Payroll Administration Company Helps HR Teams Eliminate up ...



Overview

Country or Region: Belgium

Industry: Professional Services

Customer Profile

Acerta Sociaal Secretariaat is a dynamic professional services group. It provides companies with support for professional payroll administration and offers advice on all human resources (HR) policy.

Business Situation

Acerta was keen to respond to the need for more dynamic and manageable human resources (HR) tools to cut down administration and reduce costs.

Solution

Acerta extended its payroll engine with Microsoft® Business Solutions for Human Resource Management–Axapta®, which is part of Microsoft Business Solutions–Axapta business management software.

Benefits

■ Reduces administration and manual processes

■ 30,000 fewer manual transactions a year

■ Information is more accurate

■ Workforce is monitored more closely

■ Changes the way HR teams work

| | |“In our demonstrations of Microsoft Axapta HR, we have discovered about 30,000 fewer manual transactions that customers with around 900 employees would have to perform in a year, which is very substantial.”

Peter Arrazola de Oñate, Director, Acerta Sociaal Secretariaat

| |

| | | |Belgian payroll administration company Acerta Sociaal Secretariaat wanted to offer customers more |

| | | |dynamic, value-driven human resources (HR) tools to reduce time-consuming, manual processes. Acerta |

| | | |rolled out Microsoft® Business Solutions for Human Resource Management–Axapta® (now part of Microsoft|

| | | |DynamicsTM). Acerta’s customers can access the solution over the Internet, from a thin-client front |

| | | |end on their desktops. Now, customers are always online and connected to Acerta’s payroll and HR |

| | | |solution. HR managers can consolidate and manage information about employees and payroll from a |

| | | |single point of access, and workflow features ensure that key reporting and analysis processes are |

| | | |fully automated. Information is more accurate and easy to use, and, with 30,000 fewer manual |

| | | |transactions a year to make, HR departments can focus more time on career management and supporting |

| | | |business. |

| | | | |

| | | |[pic] |

| | | | |

Situation

Acerta Sociaal Secretariaat provides companies in Belgium with support for professional payroll administration. The organisation employs approximately 1,000 people and offers advice on all areas of human resources (HR) policy.

Its clients, HR offices, sometimes lack the resources and accurate business information to manage their HR policies efficiently. Peter Arrazola de Oñate, Director, Acerta Sociaal Secretariaat, says: “A lot of companies today still struggle with HR administration. They are under increasing pressure from employees, line managers, and higher management, to support their business more effectively while maintaining smooth HR administration operations.”

Businesses are keen to provide a more dynamic HR policy to gain insight into employees’ skills and performance. But payroll systems often don’t go far enough. HR departments need time to provide records of items such as work hours and costs, organise resources, understand individual career ambitions, and encourage promotion. But administrative tasks can take up much of the HR department’s time, leaving less time for more value-driven HR duties.

Organisations with large numbers of employees may need additional business tools to help them keep track of loaned items, such as laptops or mobile devices. But conventional spreadsheets or disparate data systems make these processes time-consuming, and restrict the view of data across the organisation.

Acerta was keen to extend its payroll services to incorporate an HR offering that could reduce administration, paperwork, and manual transactions through automation. “We wanted to build new methods of providing line managers and division managers with better solutions to support counselling, competency management, recruitment and so on,” says Arrazola de Oñate.

Solution

Acerta rolled out Microsoft® Business Solutions for Human Resource Management –Axapta®, which is part of Microsoft Business Solutions–Axapta—a customisable, scalable business management suite. The project, called e-Salsa, extends Acerta’s payroll software to provide an automated professional HR management solution. This was rolled out to the first customers in January 2005.

“We looked at ERP vendors such as SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft, rather than try to reinvent the wheel and develop an HR system from scratch. Finally we decided we should use Microsoft Axapta HR, as the Axapta HR module offers rich functionality, is flexible and supported by the global organisation Microsoft with a clear intention to further develop the application,” says Arrazola de Oñate.

The Acerta solution e-Salsa gives customers access to Microsoft Human Resource Management modules and the Acerta Payroll engine from a thin-client front end and an Internet connection. Peter Oyserman, Partner, says: “In the past Acerta’s front-end payroll solution was disconnected. The software resided on the customer’s PC and the customer would have to enter data into the system and dial in to transfer it to Acerta’s back-end systems. But now, customers are always online and connected to Acerta’s payroll solution in real time.”

