A key finding from NelsonHall’s recently published Next Generation Payroll Services market analysis is that buyers are now much more focused on automation and other forms of transformative technology that will drive digitalization of their HR operating models. In payroll, as elsewhere in HR, this increasingly takes the form of automating manual transactional tasks and increasing the level of employee and manager self-service.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that the top three drivers for payroll services center around cloud, automation, and cognitive technology, namely:

• Access to leading cloud technology
• Process efficiency through automation
• Analytic insights and easy access to historically rich payroll data.

As a result, leading vendors are focusing their investments in technology and innovation; on average, vendors are pushing ~16% of revenues into technology and value-added features that drive innovation in service delivery. One such vendor is APAC-based Excelity Global, which has historically placed strong emphasis on use of new technology to enable “next generation payroll” delivery. Excelity’s vision is to provide the leading proprietary payroll platform offering in APAC, and has supported this by making consistent annual investments of ~25% of its revenues.

At the core of Excelity’s offering is ezpayroll, its cloud-based payroll platform targeted at small-market customers seeking advanced payroll technology. Currently, ezpayroll is configured to support 12 APAC countries (expanding to Korea and Vietnam in 2018), with specific templates tailored to support the needs of industries such as banking, manufacturing, and IT services.  Additionally, ezpayroll is delivered with pre-built integrations to leading HCM platforms, including a certified integration and partnership with Workday. 

In addition, Excelity has recently launched complementary technology which integrates with ezpayroll and provides its customers with value-added features that drive efficiency by simplifying everyday processes. Examples include WiFi TimeSheets and Excelia.

WiFi TimeSheets

This is a SaaS-based time and attendance (T&A) tracking and compliance system. With Wi-Fi TimeSheets, customers can digitalize the time and attendance tracking process, eliminating paper and manual effort for employees, while improving attendance tracking accuracy to prevent payroll leakage, through automation of the time tracking process. It does this by connecting employees to the system through an app (available on iOS and Android), which tracks employee location through one of three methods: WiFi connection, geographical tagging through mobile, or beacons (which can be purchased separately and installed on worksites.)

With each method, WiFi TimeSheets automatically clocks employees in and out based on their location and provides employers with mobile-enabled dashboards and real-time data, including a GPS map of employee whereabouts and worksite/location tracking. 

WiFi TimeSheets then uses this data as the basis for comprehensive reporting to identify hidden costs and track project performance via analytics, forecasting, and benchmarking. The application is integrated with ezpayroll but offered as a stand-alone solution, supported by pre-built APIs to customer systems and existing time clock technology. 

Excelia

Excelia is a cognitive chatbot assistant for supporting employee inquiries with on-demand and personalized responses. With Excelia, employees can obtain assistance with common daily HR tasks such as onboarding, information requests such as viewing payslips, and training. The bot draws on core HR and delivers personalized assistance through a conversational interface, providing users with inquiry support in seconds (as opposed to traditional methods involving calls, emails, and ticket creation which typically took hours to complete).

Excelia has been deployed across 250+ India-based customers to date, achieving ~40% reduction in inquiries reaching Excelity’s tier 2 support.

Looking ahead

Excelity’s roadmap for WiFi TimeSheets includes expansion beyond India, to China and Singapore in January 2018, with other key APAC countries coming onstream by May 2018. Additionally, enhancements planned include expanded administrator features for broader benchmarking, forecasting, and enhanced reporting features for mobile users. Similarly, Excelia will be rolled out globally by Q1 2018, with plans to incorporate additional data elements from Excelity’s platform.

With the payroll services market in a very mature state and more focused on transformation than ever, vendor differentiation is key. 2017 has been a strong year for Excelity in launching value-added payroll technology solutions. This should position Excelity for strong growth in the coming year and beyond, in support of its goal of becoming the leading APAC payroll platform and provider.