Who are The Law Society of Scotland?
The Law Society of Scotland (LSS) is a membership organisation and was established by the Legal Aid & Solicitors (Scotland) Act 1949. The Society exists to promote the interests of solicitors in Scotland as well as the interests of the public in relation to the profession.

The Society’s aims to be recognised as an effective and relevant professional body which protects the public interest whilst also leading a successful and respected profession.

The Society currently employs 125 members of staff.

Summary Pre Cascade
Prior to implementing the Cascade system all personnel data was maintained by the Society’s HR department with payroll being administered separately by the Finance section. There was no formalised HRIS in operation with the result a significant amount of time was spent on routine administration. During informal discussions the possibility of implementing an HRIS was discussed in order to allow more time to be dedicated to strategic activities. Furthermore the outsourcing of the Society’s payroll meant that payroll processes were cumbersome and insufficient for normal management reporting.

The absence of an HR system had resulted in the payroll system being utilised to store basic employee data. The inability to customise this system meant that a significant amount of data (such as contract expiry dates) was not being recorded. A combination of this and the inability for employees to view/update their personal data without contacting HR had lead to an increase in the amount of administrative work. An integrated HR/payroll system was considered a valuable tool to overcome this problem and to provide more
sophisticated management reporting.

The Challenge
Following on from the discussion outlined above it was agreed that the Society would consider the implementation of an integrated HR/payroll system. A project team was formed consisting of members of the HR, Finance & IT departments. The project team attended the CIPD technology exhibition to meet with suppliers in the market and to gain an insight into the functionality availability as well as the anticipated costs. As a result of this visit a discussion on the required functionality took place and from this the business case was presented to the management board. The budget was subsequently approved and the Society engaged suppliers in a tendering process.

As part of the tendering process suppliers were required to complete an invitation to tender document and from this a shortlist was drawn up. Two suppliers, one of which was Cascade, were invited to demonstrate their software. Reference site visits also took place as part of the shortlisting process. Following on from the onsite demonstration and reference site visits Cascade were identified as our preferred supplier.

The major driving force behind the introduction of an integrated payroll/HR system was to provide a single data entry system between HR & Finance therefore allowing the sharing and accessing of relevant information. It was also considered beneficial to allow automation of routine HR processes whilst providing a more integrated management information system. Prior to implementing Cascade the HR department did not have an HRIS and payroll had access to a very limited system.

In terms of required functionality it was important that the new system was able to integrate with the Society’s existing time and attendance system. The supplier of this system is a company called Mitrefinch. In order to support this integration it was necessary for Cascade to be able to import/export information from Mitrefinch on an ongoing basis.

The Decision
The functionality of Cascade was its key selling feature. The ability to integrate the core system with the other modules (e.g. T&D, R&S) was seen as extremely beneficial in supporting the ongoing work of the HR department. The ability to implement these modules as and when required was valuable. Additionally the workflow module was particularly comprehensive and the ability to customise this (together with other parts of the system) supported our own processes.

The usability of the system was another selling point. The system was easy to operate and was similar in terms of operation to our existing time & attendance system. The Self Service module was also valuable since the HR department wanted to shift some of the responsibility for people management back to line managers.

The reference site visits provided a useful insight into the capabilities of the system and provided the opportunity to speak to other users first hand. From these visits we were able to discuss the level of support received from Cascade & the feedback in relation to this was positive.

Finally the reporting functionality was rated highly. The query builder tool would allow HR to produce customisable reports with ease and in a timely manner.

The Project
The Cascade system was implemented in a timely manner with the integration of each module being carefully planned. The pre-installation documentation allowed the HR / Finance department to do the necessary preparation prior to the onsite training. The documentation was easy to understand and as a result of this
preparation the onsite training was more effective.

We had a few Training Consultants throughout our implementation which did mean we had to explain individually to each Consultant how we intended on operating the system. Despite this the training we
received was customised to fit with our own HR processes and was extremely effective. The training was comprehensive and was broken down well to cover each module in manageable sections. The hands on approach encouraged us to develop confidence in our ability to navigate around the system. Any problems that were experienced were generally fixed before the end of the training and or anything that was outstanding we were kept up to date with the progress of these.

Cascade provided us with the necessary support during our implementation. We had regular contact with Cascade throughout the project and have found the helpdesk very efficient when dealing with our calls. We were provided with a training minutes following each stage of the implementation and this was useful in documenting everything that was covered.

Summary
Since implementing the system employees have been given more access to personnel data and are now responsible for keeping this up to date. The volume of administration work has been reduced as a result of this combined with using the automation of the workflow module. Our payroll processes have been streamlined and the monthly processing is significantly less time consuming.

Overall the system has met with our expectations and we are currently phasing in the implementation of enhanced functionality. The feedback we have received from employees and the management team is positive and the systems capabilities have been utilised to improve service delivery across the organisation.

For more information about Cascade’s HR & Payroll Software, please visit www.cascadehr.co.uk

Written by PayPerShop.com - or reproduced on behalf of the company supplying the above information.

Filed under: Case Studies on March 4th, 2009

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