Jeffrey’s of Wandsworth: Concentrating on Core Business
Jeffrey’s of Wandsworth decided it needed to update the payroll outsourcing service it was receiving; the aim, to help the business concentrate more on core business by simplifying the data input process for managers as well as giving them access to HR and payroll information from any location.
In December 2007 Jeffrey’s implemented ADP freedom, a web based system which enables access from anywhere, including as far afield as Portugal, where Jeffrey’s part-time payroll administrator now lives and works.
Background
Jeffrey’s of Wandsworth is a franchised motor dealership that trades under the name of ‘Phoenix’. Selling Saab, Vauxhall and Chevrolet cars directly to the public through showrooms in Wimbledon and Croydon, Jeffery’s employs 150 people over three sites in South London.
The challenge
Approximately 80% of Jeffrey’s employees work shifts in their car showrooms and back offices. In addition, the majority of employees have a commission based wage structure and are often paid overtime. All of this means that for a relatively small company there is a large degree of complexity involved in its payroll and a high administrative burden.
Jeffrey’s was looking to implement a new payroll solution because its previous one, which they had used for over ten years, was no longer meeting the company’s needs. The main motivations for the change were twofold: Jeffrey’s needed to decrease the administrative burden and simplify the inputting process for line managers. Secondly, with the need to focus its employees as much as possible on its core business, Jeffrey’s was reluctant to employ someone with the in-depth payroll knowledge needed to implement an in-house system.
Financial Director Alistair James explains why outsourcing payroll always made business sense to him: “There are high costs involved in setting up and running a complex payroll, and it does not make sense to employ a full time payroll expert to manage the process for us.”
The need for Jeffrey’s to focus on its core business was the main driver for finding the right outsourced service, as James explains: “Our core business is selling cars and we need to focus on this rather than worrying about payroll. We wanted to make paying our staff as easy as possible, with managers and our administrator able to simply input data without having to worry about compliance issues or tax codes etc…”
With Jeffrey’s previous outsourced system, payroll information could only be input at one location, which did not suit the business with its multiple sites. The company also needed a solution that was more user-friendly and which gave easy access to all senior managers in the company.
The Solution
After considering a range of options, Jeffrey’s chose to implement ADP freedom, ADP’s web-based HR and payroll system that is hosted online and can therefore be accessed from any computer with internet access, at any time of day. This was attractive to Jeffrey’s because of the need for senior managers to have access across its sites.
Coincidentally, at about the same time that the company was looking for a new payroll service, the employee responsible for administering payroll at Jeffrey’s had taken the decision to move to Portugal. In normal circumstances this would have meant recruiting a replacement, but ADP freedom made it possible for the payroll administrator to remain in Jeffrey’s employment and now he inputs payroll data from the Algarve. James is keen to stress that while this was not the reason for choosing ADP freedom, “it has proved to be a very useful by-product of the service offering”.
The Results
Jeffrey’s has been pleased with how user-friendly ADP freedom is and James remarked that it did not take long for senior managers to get up to speed with the functionality. This has saved the company time and money that may have otherwise been spent training managers to use a more complex system. Plus, there have been IT savings, as the web based nature of the service means that Jeffrey’s doesn’t need new IT equipment or software.
James describes the implementation of ADP freedom from start to finish as being “very smooth and without problems”. The company has been very pleased with the service and is planning to use some more of ADP freedom’s HR functionality in the future. James comments “we use a limited amount of the HR services available on ADP freedom at the moment, however we are keen to make more use of this in the future. Having more information on one system will further help us avoid duplication of effort and make reporting easier and more accurate.”
James concludes: “Overall, outsourcing our payroll with ADP freedom has given us exactly what we were looking for, a simple and robust payroll service that allows us to concentrate on core business activity.”
In December 2007 Jeffrey’s implemented ADP freedom, a web based system which enables access from anywhere, including as far afield as Portugal, where Jeffrey’s part-time payroll administrator now lives and works.
Background
Jeffrey’s of Wandsworth is a franchised motor dealership that trades under the name of ‘Phoenix’. Selling Saab, Vauxhall and Chevrolet cars directly to the public through showrooms in Wimbledon and Croydon, Jeffery’s employs 150 people over three sites in South London.
The challenge
Approximately 80% of Jeffrey’s employees work shifts in their car showrooms and back offices. In addition, the majority of employees have a commission based wage structure and are often paid overtime. All of this means that for a relatively small company there is a large degree of complexity involved in its payroll and a high administrative burden.
Jeffrey’s was looking to implement a new payroll solution because its previous one, which they had used for over ten years, was no longer meeting the company’s needs. The main motivations for the change were twofold: Jeffrey’s needed to decrease the administrative burden and simplify the inputting process for line managers. Secondly, with the need to focus its employees as much as possible on its core business, Jeffrey’s was reluctant to employ someone with the in-depth payroll knowledge needed to implement an in-house system.
Financial Director Alistair James explains why outsourcing payroll always made business sense to him: “There are high costs involved in setting up and running a complex payroll, and it does not make sense to employ a full time payroll expert to manage the process for us.”
The need for Jeffrey’s to focus on its core business was the main driver for finding the right outsourced service, as James explains: “Our core business is selling cars and we need to focus on this rather than worrying about payroll. We wanted to make paying our staff as easy as possible, with managers and our administrator able to simply input data without having to worry about compliance issues or tax codes etc…”
With Jeffrey’s previous outsourced system, payroll information could only be input at one location, which did not suit the business with its multiple sites. The company also needed a solution that was more user-friendly and which gave easy access to all senior managers in the company.
The Solution
After considering a range of options, Jeffrey’s chose to implement ADP freedom, ADP’s web-based HR and payroll system that is hosted online and can therefore be accessed from any computer with internet access, at any time of day. This was attractive to Jeffrey’s because of the need for senior managers to have access across its sites.
Coincidentally, at about the same time that the company was looking for a new payroll service, the employee responsible for administering payroll at Jeffrey’s had taken the decision to move to Portugal. In normal circumstances this would have meant recruiting a replacement, but ADP freedom made it possible for the payroll administrator to remain in Jeffrey’s employment and now he inputs payroll data from the Algarve. James is keen to stress that while this was not the reason for choosing ADP freedom, “it has proved to be a very useful by-product of the service offering”.
The Results
Jeffrey’s has been pleased with how user-friendly ADP freedom is and James remarked that it did not take long for senior managers to get up to speed with the functionality. This has saved the company time and money that may have otherwise been spent training managers to use a more complex system. Plus, there have been IT savings, as the web based nature of the service means that Jeffrey’s doesn’t need new IT equipment or software.
James describes the implementation of ADP freedom from start to finish as being “very smooth and without problems”. The company has been very pleased with the service and is planning to use some more of ADP freedom’s HR functionality in the future. James comments “we use a limited amount of the HR services available on ADP freedom at the moment, however we are keen to make more use of this in the future. Having more information on one system will further help us avoid duplication of effort and make reporting easier and more accurate.”
James concludes: “Overall, outsourcing our payroll with ADP freedom has given us exactly what we were looking for, a simple and robust payroll service that allows us to concentrate on core business activity.”
