Clients

County of Lanark

Until 2009, the County of Lanark used an integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to support both payroll and Human Resource activities. The ERP system allowed County staff to realize the efficiency and accuracy benefits of capturing similar information once for both the payroll section and the HR department.

However, the human resource module of the ERP system did not meet the needs of the County’s Human Resources lanarklogodepartment nor did it address the Human Resource requirements of the managers in the organization.

The County was left with a dilemma: How could the County best meet the system needs of the human resource department and its managers as well as continue to realize the benefit of single data capture? The solution: HR Systems Strategies (HRSS) and info:HR software.

HRSS was able to offer the County an integration solution that would not only meet its needs for a comprehensive human resource system but also allow the County to continue to enter similar information once and use it for both payroll and human resource purposes. HRSS had developed several interfaces between info:HR and payroll systems for other clients and were confident that they could offer a robust and seamless integration solution to the County.

Working closely with County staff, HRSS used its extensive experience with payroll system integration to develop a system solution for Lanark County. This solution allows the County’s human resource staff to capture all the information they require to meet their obligations. The relevant information is automatically updated on the County’s payroll system. The info:HR system allows for e-mail notifications giving a “heads up” to other units such as payroll about pending actions that may have to be taken. Payroll staff then enter into the payroll system any unique pay information necessary to ensure that pay is processed accurately.

The County wanted to take an evolutionary approach to system integration and not implement the entire capability all at once. The flexibility built into the info:HR system allowed the County to take a step-by-step approach to system implementation. By using client-controlled system parameters, the County implemented the info:HR demographic integration. Once that was operational, attendance integration was implemented, followed by salary and, finally, benefit integration.

“This flexibility allowed us to ensure we were all comfortable with the system itself and its integration with payroll before moving onto the next stage,” said Sam Leroux, Pension and Project Specialist in the Human Resources Department at the County of Lanark. “It allowed us the time we needed to fine tune our operating procedures to take advantage of the strengths offered by info:HR and the payroll interface.”

The County of Lanark had implemented a number of scheduling and time reporting systems to meet operational needs in its long term care facility, Public Works department and elsewhere in the organization. There was some initial concern that the integration offered by info:HR would not be able to handle these multiple systems.

However, HRSS was able to set up the integration to accommodate all three time reporting systems and associated attendance. The richness of the attendance reporting now available through info:HR benefits both the Human Resources department and managers throughout the organization. It has also saved Human Resources staff considerable time: one report which took upwards of five hours is now produced in minutes.

“We are very pleased with the partnership that has been established with HRSS as we worked together on integrating the info:HR system with the payroll module of our Enterprise Resource Planning system,” said Lisa Crosbie-Larmon, Director of Human Resources at the County.

County managers and Human Resources staff have already realized the numerous benefits of having a strong Human Resources system built solely to support Human Resource activities and not based on a financial platform.

The virtually seamless interface between info:HR and the payroll system has allowed us to retain the advantages of a single data capture. It looks like we now have the benefits of both worlds: a rich Human Resources system and single data entry. Who could ask for more?”