Business Information Management rescues SKF from payroll hell

SKF Based in Luton, Bedfordshire, SKF. (UK) Limited is part of the Swedish SKF group – the world’s leading manufacturer and supplier of roller bearings. No longer prepared to accept the costs associated with running an in-house department for its 500 monthly paid employees and 1,750 pensioners, the company opted for bureau processing. However, its first encounter with outsourcing was to prove “disastrous”.

While totally disillusioned by this experience, it was not practical for SKF to take its payroll back in-house. Second-time round, therefore, it was imperative to locate a supplier who could be relied upon to deliver the levels of service and support that were all too lacking previously.

Delivering solutions and service

The search brought SKF to Southampton-based Business Information Management, a payroll bureau that with more than fifty years experience, enjoys a reputation for combining technological excellence with the personal service that was so important to the company.

An important attraction for SKF was the fact that BIM nominates a dedicated payroll manager for every customer. This was even more important in the early days, when intensive confidence building was needed to overcome the chaotic legacy left by the previous supplier.

Developing the system

Eighteen months later, however, with both monthly and pensioners payrolls running smoothly, SKF was ready to move on from batch processing to BIM’s PC front end system.

This has produced significant benefits for the company. With multi-access capability, free from any user or software maintenance charges, and totally protected by strict security controls, it has enabled SKF to devolve responsibility for inputting payroll data to individual department heads.

The restructuring of the payroll on a departmental basis was made possible by BIM’s capability to embed sophisticated levels of security into the system to prohibit entry by anyone except the designated manager, and SKF’s Financial Controller – who, alone has access to departmental control reports.

“ Before BIM came along, nothing went right. Now nothing goes wrong. They have grown with us and continue to come up with new solutions”.

Additional benefits

Further time-savings have also been achieved for SKF by interfacing payroll with the swipe card system used to track time and attendance. With data relating to regular hours and holidays captured automatically, it is now necessary to enter only variables such as bonus payments and details of “starters and leavers”.

A secure network solution

Continuing to push forward SKF’s use of technology, BIM has recently developed an innovative network solution for the company’s 1750-strong pensioners payroll. This makes use of the company’s global network to enable the free-flow of data between SKF in Luton and Sweden, its London-based pensions administrators - who connect into the system by remote access - and BIM in Southampton where processing takes place. Once again, security was of prime importance requiring stringent controls to protect the network, and ensure watertight confidentiality of sensitive data.

Commented Howard Neale, BIM’s Managing Director: “This is a bold move forward by SKF and we are proud of their confidence in us. It is an ambitious undertaking that makes full use of technology to deliver a completely secure and cost effective payroll solution that could well be a model for other companies,”

For SKF its former “payroll hell” has now been replaced by a smooth-running, hi-tech system, underpinned by the high levels of service that, four years on, BIM continues to provide”. BIM have not only solved all our problems, but have also enlarged the services attached to payroll”, said SKF Director of Human Resources, Mike Welby. “Before BIM came along, nothing went right. Now nothing goes wrong. They have grown with us and continue to come up with new solutions”.

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