We talked to global payroll professionals and industry insiders all the time and we have had the pleasure of having some really insightful conversations over the last six months about business needs and all things related to global payroll delivery and management.
We operate in the SaaS technology space, so we encounter a lot of people who are integrating with sass digital platforms or cloud-based applications. We hear some interesting stories as well as cautionary tales about their experiences with service providers in the sales environment.
A recurring theme, of particular interest to us, is the decision that some stakeholders at multinational organizations or startups take around proceeding with a technology purchase but deciding against availing of the additional implementation service if available, or simply choosing to opt for a solution that comes with no implementation functionality or offering.
While it is their right to go it alone and believe they have the cloud computing technology and expertise at hand to implement themselves, we have heard many people discuss their regret at taking this stance and how if they had to do it all again, they would choose a different path and adopt to include the implementation in the original cloud service purchase.
In this article, we will look at some of the reasons why it is valuable in the long run to choose the implementation along with the cloud/digital products or purchase of the technology. Some of the observations in this article, based on conversation with clients, peers and industry leaders may help you to avoid some of the pitfalls associated with the SaaS solutions sales process.
The value of SaaS digital expertise
Sometimes, it can be very tempting from a financial metrics perspective to select only the technology or software applications when looking at new global payroll software options. This is a software licensing ‘purchase and off you go’ approach that may be easier on the wallet in terms of pricing and therefore more attractive to specific stakeholders but can turn out to be a poor decision in hindsight. And we all know that when you get to the hindsight stage, it is usually either too late to do anything about it or involves a cost to fix it!
We always recommend prioritizing the value of expertise and choosing to go with the software company implementation option. You get to work with software provider experts who know the software you have purchased inside out, can point you quickly to the key advantages and explain how to get the best out of it in relation to your specific needs when it comes to global payroll delivery and management.
It is always a good idea to tap into and leverage the knowledge of people from SaaS companies who were involved in creating and building a digital platform designed specifically to handle the challenges and complexities of global payroll processing. There is nobody else out there who can have more knowledge about the payroll system modules than the people who made it!
The cost of skipping it for better pricing
Regardless of how intuitive and user-friendly a saas software stack or premise software can be, and expert guiding hand will always be of value. It is always going to be new for the people who are using the self-service user interface on a day-to-day basis, and this should be a strong consideration in the sales process with any SaaS vendor.
Sometimes, a sales team eager to get the job done can decide to make the purchase based purely on cost and opt against including any add-on or upgrades like an implementation service or training webinars. It is always advisable that sales get strong information around the length of time it will take to implement, particularly if they are choosing to go it alone. It can often take longer than even the best service provider estimates suggest when you choose to implement without expert guidance and customer support from the vendor or company supplying the software.
You may feel positive and optimistic about your chances of implementing something in a short period of time, but we have heard many cautionary tales about weeks turning into months all because of a few misplaced assumptions around the experience and ability of internal teams to implement something new.
There is a cost to skipping this important part of the process, and it often tends to be far more a case of time wasted than actual financial damage. Time is a valuable resource and a strong implementation process supplied by the vendor usually tends to save the end user time in the long run. Time-consuming delays while business owners and end users are getting used to new software solutions and SaaS applications can really put any up-front costs into perspective.
Training during onboarding
Training is always more practical and intuitive when delivered and supervised by people who know exactly what they are talking about. Extensive manuals and detailed videos can be of genuine value if professionally handled, but you cannot ask a video a question and there is really no substitute for on-the-job training along with question-and-answer sessions to fill in any gaps.
If training is conducted by an implementation team who have encountered many of the global payroll related questions in the past, then they are in a strong position to anticipate needs and it is simply second nature to them to answer all of your questions quickly and comprehensively.
This is the level of knowledge that will enhance the training and speed up the learning process-it saves time in the long run and also adds a level of confidence to the trainees- they know they are learning from people who have been there and done it, and that there is support available should they run into any difficulties.
Missing out on this level of training can be a mistake that creates more problems than it solves-it usually doesn't solve any problems other than closing a deal under budget-which is something that does not really help the end user of the platform or digital software on a daily basis- these are the people who require the expertise that can only be supplied during a proper implementation, training and onboarding process.
Ultimately, a digital or cloud payroll solution only proves to be a value when there is widespread adoption of it inside the global payroll team. This level of adoption is far more likely to happen with proper training, professional onboarding and access to ongoing support.
An implementation with Payslip
At Payslip, we take our clients on a journey from manual, outdated processes over to a unified process for global payroll- this is a journey to growth efficiency, and we are your partner on this journey.
For this reason, we have entire teams dedicated to the implementation of our global payroll control platform. We want to equip our customers with the technology and training they need to deliver their multi-country payroll with execution excellence.
We are with them every step of the way on this journey, answering questions, providing support and always demonstrating the unique and varied ways in which our platform can help them deliver daily global payroll tasks in a smarter, faster and better way.
The implementation and onboarding process is a crucial part of the client success-we are keen to see all of our clients hit the ground running and see the value of our platform very early in the process.
We have an implementation playbook that can be duplicated across countries, so as soon as a few countries are set up, we make it very easy for global payroll professionals to turn on other countries while also ensuring that this same playbook can be adopted when they need to move quickly into new countries and territories.
Part of the implementation is about showing them how to leverage the platform technology so that it does the heavy lifting instead of the individuals. This is digitized payroll in action- if a fast and professional implementation of a global payroll control platform is something your organization could benefit from, then talk to us today.