RE: HR/Payroll Systems -- MIDRANGE-L

Ron,

The push for Windows is simple - more professional services dollars.

Michael Crump

Manager, Computing Services
Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc.
1509 S. Macedonia Ave.
Muncie, IN 47302
765.741.7696
765.741.7012 f

Change
When the winds of change blow hard enough, the most trivial of things
can turn into deadly projectiles.
This email and its attachments may be confidential and are intended
solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any views
or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily represent those of Saint-Gobain. If it did, it would be
folded, mutilated, watered down, politically corrected, and would show
up a week later if at all. If you are not the intended recipient of
this email and its attachments, you must take no action based upon them,
nor must you copy or show them to anyone.
Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email in
error.

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Ron-Zimmerman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2008 9:46 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: HR/Payroll Systems

I can tell you that the Kronos sales people do not like the System i.
We
are evaluating our HR/PY systems right now and Kronos is pushing their
windoze product very hard.

I'm working to keep us on our System i solution that has worked well for

us for the last 8 years, but as others have said, the HR folks think
they
need the GUI interface instead of that darned old green screen.

Thank you,
Ronald L. Zimmerman
I.T. Applications Manager
Swiss Valley Farms Cooperative
http://www.swissvalley.com
"Farmer Owned with Pride"
Email: Ron-Zimmerman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 01/02/2008 11:18:05 AM:

Kronos started out on other platforms and came later to the i. They

love

it. Then again, they did it right and went native and none of this

silly

PASE garbage.

Rob Berendt
--
Group Dekko Services, LLC
Dept 01.073
PO Box 2000
Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com

"Crump, Mike" <Mike.Crump@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
01/02/2008 11:19 AM
Please respond to
Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

To
"Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
cc

Subject
RE: HR/Payroll Systems

We do use Kronos timekeeping on our iSeries. Works very well. We are

version back because the programmer that supports it was drug into

some

sort of payroll migration project........ :-)

Michael Crump

Manager, Computing Services
Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc.
1509 S. Macedonia Ave.
Muncie, IN 47302
765.741.7696
765.741.7012 f

There is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.
This email and its attachments may be confidential and are intended
solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any

views

or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily represent those of Saint-Gobain. If it did, it would be
folded, mutilated, watered down, politically corrected, and would show
up a week later if at all. If you are not the intended recipient of
this email and its attachments, you must take no action based upon

them,

nor must you copy or show them to anyone.
Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email

error.

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Al Mac Wheel
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 10:31 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: HR/Payroll Systems

We used to be on MAPICS which had a Payroll module but no HR.
When we traveled to Chicago as part of the conversion to BPCS, I

brought

with me a list of our mods, stating as briefly as possible the

business

justification for each mod, sorted by application area. I asked SSA

indicate which of these mods were already solved in BPCS, and which we

would have to modify BPCS to get the same functionality.

There were over 200 mods in the Payroll / HR area, which I had done

over

period of maybe five years.

I was told that not only would we have to modify BPCS for ALL the
enhancements we had made to MAPCS Payroll, BPCS Payroll not as good as

MAPICS, we would also have to do some mods to bring BPCS Payroll up to

MAPICS basic payroll features.

My boss was standing right there when I got this news. I asked him if
he
heard what was just said. Yes he did.

Later, speaking with him and the folks in charge of HR & Payroll, I

told

them that these ERP packages, like MAPICS BPCS are designed and

managed

primarily to do a great job with manufacturing, and the immediate
related
applications like supply chain. In ERP, Accounting is a second

banana,

second priority; Payroll is third; and HR fourth.

I suggest we shop around for a stand alone package, where Payroll is
first
banana, the reason for the vendor existance, and if neccessary pass

some

work file if either ERP or HR/Payroll need to share some info by
employee
#. Also you can do this on PCs not connected to everything else, if

you

want tighter security.

We ended up on ABRA which is a PC based package, has Payroll
application,
and HR application, they talk to each other, and have a lot of other
features they do not talk to. Their tech support is not very good.
They
say things can be done, but we never get those things done, or we do

the

things they tell us to do, and it breaks something else.
Some things we want to do, it takes maybe 6+ months for them to figure
out
how to get us there. However we have been on ABRA now for several
years,
and the Payroll HR people cope.

They only have to spend four days a week on this stuff, can spend rest
of
week on other duties. That is two persons one day each on Payroll,

and

one
person two days on HR. Increase in time over time is due to more
government regulations, not the system. Years ago when we were a

union

shop, HR needed four times the personnel that we need today, to manage
same
size work force, because at that time HR was drowning in complaints

and

arbitrations. The work force is under 100 people.

We have another system that captures time clock data and feeds it into
ABRA.
Before we got that system, it was almost another day of clerical work

figure and input how many hours various people worked on what days,
because
of overtime rules if someone works 10 hours one day, but only 40 for
whole
week.
Whatever packages you get, it is extremely important that they can

talk

to
each other.
It helps to have two time clocks, so you can capture the data, without

big hassle, when one is broke down.
Watch out for change in Daylight Savings time also affects this
hardware.
-
Al Mac

--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing
list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.

--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing

list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.

--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing

list

To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.