The Big, the Bad & the Ugly
While there is no refuting the growth and ever-increasing popularity of big brand-name cloud-based HR software’s, I’ve always found that the solutions on the market tend to lack attention to the needs of individual clients. Sure, they’re all based on ‘best practice’, but does this pre-defined practice really apply to all companies?
The major difference between the big and the small software providers is that with big providers you can only customise your processes, but with smaller providers you can configure the software to your needs (big difference).
I have watched with interest, for example, the recent success and growth of Educos Vision Services (www.educos.co.uk). From humble beginnings, Educos now has an international presence with 10’s of thousands of employees being paid through the company’s outsourced payroll solution, and 10’s of thousands more having their payroll processed through the (on premise or cloud-based) implemented software from Southern Africa to Central Europe.
When I look at the on and off premise HR and payroll solutions that Educos offers, as well as the payroll outsourcing leg, I fail to see any differences (apart from the big brand name and cost) between them and the ‘major’ players. Employee database, Performance management? Check. Workforce analytics and custom dashboards/reports? Check. Real-time access to employee data and analytics via mobile devices? Check.
The beauty of smaller, configurable HR and payroll solutions is that they can be adapted to meet your company’s specific needs. Whether you’re going through mergers, growth (or down-sizing) or organisational changes; or if you have complex tax laws, expats, cross-border commuters (common in Central Europe) or just the need to interface your HR platform with a flexible payroll system… Whatever your needs, I can’t help but feel that the flexibility of smaller HR and payroll providers has an increasingly important place in corporate planet Earth!
