Tuesday 20th January, 2015

ABP Food Group, one of Europe’s leading beef processors, has reported an annual cost savings of £150,000 by implementing an integrated HR and payroll solution from Advanced Business Solutions (Advanced) to comply with Pension Auto-Enrolment legislation.

Advanced’s solutions, OpenHR and OpenPeople (payroll), have been rolled-out to 16 ABP UK sites situated in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland and have significantly cut administrative processing time relating to its 2,000+ weekly and monthly paid employees.

ABP’s previous HR and payroll infrastructure was no longer sustainable due to requiring high levels of manual intervention which led to processing errors and corrections. The organisation wanted to standardise its HR and payroll processes to eliminate paper-based administration and improve efficiency.

Robin Irvine, CIO at ABP Food Group, explains, “Employees based at 16 sites were all using different versions of three disparate payroll systems which clearly wasn’t acceptable for a business of our size which needed to run efficiently.

Advanced’s solutions are now enabling ABP to electronically store and process HR and payroll information from a single, centralised system, providing timely access to comprehensive management information and full legislative compliance. By cutting excessive use of paper forms and manual processes it has also transformed organisation-wide efficiency, reduced payment errors and improved the accuracy of employee records.

Irvine comments, “We successfully completed the implementations in just two months which wouldn’t have been possible without Advanced’s highly structured project management approach. The return on investment has been immediate through combined efficiency savings of over £150,000 and reducing processing time by 32 hours each week.

“Moving to an integrated HR and payroll solution has transformed efficiency and we no longer have to worry about compliance. We can now focus on developing the business strategically and meeting our ambitious objectives.”