Client
A global titan in athletically inspired footwear and apparel, our client boasts a formidable presence with 3,500 stores in 23 countries and a dedicated workforce of 44,000. With a turnover surpassing 8.5 billion dollars, they engage customers across digital and physical realms, reinforcing their market dominance.
Challenge
The client’s primary challenges were multifaceted, revolving around the management of payroll operations that were outsourced to multiple vendors across 20 European countries. They faced the daunting task of standardizing the gross payroll data calculation process and adapting to the unique earning and deduction elements required by each country.
The repercussions were significant: elevated costs due to a complex customized IT solution for gross payroll calculation, risks of non-compliance with regulatory requirements, and potential errors in gross payroll calculations.
The client sought to enhance efficiency by consolidating their gross-to-net payroll calculations, opting to outsource this task to a single vendor for the European region. This move was aimed at capitalizing on economies of scale and diminishing administrative overhead. The vendor would be tasked with executing the concluding steps of the payroll process, which included the filing of statutory reports, making salary deposits, and printing paychecks within the designated countries.
However, the client intended to retain the source-to-gross and employee management processes in-house, both from a procedural and IT perspective. To achieve this, they needed to standardize, correct, and simplify their source-to-gross payroll calculation system and implement a single interface mechanism for delivering gross payroll information to the payroll vendor, preventing data, formatting, or system errors.
Solution
Hexaware developed a comprehensive solution to the client’s payroll challenges by deploying automated modules that efficiently calculated earnings and deductions, supported by a global template approach with a rule-based configuration engine for nuanced localization. This approach standardized the computation and reporting of gross payroll details across 15 European countries, while a consultative design and change management strategy minimized the need for system customization, ensuring high adaptability.
Integrating a low-maintenance interface mechanism safeguarded against data, formatting, and system errors, contributing to the operation’s sustainability. Hexaware’s strategic initiative also included a wave-based program plan that addressed the learning curve for system adoption and facilitated the management of concurrent programs in different countries. A forecasting engine was implemented to enable accurate prediction of payroll expenses, thereby improving profitability and cost projections at the corporate level. Finally, a global delivery model was key to providing cost benefits and extensive support to the program team, with collaborative program management ensuring seamless and effective payroll process stages.
Benefits
The benefits realized from Hexaware’s solution were substantial.
- Reduced cost of payroll operations:
- Consolidation to a single vendor
- Elimination of internal administrative overheads
- Updated payroll:
- Quicker, automated, and error-free calculation
- Integration of payroll earning and deduction elements
- 100% auditable system in a Single Source of Truth for payroll data
- Implemented finer forecasting:
- Provision of levers for finance and operations management
- Wider visibility and control over expenditure and profitability
- Improved compliance with European statutory requirements for Payroll and Absence
Summary
Hexaware automated modules for streamlined time and absence management, and payroll calculation, standardizing gross payroll details across 15 European countries. The solution introduced a single interface, preventing errors, and included a forecasting engine for precise payroll expense predictions. The global template approach, low-maintenance interface, and collaborative program management enhanced cost efficiency, with reduced operational costs, quicker and error-free payroll, improved forecasting, and heightened compliance with European statutory requirements.
