In 2022 we won a tender for payroll and for implementing the 1C:ZUP 8.3 payroll and HR system at a large manufacturing company. But due to external circumstances the system had to be implemented in just two months instead of the planned nine. Ekaterina Menshikova, sales director at UCMS Group, explains how the team coped.
Specifics:
At the end of 2022 the client of UCMS Group became the branch of an international manufacturing holding headquartered in Europe. The total headcount is 1,000 people.
The client had two systems: SAP for payroll and 1C:ZUP 2.5 for preparing HR administration reports. Instead, a single 1C:ZUP 8.3 system had to be implemented.
The estimated transition time in such cases is 6-9 months because of the abundance of customisations, printed forms and management reports. The implementation project was scheduled to start in mid-2022 and payroll was planned to start at the beginning of 2023.
Ekaterina Menshikova:
“In the first quarter of 2022 the client approached UCMS Group to ask us to estimate the cost of an emergency transition, in case the global provider left and SAP was disconnected due to the serious change in the external context. For our part we presented a possible action plan and confirmed our readiness to provide full support.
In the end the emergency transition became our reality: the client received official notice from the provider that the contract would end in the near future and that work in SAP could not continue. Only 2 months remained to implement the new system.
Both we and the client clearly understood that we would have to implement a "half-naked" system, in a hurry and with unplanned resources.
Another thing was obvious too: no in-house team could have coped with such an abrupt transition. A large provider has practically unlimited ability to bring specialists with the right qualifications and relevant experience into the project. And you cannot find and hire a new employee that quickly for a short period.”
During preparation for the 1C:ZUP 8.3 implementation, UCMS Group specialists identified the following specifics of the project:
The solution
For the urgent delivery of the project the provider allocated additional resources. In a limited time the UCMS Group specialists:
In just two months, to an extremely tight deadline, UCMS Group specialists managed to implement a system that could be used for payroll.
The customer understood that an ideal situation should not be expected by the first calculation. All refinements to a full system would be made in stages after the express transition was complete.
Thanks to the client's involvement and constant communication between highly qualified project managers on both sides, most issues were resolved in the shortest possible time.
Ekaterina Menshikova:
“Trust in the provider turned out to be an important component of success. If the client had entrusted us only with payroll and given the implementation of the payroll and HR system to another partner, the project most likely would not have been delivered on time. Increasing the number of responsible parties always complicates the process of implementing or changing anything.
Moreover, when both the implementation and the subsequent accounting are handled by one company, all responsibility is concentrated in one pair of hands. For a strong provider that is an advantage: the process will be built faster and more efficiently.”
A single payroll and HR system, 1C:ZUP 8.3, was implemented and both providers began using it. UCMS Group experts prepared the foundation in time for correct HR administration, payroll accrual and payment, and reporting.
Other outcomes:
The client on the project:
“The emergency implementation showed us that we made the right choice in entrusting UCMS Group with such high-risk processes as payroll and tax reporting.
We were especially impressed by how the technical specialists, having received from us an export of SAP data in a format radically different from the 1C architecture, were able in a short time to transform a large volume of sensitive data into the format needed for use in the new database.
We also want to note the team of methodologists, who within a tight timeframe wrote detailed BRRs for payroll and HR administration and at the same time audited our activities, which allowed us to unify, simplify and adjust the processes.
The result is a qualitatively new product. We continue to work with UCMS Group and are now delivering an HR outsourcing project together.”
Emergency situations involving urgent implementation are not uncommon in current conditions. It is important not to let the situation reach extremes, to turn to experienced professionals in time and to appreciate all the benefits of cooperation.
