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HR/Payroll Software - Why It's So Hard To Get A Price

By Expert Author: Clay C. Scroggin

The topic of this article is to describe why getting a price for an HR Payroll software application is not as easy as getting a price on a house, a car, or a new pair of shoes. Think of all the decisions you would have to make, before getting an accurate price, if you were going to build your own home.

Using Google Adword’s keyword tool, I did a little research into how many people in an average month are searching for the price of HR Payroll Software. The resulting numbers are lower than I might have expected. Still, per month, just on Google it appears that at least hundreds of people are searching for the cost of HR and Payroll software based only on the keywords I uncovered below.
Keyword Average Searches Per Month
• HRIS Price 12
• Cost of HRIS 58
• HRIS Costs 170
• HR software pricing 36

HR Payroll software prices depend on too many variables to simply offer a quick quote

When I was selling HR Payroll Software systems, I worked with one HRIS product that offered 15 unique product options, two platform options, and two purchase options. The cost of that system for a 200 employee company varied tremendously. This price could have ranged from $3,000 to well over $40,000. So, if someone simply asked for a price, or even a ball park price, it was hard for me to present one without knowing exactly what options they were interested in and what their needs were. Often times the prospect did not know either until I performed a needs analysis and/or showed a demo.

HR and Payroll Software Salesmanship

As an HR and Payroll software sales person, if I was selling product X and knew my competition was product Y, which offered half the functionality and 30% less on cost, I would be hesitant to provide a prospect a price of my HRIS system until I was able to show the added value. This is not only salesmanship; it’s also good service. It’s important that you not base your decision for HR Payroll software only on price. The best value may not be the lowest price but may be found in the closest match to your company’s unique needs. You may be impatient to see the cost, but in the example above, the customer wins by waiting.

There are sales training courses which teach sales people to say in control of the sale by holding off on providing a price as long as possible. I am not one of those that agree with this strategy but you may very well see it.

The HR Payroll software companies want to keep the prices as secret as possible.
We have asked all of our HR Payroll software participating vendors to include at least some type of price range for our site, but currently 8 of 13 have elected not to do so. Part of the reason is what I have laid out above but these companies are also very secretive about their prices. The least expensive systems on the market have no problem publishing their prices. The more expensive and comprehensive systems on the market are much less likely to do so.

I lost a vendor earlier in the year because they would not participate in our service unless every vendor on our site, not only showed their pricing, but showed it in exactly the same format as they offered theirs. I can’t say I disagree but I am not in a position to force our vendors to comply.So can other websites actually provide quick quotes for multiple HR and Payroll software applications?

NO! For the exact same reasons I have laid out here, the HR Payroll software vendors aren’t going to provide the cost without understanding who the prospect is and what their needs are. So, the site I am referring to without mentioning them by name, simply distributes your information to a number of HRIS or HRMS vendors and then let’s those individual vendors contact you, and after a needs analysis and perhaps even a demo, the “free HRIS quotes” can be provided. There’s nothing quick about it; nor would you want it to be.

The funny thing is our keyword position for HRIS pricing is number nine on Google. And I’ll be the first to tell you that of 13 systems currently on the site, we only offer price ranges on 5 of those products.

Closing..

There are valid industry reasons why you may find it difficult to quickly and easily receive prices on a number of HR Payroll software applications. I would recommend staying patient and realize a quick price may not be the most reliable or in your best interest.

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HR Software Industry in the global meltdown....

Human Resources Leaders Express Uncertainty about Extent of Economic Impact on 2009 Talent and IT Investments

My thoughts on -Demand for HR Software Products in Current market downturn : Niraj Pradhan, Product Evangelist at MinVesta

Author: Niraj Pradhan,Product Evangelist, MinVesta Infotech

These days we keep hearing the words " SLUMP" ,"Recession", "Layoffs", "Cost cutting", "IT industry down turn" etc...
All these are also the reasons cited for slower growth of Indian IT companies.
It is said that there will be lesser new projects coming to the IT companies in India-All due the recession in US economy.
The companies in US have become conservative and there is literally no scope for getting revenues from these markets.
Recently even wipro has shifted its focus to Latin America and Africa -as these are now the emerging market.

