ten and her leadership and confidence helped guide our stakeholders through the change. It was a relief to be able to trust her with such an important part of the project and be able to focus on the rest of the task at hand."

- Vlad Ahmed

Former COO, Alberta Pensions Services

awards

IABC Awards of Excellence

2017 Excellence

Communication Management – Government Programs (Expectation Management)
Communication Management – Issues Management & Crisis Communications
Communications Management – Internal Communications
Communications Management, Government Programs (Internal/External Communications)

2017 Merit
Communications Management, Change Communications

2017 Project of the Year – PMINAC

Project Management Institute Northern Alberta Chapter

PMINAC – Project of the Year – Business Transformation/Strategy – Next Generation

PMINAC – Project of the Year – Overall