By ADAM GIFFORD
Plumbing and electrical parts distributor Mico Wakefield is shifting its payroll and human resources systems to an internet-based product from Christchurch firm PayGlobal.
Chief financial officer Mark Conelly said the catalyst was Mico's acquisition of MasterTrade, which had used an earlier Dos-based product from PayGlobal's predecessor, TimeMaster. Mico
Wakefield, a part of the Australian-owned Crane Group, uses JD Edwards financial and distribution software.
Conelly said the company had not planned to implement payroll modules for at least two years, but faced the problem of what to do about paying MasterTrade's 400 staff.
Rather than bring them over to its old system, Mico Wakefield went to the market looking not only for payroll but for a way to combine a number of human resource functions.
"Apart from having to pay people, we also want to get into online recruitment, online performance management, psychometric testing, perhaps health and safety, so PayGlobal will be a one stop shop for the people part of our business," Conelly said.
He said several hundred thousand dollars has been budgeted for the project, but because PayGlobal runs on an application service provider (ASP) monthly rental basis the capital cost is under $100,000.
MasterTrade staff should be on the system by the end of next month, with the rest of Mico Wakefield's 1240 staff in 135 locations being brought on gradually after that.
PayGlobal chief executive Donald Hastie said the ASP side of PayGlobal's business was gathering momentum, with about 20,000 employees from 25 organisations getting their pay through the internet system. A further 150,000 are paid through in-house systems.
Hastie started TimeMaster 11 years ago to develop time and attendance software. The shift to the PayGlobal brand and product came with finance from Wellington venture capital fund Number 8 Ventures and private investors. Outside investors own 40 per cent of the company, Hastie a similar amount and staff the rest.