Amidst all these..I have seen a reverse process- The need for HR products-especially in India and middle east and also Africa has shot up!!
yes its true-i will put in facts and explain to you but first let me put some reasons for it.

Current objective of companies in India would be to sought "Cost Cutting measures" and also to "increase Employee productivity."
They would rather have say 1500 employees( cut down work force from 2000) and have maximum productivity to match the earlier figure of 2000 employees.

By adopting above techniques they are aiming to have maximum output with minimal cost.

Now let me give you an example-where the employee's productivity goes waste.
every day there would be transactional activities to be carried out-Both by Employees and and also HR Managers or Management.
Simple example- Leave Application- i would treat this as an transactional activity.
There are many more transactional activities- example: marking attendance/requesting Forms( leave forms/loan forms), queries,payslip requests,Travel request -form based,address proof request etc-all these in case of manual process consumes huge amount of time and effort.
Now coming back to example of leave,
Every employee would have an activity to perform-i.e Leave Application( also some times cancellation/withdrawal)
Consider a manual process-Where leave application is sent by an employee by either filling up a leave form( hard copy) or writing and email and sending it to respective persons.
Every employee will have a minimum of 30 leaves in a year? ok lets make it 20.
Now an employee needs to apply for a leave-
He would take a print of the form( lets put 5 minutes for it)
Fill it up- 5-10 minutes
( or other wise compose an email- will take 10 minutes)
walk up to reporting manger to get it signed and approved- 10-15 minutes
again it might involve a chat/discussion/explanation- 10-15 minutes
( The reporting manager might not have instant access to employee's leave balance data)-might have to check with HR dept before granting-10-15 minutes.
Now the employee needs to walk up to the HR department to submit the application-10-15 minutes
( situations- HR manager not at his/her desk or HR Manager on leave/ etc etc)
He/she would submit the application-this might also involve a chat etc-10 minutes
HR Manager would update the leave balance details-in excel etc-10 minutes
and in situations like cancellation-modification-withdrawal this would involve the same cycle and also the time-

Now if i would add up the minutes that involved in a single transaction-i.e Leave Application and that too for one leave application by an employee ( lets assume he/she might take 4-5 times a year) the total minutes would be: 115 minutes average- hence almost 2 hours - which can be 1/4 th man-day
in case of 4 leave application by the employee- it would be 8 hours or 1 man day.
If you multiple by the man-day rate of your organization you can get the cost involved
i am assuming INR 3000 as per man day rate and hence one employee spends 1 man-day implies INR 3000 is the cost involved by one employee for one transactional activity.
Lets say an organization has an average 200 employees- in such a case, the total cost involved would be 200 * INR 3000= INR 600,000 six lacs-
or 200 man days spent for carrying out leave transaction- that too without full proof efficient manner.
imagine if the 200 man days was utilised in some project- you would not Only save in terms of time- but eventually in terms of Money!!

Now- How do we save cost- how do we increase employee productivity??
How can we save this 200 man days for a single transactional activity or this INR 600,000 going down without any return???

well- it can be saved...
By adopting methods of Automation- A simple leave application tool -may be a web based( browser based).
A considerate amount of time/effort and money can be saved by automation.
Through this tool the employee has instant access to his/her leave balance and can also apply immediately citing the reasons/remarks etc-
now the leave application would go to the Reporting manager- who can not only view the application-but approve/reject in a single click - also the sub ordinates leave plans/leave balance details etc present with him to take help in decision making.
Like wise HR department/Manager's task is also eased and time saved.
There are much more than just ease of transaction... the system can send alerts/reminders/validation/report generation /year ending process/en cashment etc.

The entire process of leave application can be finished or carried out in less than 10 minutes as compared to nearly 120 minutes by the manual process...
and yes i forgot to mention the cost involved for taking the hard copy of the leave form:)

Over all the ROI from the automation method is much more than the investment.
If you would do an similar calculation for other activities and arrive at the cost of it...i am sure after reading this you would search for an Automation tool and suggest your HR dept or the management.

