my sample scenarios as a guide for their questions. Those scenarios had been sent in advance so the vendors had time to prepare and could answer the most pressing questions on the spot, which was the whole point. Springing ‘trick’ questions at a demo can sometimes need a more technical answer that’s not available, so basically a waste of time. I hadn’t been needed at the demos, as I had worked with them on a scoring system. The sessions had been recorded with the consent of all concerned, and the summaries produced by AI. These were then applied to the scoring. The ball was now in the client’s court. It made sense to delay the start of the project until later in January. The University clients, too, were not timing product demos till the New Year. All my activity meant that I had missed the CIPD exhibition earlier in the month. This was a shame as it was one of the few
events of the year where I got to touch base with my vendor contacts and see what was new and what the general sentiments were, as well as meet up with some great people. The HR tech business has been a fascinating scene for some years and has some of the real characters in the HR and payroll industry. I was sorry to miss the chance. 2.38 p.m. Mahira had sent through four more leads. One of these was a tech company based in Waterbury, Connecticut, that wanted a unified HR and payroll system for its operations in four European countries. This sort of challenge is what I really enjoy! I poured another cup of Yorkshire tea and settled back at my desk to read the briefs and scribble preliminary notes on each one. 4.01 p.m. I’d just finished my notes on the four proposals when the phone rang...
I agreed, of course, on the basis that I always ‘open the box’ to see what’s inside, no matter how outlandish something might appear to be. My trip to Southampton had been a very interesting one; the client was a timing device manufacturer, and after discussions with HR and some operational teams, I was taken on a tour of the factory. Unlike older factories I had seen, the processes worked fluidly and in straight lines. The client had proposed several clock-in points for the 800 or so workforce, but looking at the cost of each point, I had suggested fewer locations and using proximity cards, which were fast to process. The HR Head there had taken me to lunch at a place that served tasty pies...I needed to think hard about all these lunches! My report was with them two days later, and they had called in my top three recommendations for demonstrations, using
04:05 I 75
ISSUE 18 GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online