Oracle Incentive Compensation at Merial Ltd.

1. Oracle Incentive Compensation at Merial Ltd. Paula Harris, Merial Ltd Kathy Lancy, Merial Ltd Chetan Rischie, Consultant

2. Company Background ”Dedicated to the health, well-being and performance of animals.” Merial is a world-leading, innovation-driven animal health company, providing a comprehensive range of products to enhance the health, well-being and performance of a wide range of animals. • Merial employs approximately 5,000 people and operates in more than 150 countries worldwide. • Merial's 2004 sales were in excess of $1.8 billion. • Merial Limited is a joint venture between Merck & Co. and sanofi-aventis • Merial's best known products: • IVOMEC® (ivermectin) -- the world’s single most successful animal health product, is used for treatment and protection against parasites in large animals such as cattle, sheep and swine. • FRONTLINE® (fipronil) -- is now the world’s best selling flea and tick treatment for dogs and cats.

3. Oracle Implementation Background • Oracle Modules Implemented in 2002 for US Headquarters Operations • Financials • Supply Chain • iStore • Incentive Compensation • First Commission payment through Incentive Compensation in 2003 (OIC was part of the portfolio in 2002, Merial US was not fully configured until Oct 2003) • Internal Sales-Force (350+) • Partners/Sales Agents (700+)

4. Challenges and Issues Implementation Challenges • Custom Sources needed to be defined to accept Sales data from Partners • Frequent Changes in Compensation variables (Rate Structure, Hierarchy, new Partners) by the business • Delay in receiving Sales Data from Partners • Customizations in the form of Rollup Tables for Bonus calculations designed • Design needed for paying multiple recipients (Sales Person, Sales Agents) on each transaction • No interface to AP or HR

5. Challenges and Issues Business Versus IT • Adhoc Implementation • Lack of Project Plan for OIC Implementation • OIC was a secondary priority during implementation • Lack of In House OIC Expertise • Consultants worked directly with Business with no governance • Users knew the front end application, not the mechanics • IT Business Analyst assigned to transition knowledge from Consultants almost 1 year after implementation • Testing Best Practices not utilized • Concepts were tested in Production leading to proliferation of junk data • Mapping for sources was defaulted to fields that caused miscalculations in commissions

6. Challenges and Issues Post Implementation Issues • Delay in receiving partners data and business model/OIC configuration required re-calculation of entire commission pool each month. This would take weeks at quarter end and year ends to finalize numbers • Data Growth was phenomenal. For every transaction OIC replicates • Additional transaction for each person in the Hierarchy • Additional transaction for matching Plan Elements • OIC recalculations and Database Maintenance activities took significant time, causing issues with testing any OIC modeling effort and other Oracle initiatives • Sales reporting was a challenge due to multiple OIC transaction lines for each AR transaction line • Business and Sales Partners lost faith in OIC capability to calculate accurate commissions due to system problems. Considered it inflexible and prone to error

7. Post Implementation Cleanup • Recognized the need for joint governance (Business and IT). Analysts familiar with pricing and sales assigned by Business to facilitate/coordinate/validate business requirements • Recognized that Data Archiving was the top priority. Without archiving in place, impossible to even test any changes to comp plans • IT developed (in-house) archiving scripts for OIC transactional data. Reviewed by Oracle Support to ensure compliance with Oracle’s standards.

8. Post Implementation Cleanup • Recognized the need to address the data growth • Review of Compensation Plans resulted in combination of several plans into single plan by expanding the Input/Output formulas • Utilization of Customized Rate Tables allowed to keep the same compensation plan without creating complicated multi-dimensional Rate Tables • Addressed Quarterly/Annual Bonus Plans. By creating a few custom views on the transactional tables to provide the roll-up information, converted the “Commission” Plans to “Bonus” Plans • Complete re-evaluation of mappings for all sources in order to speed processing and ensure data integrity.

9. Engaging Business • Reconciliation effort was completed with each business unit. Analysts assigned by Business played a critical part in validation of requirements • Tied OIC sales numbers to Merial US sales with all variances thoroughly explained • Engaged business leaders to communicate commission plans as early as possible (3 months +) to allow for proper development and testing of plan changes • For ad-hoc changes through out the year, followed proper Change Control process • Continue to encourage business to simplify compensation plans wherever possible

10. Lessons Learned Project Management/Resource • Ensure Business actively participates in project management and assigns experienced Compensation Analyst(s) • Consultants and IT work with Compensation Analysts on design/testing before engaging the end users • Institute Change Controls, all changes to Plans must be tested and signed off prior to migration to Production. • Request sufficient lead time to implement and test changes • Ensure that OIC Consultant/IT Analyst must have technical skills

11. Lessons Learned OIC • Review the data pipe and project the data growth. This allows you to evaluate closing cycles towards the end of Fiscal Year. • Simplification of Compensation Plan Elements. You may be able to create more complex Input/Output Formulas and customized Rate Tables to eliminate unnecessary Plan Elements/Plans • Utilize the “Bonus” type of plan element. This may require assistance from IT technical staff to create some custom views, but this will certainly reduce the data growth

12. Presenters • Paula Harris, Business Operations Analyst • Functional analyst specializing in Oracle Incentive Compensation and Advanced Pricing implementation and maintenance • Email: pshtech@yahoo.com • Mobile: (770) 639 0786 • Kathy Lancy, Senior Business Analyst • Analyst experienced in Oracle Incentive Compensation and Accounts Receivable implementation and technical support • Email: katherinelancy@yahoo.com • Mobile: (678) 458 4799 • Chetan Rischie, Independent Consultant • Specializing in architecting and managing Oracle ERP/CRM implementations • Email: rischiec@yahoo.com • Mobile: (770) 853 7597