04:05
ISSUE 5
The regulatory environment was lax, and most salaries were still being paid under the table. Using a fully online payroll system felt like airing out dirty laundry for everyone to see. The result? BordroNET, despite being functional, became a disappointment. It was far better than most payroll software on the market, but its rigid structure and cultural resistance made it difficult to embrace fully. The Dream of Dakika.com.tr Fast forward to the late 2000s, and the landscape was changing. Turkey was now facing more complex payroll regulations with the introduction of new social security laws. Businesses were finally ready for a robust, flexible payroll solution, and we were prepared to deliver it. Enter Dakika.com.tr—groundbreaking software that allowed for much easier configuration of customer requests with minimal coding. We learned from our past mistakes and were determined to get it right this time. The end of 2009 seemed the perfect time to switch from BordroNET to Dakika. We had a choice: keep both systems running simultaneously or make a clean break and transition simultaneously. Given the financial strain caused by the 2008 crisis, running two IT teams was not an option. So, in a fateful meeting with the IT team in November 2009, I made the hardest decision of my life: we would shut down BordroNET and launch Dakika by December.
What followed was nothing short of a horror story.
The Nightmare Begins The transition appeared to go smoothly until January 2010, when everything fell apart. Every single integration crashed. International clients couldn’t report payroll abroad, and suddenly, we were drowning in problems. At one point I was awake for 33 hours straight, fielding calls from irate customers while working with the IT team in a desperate attempt to fix the chaos. During this time, I learned the true meaning of “unhappy customers.” The nightmare lasted for six long months. The team and I manually handled many processes to help our clients close their payroll periods with minimal damage. “The end of 2009 seemed the perfect time to switch from BordroNET to Dakika. We had a choice: keep both systems running simultaneously or make a clean break and transition simultaneously.”
A Costly Mistake: Ignoring the Human Element
Looking back, I realised that my biggest mistake wasn’t just technical—it was human. I had failed to listen to my operations team. They were used to BordroNET, comfortable with its quirks, and terrified of the new system. They had developed an emotional
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