Well...this is one example that i gave to explain to you the reverse process that is taking place -
yes demand for the HR Softwares has gone up during this Slump/recession etc..
and Especially in INDIA, middle east and Africa.
Well are few more reasons for the demand in these countries...
I can also include few Asian Countries-Japan n China.

What i feel and think could be a possible reason- 20-30 years back the market in US /Europe was emerging- which now has emerged and got a hit by the economic conditions there.

If you compare the Indian economy and the market conditions here....its not that worse.
I would agree with what Rakesh Jhunjhunwala said- India is protected- the liquidity crunch and factors are different here- a lot of Liquidity is yet to flow into the markets-Indians are still holding on their liquid assets.

the market in India can be called as emerging market- Indian companies are growing- they have their alternate market- INDIA
countries and companies would now shift their focus to emerging markets- INDIA/ middle East /Africa- literally a virgin market
The IT industry would not be dependent on the US/Europe market...
This has already started to happen...

Personally i have witnessed a sudden spur in the demand for the HR softwares....
and i have seen the sales cycles to be remarkable shorter- something which can be surprising-
but I am not amazed:)
Organizations- in India have closed on to buying the HR softwares in very short cycles and also have spend handsome amount in buying them-
Undoubted they understood the cost involved in manual process ( as calculated above:) ) and were quick to under stand the importance of Automation.

well...these are my views...i might be not be an expert doing this analysis...but have put down what i feel and think...


Thanks & Regards,
Niraj Pradhan
Product Evangelist| MinVesta Infotech Ltd. |Mob:+91 9246190827 | Ph: +91 40 23738072 Extn:201||email: niraj.pradhan@minvesta.com | website: www.minvesta.com |
Blog: http://minerva-hrms.blogspot.com/|
http://www.linkedin.com/in/nirajpradhan |Blog: http://hcmgyan.blogspot.com/|

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How to Choose a Human Resource Management System to Satisfy IT and HR

We’ve all heard the saying “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus”, but when it comes to standardizing on a global HRMS (Human Resource Management System), the same could be said for an organization’s IT and HR departments. In order to close the gap between these two departments and create a happier co-existence, IT and HR departments need to learn how to communicate more effectively. This can help ensure that the needs of each are taken into consideration, and that an emphasis is placed on creating a peaceful union of organizational equals.

Let us start with the following assumptions: The HR department understands what communication is necessary, and the manner and timing with which it must presented to achieve strategic outcomes. The IT department understands the security imperatives, and has the ability to understand the capabilities of the underlying toolset to achieve these outcomes.

The HR mandate

As organizations strive to build and sustain a high-performing, satisfied workforce, they place an even greater emphasis on the effectiveness of the HR department. Today, the HR department is viewed as a critical contributor to an organization’s bottom line, facilitating the organization’s ability to attract top talent, reduce turnover, and control the high cost of benefit enrollment and utilization. 

However, to be truly effective, HR needs to have the right combination of people, processes and technology in place to achieve success in this area. With the help of HRMS technology, organizations can now provide a number of strategic functions designed to automate a range of tasks. These tasks include employee assessment or satisfaction, time-to-fill or cost-to-hire statistics, employee performance index, revenue-to-employee or productivity-to-employee metrics, and turnover rate. While few will dispute the value of an organization’s HRMS, the road to adoption can be quite challenging. It requires careful consideration and cooperation among all stakeholders--especially IT.

The IT challenge

While companies increasingly rely upon technology to streamline their business processes and create a competitive edge, they are quickly realizing that if they are to truly optimize their IT investments, they must first work to align IT with their business goals. This is particularly true with an HRMS, which needs to be treated as more than just mere infrastructure or a “back office” application (given the major impact an HRMS has on an organization’s overall business strategy, competitiveness and profitability).

