Sometimes it can be really easy to say, ‘OK everybody, back to the drawing board, let's start again’- there can even be something momentarily appealing about a fresh start to a business process. But it is usually only a matter of seconds before reality kicks in and everybody in the room is overcome with a sense of dread about the sheer amount of work, planning and project management involved in what is essentially ripping up and replacing a current payroll process.
Often it is a rash decision-simply not thought through or overly dismissive of an existing process that is perhaps not quite delivering what you need in the here and now. This doesn't mean that the existing process needs a complete overhaul or be thrown out in favor of something new and shiny.
Calm heads and measured voices are needed before diving headlong into something that could turn out to be a regrettable as well as hugely unnecessary decision. In this article, we will look at some of the reasons why a rip and replace project is not the solution the global payroll complexity. We will then outline the reasons why keeping what works and aligning with something new and innovative that it can integrate easily with, is an option that can deliver far better results in much shorter time.
Time consuming, costly and unnecessary
The problem as everyone knows is that rip and replace payroll projects take a lot of time and cost a lot of money-they tend to involve a lot of stakeholders, a lot of meetings and webinar/conference calls and they are characterized often by a number of disagreements, especially when there are people involved who favor the original payroll process or technology stack and feel it should remain.
So, there could be a certain degree of discord and hassle which makes developing any kind of momentum and fast pace on the project difficult. You can also throw in the fact that there is quite a bit of pressure when it comes to deadlines, deliverables and overall success rate of the project-any project or new initiatives come with an expectation of success, but a rip and replace project will immediately be compared to what existed previously and the end results are not always as attractive as what was originally hoped for.
Often, the biggest drawback with rip out payroll projects is the unnecessary nature of them. It is sometimes an over the top and unnecessary reaction to a process that is not working well in the present moment. This does not mean that you ditch everything that you have invested time, money and energy into-certainly without not first going out to market and seeing what kind of solutions and technologies that are out there which might be compatible with what you currently have. Deciding to rip everything up and simply go back to the drawing board is often a bit of an extreme reaction-and we talk to people in the industry all the time who regret similar impulsive decisions in the past.
A straightforward assessment of needs when it comes to multicountry global payroll delivery and management can help to achieve clarity around what exactly it is you want-and put a stop to any rip and replace project before it starts.
A better approach
The better approach is to find a compatible process or new technology and align it with what you currently have that is still working well. There is no need to rush in and reinvent the wheel, when a patient consideration of payroll needs, and desired outcomes can lead you to a better approach and payroll solution.
An example of a better approach is moving from a manual process into a digital environment and choosing to deliver global payroll in a SaaS cloud environment. This is an environment where you can take advantage of digital processing and digital tools while ensuring that your payroll data is protected and safeguarded at all times inside a secure digital cloud platform.
Yes, this may be a significant departure from how you currently deliver global payroll-but crucially, it does not have to involve a rip and replace. A digital global payroll control platform for example can swiftly and easily integrate with any existing software you use to deliver payroll, while also integrating with the wider payroll ecosystem: HCM, finance applications and benefits vendors.
Such a platform can also accommodate any number of payroll providers you want as long as it is vendor agnostic. This platform will also involve automating many of the painful and tedious manual data entry workflows that form part of your current payroll systems and delivery process. The actual calculation of the payroll or the payroll services model you choose to engage with, an aggregator services model or a BPO outsource for example, do not need to change in these circumstances-the digital platform simply automates the workflow of data that you are currently calculating.
Also, applying a standardization process so that payroll is delivered the same way across all of your countries is again something that will thoroughly enhance instead of radically altering your current process.
Keep what is working
Keeping what is currently working in your payroll delivery process is in fact a solution to global payroll complexity as long as you align it with something new and innovative that enhances the delivery process, solves challenges associated with payroll and provides you with a greater deal of flexibility, visibility and control over the end-to-end process.
Technology, in the form of a global payroll control platform is what can deliver these results-it works with what you already have with connectivity that ties it all together so that people, data, service providers and processes all merge successfully into a cohesive whole inside a single digital platform for centralized management and control.
With Payslip’s global payroll control platform, we integrate with what you currently have, bring all of your external payroll providers onto our platform quickly and easily and then automate and standardize the flows of data into a single location for data extraction, reporting and analysis. The result is global companies achieve control over their vendors, they consolidate their data in a single location, they get access to digital tools and comprehensive real-time reporting, they develop a single way of working across all of their countries and their global payroll professionals are empowered with innovative digital tools and functionality that help them do their jobs in a smarter, faster and better way.
The platform is vendor agnostic meaning you can bring your preferred providers onto the platform with you, swap out and change them anytime you want to. It features hyperautomation technology purpose built for payroll which introduces massive time saving efficiencies and productivity gains to your process.
Digital dashboards, secure communication tools, analytics tools, system alerts and compliance calendars all help introduce daily operational excellence to your multicountry payroll management. There is no rip and replace because the focus is entirely on leveraging the platform’s automation and integration technology to work with what you already have in place- it integrates seamlessly with the majority of Human Capital Management systems (such as workday) and can easily connect to your finance and benefits vendors applications.
Payslip recognize that many multinational companies are keen to avoid a rip and replace project but at the same time are looking to digitally transform their multicountry payroll. Payslip enables them to keep what is working with their original process and align it to a global management framework designed to give them complete independent control of their payroll process, people, data and reporting.
For more information about our Global Payroll Control Platform contact us today.