ADP freedom improves Anglo-American payroll practices at Fair Isaac
If you have a mortgage or a credit card, chances are that the level of risk you present to your bank will have been assessed by Fair Isaac's analytics and decision management technology. Fair Isaac pioneered credit scoring and now sells its technology and consulting expertise to leading financial institutions across the world. The company recently implemented ADP freedom to support its UK office payroll processing, and coordinate efforts with its headquarters in the US.
A global business, Fair Isaac has offices in 16 countries. Kelly Swanson, Fair Isaac Human Resources and Payroll Manager based in the US, explains that the company's broad geographic footprint was a key factor in selecting ADP's services.
"We need our payroll to operate in real time and be visible to all the decision makers," Kelly says. "It's no good learning by correcting mistakes. We have to have eyes and ears on the ground in all our markets at the same time to know exactly what our global exposure in payroll looks like." Recent changes to corporate governance legislation in North America also means that Fair Isaac must be Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, at home and abroad.
ADP freedom addresses both of Kelly's requirements for the company's UK office. ADP freedom works in real time, and, as a web-based service, allows Kelly to see what is happening in the UK irrespective of time zone differences. ADP is also Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, and, in fact, has been long before other payroll service providers in the UK. This compliance guarantee applies across ADP's whole portfolio of payroll and employee management services.
"Making the decision to use ADP was a given," says Sally Alderman, Fair Isaac Human Resources Consulting Lead, who is Kelly's "eyes and ears" in the UK. "The choice was about which service would suit us best, and ADP freedom made the most sense." Before switching to ADP freedom, Sally was outsourcing her payroll to a different managed service provider, and was beginning to find that she was spending a lot of time re-checking data to make sure that it was accurate.
In addition, Fair Isaac had recently acquired a new business and decided to maintain it as a separate legal entity with its own payroll under the Fair Isaac umbrella. This meant Sally now had two payrolls to check, with a combined payroll of over 300 employees. This accelerated the need to find a better solution.
"The transition to ADP freedom was very straightforward," says Sally. "As soon as we were on board with ADP, I found that I can now be assured of the accuracy of the information," says Sally.
Being informed about changes in payroll legislation is a vital part of Sally's job. In turn, Kelly relies on Sally as a key source of information. "I read a lot, and I sit on the sub-committee for the American Payroll Association," Kelly says. "Still, I depend on people like Sally around the world to make sure we are doing things right." Sally says that ADP's help desk answers 9 out of 10 questions immediately without having to go to second or third-line support, providing Sally with even more confidence in getting things right first time.
In addition to tax and employee legislation there are many distinct differences between an American payroll and a UK payroll. Sally explains, "It's more common for people to be paid bi-weekly in the US, and we pay monthly in the UK. Although Americans are typically paid via direct banking, they have the ability to be paid via cheques, whereas we pay by BACS. While these are obvious differences, we need to be aware of these things for our expatriates within the organisation. With ADP freedom, the US office can see exactly what is happening at any time."
With very few anomalies to Sally's payroll - the company offers share options and health benefits and most are full-time employees, maintaining precise financial information globally is important to Fair Isaac. The next step is to open up ADP freedom for Kelly's team in the US to be able to directly input data into the UK payroll system.
"When the US can directly add and amend personal information such as home addresses, salary details and so on, it will increase processing accuracy for us because we won't be manually inputting data about US employees transferring to the UK," says Sally.
ADP freedom has created a new and more streamlined way of working between Kelly in the US and Sally in the UK. Both have more time to devote to making sure they are personally up to date with legislation and they can now run the operation smarter without having to worry about inaccuracies in the payroll. And, while one sleeps the other works, making sure that Fair Isaac maintains that accuracy for its employees around the clock.
A global business, Fair Isaac has offices in 16 countries. Kelly Swanson, Fair Isaac Human Resources and Payroll Manager based in the US, explains that the company's broad geographic footprint was a key factor in selecting ADP's services.
"We need our payroll to operate in real time and be visible to all the decision makers," Kelly says. "It's no good learning by correcting mistakes. We have to have eyes and ears on the ground in all our markets at the same time to know exactly what our global exposure in payroll looks like." Recent changes to corporate governance legislation in North America also means that Fair Isaac must be Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, at home and abroad.
ADP freedom addresses both of Kelly's requirements for the company's UK office. ADP freedom works in real time, and, as a web-based service, allows Kelly to see what is happening in the UK irrespective of time zone differences. ADP is also Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, and, in fact, has been long before other payroll service providers in the UK. This compliance guarantee applies across ADP's whole portfolio of payroll and employee management services.
"Making the decision to use ADP was a given," says Sally Alderman, Fair Isaac Human Resources Consulting Lead, who is Kelly's "eyes and ears" in the UK. "The choice was about which service would suit us best, and ADP freedom made the most sense." Before switching to ADP freedom, Sally was outsourcing her payroll to a different managed service provider, and was beginning to find that she was spending a lot of time re-checking data to make sure that it was accurate.
In addition, Fair Isaac had recently acquired a new business and decided to maintain it as a separate legal entity with its own payroll under the Fair Isaac umbrella. This meant Sally now had two payrolls to check, with a combined payroll of over 300 employees. This accelerated the need to find a better solution.
"The transition to ADP freedom was very straightforward," says Sally. "As soon as we were on board with ADP, I found that I can now be assured of the accuracy of the information," says Sally.
Being informed about changes in payroll legislation is a vital part of Sally's job. In turn, Kelly relies on Sally as a key source of information. "I read a lot, and I sit on the sub-committee for the American Payroll Association," Kelly says. "Still, I depend on people like Sally around the world to make sure we are doing things right." Sally says that ADP's help desk answers 9 out of 10 questions immediately without having to go to second or third-line support, providing Sally with even more confidence in getting things right first time.
In addition to tax and employee legislation there are many distinct differences between an American payroll and a UK payroll. Sally explains, "It's more common for people to be paid bi-weekly in the US, and we pay monthly in the UK. Although Americans are typically paid via direct banking, they have the ability to be paid via cheques, whereas we pay by BACS. While these are obvious differences, we need to be aware of these things for our expatriates within the organisation. With ADP freedom, the US office can see exactly what is happening at any time."
With very few anomalies to Sally's payroll - the company offers share options and health benefits and most are full-time employees, maintaining precise financial information globally is important to Fair Isaac. The next step is to open up ADP freedom for Kelly's team in the US to be able to directly input data into the UK payroll system.
"When the US can directly add and amend personal information such as home addresses, salary details and so on, it will increase processing accuracy for us because we won't be manually inputting data about US employees transferring to the UK," says Sally.
ADP freedom has created a new and more streamlined way of working between Kelly in the US and Sally in the UK. Both have more time to devote to making sure they are personally up to date with legislation and they can now run the operation smarter without having to worry about inaccuracies in the payroll. And, while one sleeps the other works, making sure that Fair Isaac maintains that accuracy for its employees around the clock.
