New Store Europe provides store design, project management and fitting services for multinational retailers across Europe. When it acquired Kleerex (which operated in the UK as two distinct companies) it found itself needing to rationalise three payroll systems, some outsourced, some not, into a single process with a single provider. And it needed to happen fast.
“We met with New Store Europe at the beginning of July 2011,” says Ian Davidson, Sales & Marketing Director at Trace Payroll Services. “The decision to select us was made during the third week of July and the first weekly payroll was due in mid-August. It was a pretty tight deadline.”
Comparing apples with apples – finding the right payroll services supplier
New Store Europe had shortlisted two candidates: Trace and another, cheaper alternative. For Marcus O’Brien, Financial Accountant with New Store Europe, it was more than a question of basic numbers.
“I don’t think we were really comparing apples with apples. The other candidate seemed cheaper, but when you looked at the detail it was clear we’d be doing more of the work ourselves. We wanted to merge three payrolls into one on a tight deadline. It was difficult to see how us doing more of the work would help us do that effectively.”
3 into 1 does go
New Store Europe opted for Trace’s Easipay Plus web based system, together with lots of help from Trace in drawing the three systems together.
“We had lots of calls from people at Trace over the initiation period to check how we were getting on,” says Marcus. “They were extremely helpful.”
“When you’re trying to merge systems I suppose it was inevitable we’d make some errors inputting information but every time we raised an issue the turnaround time in resolving it was really impressive. Trace dealt with everything we threw at them – they didn’t leave us hanging. That was really important to us because if you can’t get a piece of software to do what you want you can’t ask it why it’s not happy. You need someone to talk to.”
The human element
Marcus was pleased with his decision to use Trace’s services – but he was still apprehensive about changeover. “We were asking Trace to do something that should have taken three months in a few short weeks. I was worried about the impact of a messy changeover. For that reason it was so important we had someone with whom we could ask the ‘stupid’ questions and feel comfortable doing so. That’s what really makes the difference at Trace: the human element.”
With a named contact for all their payroll queries, Trace has maintained its commitment and service to New Store Europe. “We know we’ve got our contact at the end of the phone if we’ve any problems,” says Marcus. “Mind you, to be honest, I’d phone any of them. They’re all really helpful.”
Thumbs up
For Marcus, the initial measure of success was a simple one: “I needed to be confident that, first time payroll came round, all our people would be paid. They were. And we’ve been pleased with the service we’ve received from Trace every since. It’s a big thumbs up from New Store Europe.”