Acerta can now offer a total HR solution without the need for customers to invest in servers. As well as payroll administration tools, companies can now access and use Microsoft Human Resource Management modules, which include loaned items, staff selection, career planning, and performance analysis.

Microsoft Axapta extends Acerta’s payroll service in numerous ways. “Usually, when an employee books a holiday, for example, their supervisor approves a form and the data has to be keyed into the payroll system. Quite often, this happens in a very fragmented, time-consuming way, usually on paper with a lot of manual transactions,” says Arrazola de Oñate.

But Microsoft Human Resource Management–Axapta, integrated with Acerta’s payroll engine, offers a far richer solution. Integrated workflow features mean that forms can be filled in and forwarded electronically, supervisors are prompted to approve documents, and payroll is updated with new pay information automatically.

Benefits

Seamless Integration Reduces Administration

Microsoft Axapta is easily adapted to fit the specific needs and requirements of Acerta’s individual customers. HR managers can quickly extract the data and information they need, with little time or effort. The solution has dramatically reduced administrative tasks and manual HR processes for Acerta’s customers.

HR managers can set up employee profiles and maintain payroll information for every employee, including bank account numbers, tax numbers, pension schemes, and holiday details. “If an employee decides to take time off, the request registers in the payroll system automatically. Previously, the information was stored on a different system or on paper and had to be re-keyed before employee pay could be calculated,” says Arrazola de Oñate.

Cuts Number of Manual Transactions by 30,000 a Year

By reducing the number of times information has to be re-keyed, cutting down on paper, and reducing manual processes, HR managers can focus more time on value-added HR activities and get the most out of the workforce. Fewer mistakes also mean businesses see a vast difference in the accuracy of their information and can rely on their data for accurate financial reporting.

Arrazola de Oñate says: “In our demonstrations of Microsoft Axapta HR integrated with our payroll engine, we have discovered about 30,000 fewer manual transactions that customers with around 900 employees would have to perform in a year, which is very substantial.”

Better Tools for HR Managers

Microsoft Human Resource Management gives managers the tools to monitor their workforce more closely. Human Resource Management can store résumés, contacts, contract, and payroll information in a central repository, which provides a single point of access for all employee-related information.

Absence management features give managers the tools they need to identify trends in absenteeism and to be proactive in offering assistance to employees. And recruitment features help the HR department to manage application processes and automate many of the more time-consuming tasks, for example, generating statistical overviews to measure the effectiveness of recruitment activities.

The technology can also be easily customised to meet local regulations. “All transactions are fully in accordance with local laws on taxes and social security regulations. These rules are embedded into the solution to help companies fully comply with important payroll regulations,” says Arrazola de Oñate.

Market-Leading Offering for Acerta

Already one of Belgium’s leading payroll companies, Acerta now offers a higher standard of service than ever before. Now that the solution’s front end is shared and centrally hosted at Acerta, the organisation can guide and support HR managers through payroll processes by collaborating on the same set of live data.

“By coupling our payroll expertise with Microsoft Axapta HR knowledge and development, we have gained a significant competitive advantage over many other providers on the market,” says Arrazola de Oñate.

“The feedback we get from our customers is that the solution is bringing HR to life for them and changing the way they work. Customers can use the tools at their own speed and in line with their own budget. They can decide which features are important and access them quickly and cost-effectively.”

Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systems your company already has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship

and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes and technologies, increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.

For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to:

dynamics

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| |Software and Services

■ Microsoft Dynamics

− Microsoft Business Solutions–Axapta

− Microsoft Business Solutions for Human Resource Management– Axapta | | |

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Axapta, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation or Microsoft Business Solutions ApS in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft Business Solutions ApS is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Document published July 2005 | | |

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:



For more information about Acerta Sociaal Secretariaat products and services, visit the Web site at:

acerta.be

“We wanted to build new methods of providing line managers and division managers with better solutions to support counselling, competency management, recruitment and so on.”

Peter Arrazola de Oñate, Director, Acerta Sociaal Secretariaat

| |

“All transactions are fully in accordance with local laws on taxes and social security regulations. These rules are embedded into the solution to help companies fully comply with important payroll regulations.”

Peter Arrazola de Oñate, Director, Acerta Sociaal Secretariaat | |

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