Companies often forget what the value of peace of mind is; and how important payroll and HR software is, says Sandra Swanepoel, a Director at Softline VIP, part of the Sage Group plc.

Let me tell you about company X. Company X pays over 1000 employees and decided to replace their payroll and HR system with a new product that would give them;

b) Gear their business for the next five to ten years

c) An integrated system that would provide a seamless financial solution.

Two years later they are still battling to get payslips with accurate data to their employees, says Swanepoel. “A basic requirement that has cost them dearly, both in financial terms and employees being utterly frustrated by their employer not being able to deliver something that most take for granted.”

What does peace of mind really mean and what should companies be looking out for when they are considering HR and Payroll software vendors?

· Do site visits and speak to payroll, HR and finance to get an understanding of what worked and what did not.

· Can the vendor maintain software from both a legislative and technology perspective?

· Do they have the infrastructure to support you should you expand across Southern Africa or even Africa?

· Can they add value to you business in terms of supplying you with payroll experts should you have a crisis in your payroll/HR office?

· At VIP we have grown our payroll and software business over the past 25 years to be world class. Our employees are absolute Payroll and HR specialists. The training we provide to them kicks off with four months of product training followed by practical sessions in a controlled environment, allowing us to compete with any international player.

· I am often asked why our employees need so much training to support the software. Is the software complex, is the product built for specialists? The answer is simple: Talk to our users, they LOVE our people, they admire their knowledge and they have total peace of mind - and yes - you cannot put a price on that!

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