System Tackles Tough Payroll Problems - Software Review - Genesys Enterprise Series

HR Magazine, Dec, 2001 by Jim Meade

As time goes by, most companies' payroll systems grow more complex. Workers take on different roles and get paid by different departments. Parts of a single staffer's salary line may show up in many departments' budgets or even, if your company has facilities across the country, in offices located in multiple states--a real tax nightmare.

Genesys HRMS, now in version 5.5 from Genesys Software Systems Inc. of Methuen, Mass., tackles the tough payroll and HRIS problems. And, if you don't have the staff to handle salary administration yourself, the company can provide you with outsourced HR and payroll services.

Browser-Based Interface

The Genesys Enterprise Series is available as a purchased product or can be rented on an application service provider (ASP) basis or from a third party. Regardless of which approach your company takes, you gain access to this straightforward payroll and HRIS suite by logging in via a standard web browser. Once you sign on to the system, links on the left indicate the main capabilities, including "Payroll," "HR" and "System Administration."

Under "Payroll," you click links on the menu to enter and gather all kinds of information--from a basic profile of an employee's pay to tax information, earnings and deductions. Likewise, to use the HR application you click links, such as "Employee Relations," "Benefits," "Compensation" and "COBRA."

Genesys offers more than 100 standard reports on payroll, HR and benefits. For ad hoc reporting, you can use the integrated Crystal Reports module. The system administration interface lets you change and delete employee records. You

Taking on Tough Problems

What I like most about Genesys is that it goes where others fear to tread, starting with payroll. While HR offices often regard payroll administration as a necessary evil, Genesys embraces the payroll function as the heart of its software.

Genesys is also not afraid of the term "mainframe." Though the Genesys Enterprise Series has moved beyond its roots as a mainframe-only application, it still will work with mainframes if needed.

"The differentiation point is our primary architecture," says Mike Hanninen, director of strategic systems at Genesys. The product works equally well with Windows NT/2000 or with IBM's MVS mainframe operating system. Genesys offers its own proprietary database, and it also supports Microsoft SQL Server databases and others.

Users say Genesys' technical competence is a key part of its appeal. For instance, Jerry Steele, the assistant director of information technology for Morris County in Morristown, N.J., has been working with payroll since the county implemented Genesys in 1984. When Steele wanted to migrate the county's payroll/HRIS system from the mainframe to a client/server (PC) environment, Genesys met all his needs, he said.

Steele elects to do many tasks on his own, such as printing checks or backing up onto CDs. He says of Genesys, "What they've done on the server opened up tools and avenues for us to do what we do."

Tom Tripp, payroll manager for Delta Dental Plans of California Inc. in San Francisco likewise has used Genesys to customize the process. He intentionally avoided outsourcing, and he likes having the option of tailoring the Genesys screens and the data structure behind them. "If you have your own vision and want to build on it, they give you the tools to do it," he says.

Genesys receives high marks for the technical support it provides to customers. "They are terrific. They're nice people, and they're knowledgeable about their product," Tripp says. "Their user community seems to be more sophisticated than a lot of other user communities I've seen. Because they allow their users so much control over the software, you can pretty much mold it to anything you want to do."

The company offers an array of services. "We offer not only HR and payroll but also benefits, e-learning--everything in employee relations management," says Lisa Rowen, director of marketing at Genesys.

Be Ready to Dig In

A drawback to the Genesys Enterprise Series: It is not an easy system to implement. "You better be willing to dig in and learn about the product," advises Tripp. Managers "should be getting in and working with their people to provide better tools to do their jobs. In doing so, everybody wins."

While you don't have to be a technophile to use Genesys, technophobes will probably find the package overwhelming. For users such as these, as well as for companies that have scaled back their HR or payroll staff, Genesys offers an outsourcing service that takes over the administration of the system.

The Genesys Enterprise Series can be used to deliver pure HR services, without payroll administration. However, users who don't use the payroll component miss out on the strength of the software. "It's one integrated system," explains Andrea McNamara, an applications specialist at Genesys. "If you change a name in payroll, it changes in human resources.

Genesys targets mid-size companies (more than 1,000 employees), and specializes in a few industries such as government, health care and financial services, although the software is used by businesses in other industries as well.