Five HRMS considerations designed to bridge HR and IT

In order to make the most of their HR technology investments, organizations must be sure to communicate the overall goals and objectives of the HRMS and solicit input from both HR and IT. Careful consideration must be made to ensure that the solution can improve the organization’s business processes, not just recreate old paper processes. The solution must also create efficient workflows with approval mechanisms, provide compliance reporting, and integrate all of the major components of HR. These major components include compensation and benefits administration, recruiting and training administration, andstrategic measurement tools such as metrics, performance management and succession management.

To ensure a long-term, successful coexistence between HR and IT, organizations should speak in terms that each department will understand, and should select a solution capable of supporting the unique needs of both. More specifically, organizations should adopt an HRMS capable of supporting the following five criteria.

Criterion #1: Scalable infrastructure to meet current and future needs

To ensure the longevity of the HRMS, organizations must look for a solution that is capable of meeting the current and future needs of HR, while reducing the involvement of the IT department. The HRMS needs to be scalable and highly flexible so that, once IT deploys the system, HR can use it to support the needs of its existing employees and extend the system to include new employees as the company grows (either organically, or through mergers and acquisitions). The solution must also enable HR to include future benefits plans and/or business processes. The HRMS should also be capable of supporting multiple language profiles so that all users in all locations can leverage a single, global HRMS platform. This is needed in order to achieve an accurate picture of the company’s HR goals and objectives--on a global scale--without having to seek additional IT support.

Criterion #2: Strong reporting and query capability to ensure compliance to internal and external requirements

The HRMS should also have the ability to support various HR and compliance-related reporting needs, including Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), Military/Veterans (VETS), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), and Wages and Filings (W-2 and 1099).

To ensure the long-term success of the system, IT teams should look for a solution that combines data from multiple systems, has built-in report writer features, offers native language and SQL query capabilities (to ensure easy access by any level of user), and supports unlimited security profiles capable of defining the fields, tasks and actions that are permitted by each user. In doing so, HR professionals can easily add fields and tables to reflect the changing business and data needs of the organization, securely locate and disseminate information to appropriate and authorized stakeholders, generate sophisticated reports that comply with internal and external regulations, and provide sophisticated HR-related metrics and data to senior managers for decision making and goal alignment.

Criterion #3: Workload automation to organize tasks and improve processes

In order to support today’s “do more with less” work ethos, it is also important to look for an HRMS that supports what is commonly known among IT departments as “workload automation.”  Long recognized by the technical staff for its ability to seamlessly incorporate event-driven activity with calendar and scheduling functions, workload automation allows HR teams to organize daily tasks, prioritize work and improve their process efficiencies.  Leveraging automatic, user-defined “triggers”, HR teams can set up e-mail-based alerts, notifications and reports that allow them to focus on more strategic tasks, improve communications, and respond faster to employee requests and organizational changes.

Criterion #4: Tight integration and import/export to reduce redundancies and improve accuracy

Some other important HRMS considerations that are especially important to IT folks involve the tight integration of, and turnkey interfaces to, other HR-related systems. These include single sign-on, e-mail server integration, active directory, LDAP, third-party payroll services, benefit carriers or other internal legacy systems, and the ability to import data from other source systems. This is particularly important as HR professionals strive to create a central point of access capable of streamlining their HR processes. The system should also enable them to eliminate redundant data entry functions, increase data integrity (by having the ability to import historical data from outdated legacy systems) and, more importantly, provide additional analysis and reporting to other team members as needed.

Lastly, organizations should consider an HRMS that is capable of easily exporting HR-related data to other software utilities such as Word, Excel, etc. In doing so, HR teams can provide additional analysis and reporting across the organization using existing systems and popular formats without the need for additional IT involvement. With improvements in architecture, and with the proliferation of Web 2.0, traditional imports and exports can be reduced to Web Service requests that allow the posting and exchange of information to become seamless and automatic. This kind of advance allows the manager and employee to manage data without worrying about the administrative task of running an import or an export to manage the integration of systems.

