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December sees surge in RTI payroll deals

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8th Feb 2013
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A surge in public tenders in Decembers indicates that local and central government bodies are gearing up for RTI by outsourcing their payrolls to contractors.

Details published on PublicTenders.net, showed that the payroll and HR services market was particularly active in the second quarter of 2012, and witnessed a resurgence at the end of the year with contract award announcements in the region of £60m.

In many cases, payroll services were bundled up within larger contracts for HR, benefits and shared services delivery partnerships between public and private sector bodies.

More bids were put out to tender during December, with one eight-year contract to create a centre for a temporary staffing advisory at Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust valued somewhere between £1m and £50m.

Outsourcing specialist Capita landed two of the biggest contracts in December with the Department of Environment and Climate Change and Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust.

MidlandHR picked up a contract from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive in January and several more during the previous year.

Declan McGrath, managing director at MidlandHR, did not agree that RTI was driving new business for managed service providers - yet - but explained: "Most organisations appear to be relying on their existing suppliers to provide RTI compliant solutions.

"Nonetheless, some organisations have come to market earlier than they otherwise might have. RTI compliance has certainly been an important criterion for our new customers over past months. As we get closer to April’s RTI deadline, however, we do predict that more organisations might be forced to consider changing supplier as they realise that their existing solutions are not RTI-compliant."

According to McGrath, organisations are content to outsource services such as software hosting and document management, but there is still nervousness about payroll, which is still "unjustifiably" seen by some as being difficult or too sensitive to outsource. But RTI is helping to change this view as organisations seek to cut costs, improve efficiency and cope with RTI.

"It’s not necessarily too late to turn to us," the MidlandHR MD added. "However, all outsourcers will face unprecedented demand in the run up to RTI go-live, so any organisation considering outsourcing should really get in touch now."

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By Matthew Thompson
11th Feb 2013 15:28

Managed Payroll

IRIS has developed a managed payroll service which is fully RTI compliant, for those businesses who feel that they will not be prepared for the transition in April.

http://small-business-software.iris.co.uk/payroll-software/iris-managed-...

We also offer a range of RTI payroll software options, suitable for different sized businesses.

http://iris.co.uk/business

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John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
12th Feb 2013 10:04

Perhaps you could add more to the conversation?

Thanks for your comment, Matthew, but it strays dangerously close to AccountingWEB's official rule against  self-promotion. Rather than just putting out a sales comment, you would gain more credibility by commenting on the themes raised. For example, has IRIS seen a surge in managed services in recent months?

And what are IRIS firms doing in terms of offering bureau serivces? Is it feasible for firms to consider switching to your platform at this late date?

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By Matthew Thompson
12th Feb 2013 10:20

Apologies but I can't provide any fixed details on our managed services as this is a relatively new offering and is not my direct area. Our main focus up to now has been on providing RTI payroll software and training. We have seen a huge surge in people booking RTI training courses in the past few months. Over 11,000 payroll professionals have already enrolled to date, which leads me to believe that many people are choosing to run their own payroll in-house.

We believe that if you have RTI compliant software in place and have ensured that you understand the legislation and the new processes that RTI entails, then running your own payroll shouldn't be an issue. I understand why some people would choose to outsource it however, as certain organisations may not have the manpower or time available to run their own payroll. Also, recent statistics released showing the supposed huge lack of awareness of RTI so close to the start date helps understand why some people may want to outsource this service. 

Let me know if you have any further questions John.

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By BrightPay
12th Feb 2013 10:49

Just be ready

Face to face contact with customers leading up to it is an advantage but can sometimes scare customers into outsourcing.

Constant customer contact over the next few weeks is essential for education and reassurance that processes can continue as normal if prepared.

Absolute priority is reassuring the customer that ample support is available on the phone on April 6th. 

 

 

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