Content area
Full Text
SMEs are rushing to outsource payroll services in order to become more focused and productive, and ultimately more prosperous. Kevin Kevany has been scanning the payroll horizon for other new trends and developments too.
THE Christmas just past was another 'season to be jolly' for most of us. But for those in New Zealand's (and we should probably make that Australasia's) highly-competitive payroll industry, most of the companies we interviewed were busy adding two or three new customers each working day, while many were 'kicking back' after another tough year.
Comments like "it's high season," "the best in a long while", "I'm sorry, but I'm just too busy to talk right now", flowed from the red-hot mobiles of the senior executives late in 2011 sensing "the best year-end market in a while".
The consensus is that SMEs, in particular, are increasingly recognising that they have no option in the current low-growth economy but to become more focused and productive if they are to succeed. And with the high levels of customer service and competitive pricing being facilitated by smarter and smarter technology and software available to the payroll sector, "this is the moment to outsource time and resource distractions like payrolls, and be ready to hit 2012 running," according to one highly-pressured executive.
The outsourcing of payrolls to a multitude of companies offering a permutation of Off-the-peg' solutions, SaaS and 'cloud-based' services has been a major feature of the last decade, as one person's drudgery became others' golden opportunity to provide a service which just keeps on growing.
Speaking at a staff celebration at a Taupo resort to celebrate the tenth birthday of New Zealand-owned online payroll provider, iPayroll Ltd, MD and online industry pioneer Martin Gleeson recalled that when he and co-founder Cary Thomson launched the company back in 2001, Amazon, Internet banking and services such as Trade Me and eBay were in their infancy.
"We've seen a lot of action in our first ten years as we've had to keep innovating and delivering to stay ahead of the curve," says Gleeson. "As more and more businesses migrate to the 'cloud1 we have been well-positioned to take advantage of that business model's development."
He also drew attention and "took pride in the...