On the buses - BIM saved bus company more than £80,000

The best way forward

On the Buses For London Central, one of the problems arising from privatisation was how to cope with the complex, 1,500-strong payroll that had formerly been handled centrally by London Underground.

It soon became clear that establishing an in-house payroll department was neither cost-efficient nor practicable and with confidentiality also an issue, outsourcing was the only way forward.

Price, track record and experience

With eight providers in the running, BIM won the contract on price, track record and its experience of payroll processing for another major bus company. Particularly attractive for London Central was the minimal set-up charges - a marked contrast to other bids where upfront charges of as much as £40,000 had been quoted!

For BIM the complexities of the London Central payroll were a challenge it was able to meet successfully through its ongoing investment in technological excellence combined with extensive experience.

Highly complex

BIM Managing Director, Howard Neale:

"The traditional working practices of the bus industry such as rota lines, shift swapping, differing rates of pay, holiday advances and some 30 deductions to friendly societies, trade unions, clubs, saving schemes and the like, plus pension scheme and AVC contributions, would tax all but the very experienced".

As for the company's sickness scheme, this was so involved that until BIM came on the scene it was undertaken manually. The company also smoothed the way for a major change to the pension scheme. This was a task, described by the Finance Director, Gordon Stewart, as "horrendous", acknowledging that without BIM it could never have been achieved so effortlessly.

Detailed reporting capability

In common with 74% of the Times Top 100 companies, BIM utilises market-leading Unipay software, run on a state-of-the-art IBM mainframe computer. With payroll the highest overhead for London Central, the detailed reporting capability provided by this system was a major attraction. "Before, the detail was minimal, inflexible and hard to get to", said Gordon Stewart.

Fast set-up

Despite its complex nature, set-up of the payroll for London Central was successfully achieved by BIM within two months, including a test phase and a short period of double running. The system worked perfectly from Day One and produced savings for the company in excess of £80,000!

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