Case Study: Faversham House Group

Would you want to save time, have peace of mind and be confident that your company had a reliable HR and payroll service? This was what drove Faversham House Group to turn to CPS & Octopus when they needed an urgent solution to replace a failing system.

The Company, which publishes B2B magazines and organises prestigious exhibitions, has a constant requirement to manage the payroll for a mixed workforce of just under 100 employees. It is a family business which has grown fast. The Company had used an outsourced payroll service for many years. However, the service's constant errors and inefficiencies were proving costly. In addition, Amanda Barnes, Chief Executive, wanted to upgrade their old HR system for something more interactive and responsive.

“Our old solution was a nightmare,” explained Sara Trayers, HR Administrator. “We found ourselves paying for a service that was failing. It became clear that we had to address these errors and find a system we could trust.”

The need to tackle the payroll system issues gave Faversham House the opportunity to consider the bigger picture. As they did their research, the unique, combined HR and Payroll Service offered by CPS & Octopus, stood out from the rest. They decided this was exactly the right time for Faversham House to sign up to the fully managed package.

“It seemed almost too good to be true,” said Sara. “When we met them they seemed to understand exactly what our problems were. They knew how a family business was run, and we felt they were like-minded people we could trust.”

CPS & Octopus designed a simple, user-friendly system that could be adjusted easily to suit Faversham House perfectly. Throughout the process, CPS & Octopus provided excellent customer service as they sat together with the people who would be using the system to iron out any difficulties and gave individual help and advice.

Faversham House had turned to CPS & Octopus because they had an urgent problem to solve. In all, the process of designing and implementing the new HR and Payroll System took about six weeks. “I couldn't believe how quickly it all happened,” said Sara. “We went for a parallel run in December 2009 and went live in January 2010. I was impressed with the instant visibility. It was much smoother than I thought it would be, especially considering that December is a short month and we pay our staff early.”

During the implementation Sara identified some new functionality that related to salary increases. "CPS & Octopus developed a whole new part to the system which will be very useful. While it was still in development, they even did the work for me!”

Sara is impressed that she has instant access to the system from both home and office. “We can all look at reports whenever we want to,” she continued. This statement is backed up by Amanda, who added: “I find the reporting tools excellent – intuitive and quick to use.” The reporting tool allows FHG to review information, make any amendments and request the final run, not only is this instant, their payroll cut off was 10 days, allowing for the 3 day BACS process this has reduced to just 4 days! The CPS System then transmits the BACS file and the payslips are immediately available on line.

The Directors are delighted with how simply HR has been integrated with a payroll outsourcing service benefiting from a best of breed solution. All staff can see the improvements that have been made in salary administration and they can view their payslips and HR information online.

Amanda continued, “CPS & Octopus have significantly cut the amount of administration time for our HR Manager allowing her instead to concentrate on staff development and other more productive areas. The salary administration is quick and effective, for instance all sick calculations are performed automatically including entitlement to Company sick. More importantly it has given back responsibility to our staff for managing their HR information flow. We are beginning to use it as a key part of our new sick absence management policy. Instant access is great for this as well as the fact that the information is there for staff to see every time they log in.”

Christina Hallett, Group Circulation Manager for Faversham House, gives her perspective: “I love the system! As a manager it is a fantastic tool. It keeps a record of the whole team's holidays and makes it much easier to manage departmental cover. I find it much better to have financial information securely but readily available.

“Having been involved in training staff I can honestly say that most people have quickly got used to the new way of working and can see the benefits. In particular, as an environmental business, it does away with reams of paper, and that is important to us.”

The CPS & Octopus solution became fully operational after a very short period of time and is now fundamental to Faversham House's Payroll and HR. In conclusion, Amanda said: “Everyone at CPS & Octopus was superb during implementation and that high standard of service has been carried through into our everyday use. All in all I think this is an excellent system. I would certainly recommend CPS & Octopus.”