Criterion #5: Advanced workflow to ease use and promote self-service

The final (and perhaps the most important) HRMS consideration involves the system’s advanced workflow functionality. Leveraging user-configurable menus and role-based forms, HR teams can automate time-intensive and multi-step or multi-person processes such as life change events (name change, new dependant, etc.), new-hire activity, terminations and training. As a result, HR professionals will enhance their productivity, reduce their training and administrative expenses, ensure faster and more accurate transaction processing, and lower the cost of collecting and delivering HR-related services throughout the enterprise. 

IT and HR departments alike should look for a solution that is capable of being deployed online, with Employee Self-Service (ESS) and Manager Self-Service (MSS) portals. This will help to encourage easy and secure access among employees, document company procedures and workflow, and ensure compliance with mandates such as Sarbanes/Oxley. By selecting an HRMS that supports advanced workflow capabilities, HR and IT groups can optimize and extend the technology platform to drive bottom line efficiencies and profitability.

Put simply, if an organization is to build and sustain a high-performing and satisfied workforce, then a fruitful relationship between HR and IT must exist. So, instead of thinking in terms of “Mars versus Venus”, IT and HR professionals should keep these five easy requirements in mind, using them as a means to openly communicate their goals, objectives and system requirements.

By giving proper consideration to the people, processes and technology in both your IT and HR departments, you and your organization will be well on your way to a long-lasting, satisfying marriage of HRMS equals who are working together to meet a mutually satisfying goal.

Author:Shafiq Lokhandwala is President and CEO at NuView Systems, Inc.

Automated Screening and Assessment Can Level Candidate Playing Field

Automated candidate screening and assessment solutions have become standard practice for many employers in the race to hire and retain talent in a shrinking labor market. Technology exists not only to assess skills and competencies, but also culture fit and work style, which can be reliable indicators of job performance and retention. However, few realize the benefits such technology affords in terms of objectively recruiting people with disabilities and leveling the playing field for all candidates.

Automated candidate screening and assessment solutions can be delivered via multiple methods - Web, phone, kiosk or table PC - and make it easy for anyone to apply and be interviewed regardless of mobility challenges or disabilities. Further, by removing the face-to-face aspect of a conventional interview, candidates need not be concerned the interviewer will be distracted by their disability rather than focusing on the interview's content.

Applying for jobs via technology compels an employer to make a determination based only on the candidate's responses to questions and assessments, as opposed to appearances or information presented on a one-dimensional resume.

Traditional hiring processes typically screen out unqualified candidates, leaving employers to hire those who fit minimum qualifications. This creates what is essentially a double jeopardy for persons with disabilities. It becomes easy to focus on restrictions the disability presents rather what the person may be able to do in spite of any challenges.

Advanced automated interviewing systems driven by artificial intelligence can be set up to adjust questioning appropriately, seamlessly and diplomatically when such situations arise - even routing the interview to a different line of questioning for jobs for which the candidate may be better-suited. In short, this process can screen in candidates based on the skills and competencies they possess. Conversely, face-to-face interviews can lead to the determination a person is not suited for an advertised position. The conversation is effectively terminated, rather than initiating a discussion to explore alternatives.

Synchronizing the assessment process via Web and phone also gives rise to the use of job simulations. For example, the employer can have a customer service simulation in which several screens of information are available to the applicant on the desktop. The candidate is then charged with negotiating the screens while responding to a variety of service calls. This provides all candidates with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and proficiency to handle the job.

Web-based interviews can be structured to ensure compliance with Section 508 requirements of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that requires federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Additionally, using a properly configured automated solution erases the potential for human error, such as asking potentially discriminatory questions during a face-to-face interview.

While objectivity and fairness should be the mantra of any interview and assessment, an automated system can document each question asked, the answer provided and the basis for the overall assessment. With the EEOC and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs' aggressive interest in systemic discrimination, this detailed documentation can prove invaluable in proactively safeguarding the hiring process from negative outcomes such as litigation and compliance-related fines.

Most important, using an automated screening and assessment solution provides all candidates with a seamless and convenient process to apply for job openings. Moreover, it provides employers with an objective and reliable process for hiring and retaining qualified candidates who will be productive members of their workforces.

[About the Author: Ron Selewach is founder and CEO of the Human Resource Management Center.]