Earning an honest day’s wages in the digital age
Today, the world is engaged in a digital race, and advancements in technology are becoming an ever-more pertinent issue as days go by.
Software Central Services (SCS) is an information and communication technology (ICT) company that offers vital services in this digital age. Its “SmartPay” computer software not only saves time within companies, but also eases the workload on employees.
According to SCS Managing and Technical Director Peter Kiragu, “SmartPay” outsourcing services ensures that employers need not hire too many people to work on things that can be done more conveniently elsewhere and for less cost. The product, which entails all the components of a traditional payroll department, is installed in SCS company’s systems. SCS then processes all the information about their employees for the company, updates the data and sends it back to the employer to assist them in paying their workers.
Besides this convenience, “SmartPay” includes many other useful features, such as tracking expenses, deductions, incomes and taxes, among other things.
Kiragu says the package is saving time, energy and labour in the companies that have installed it. “Many multinational companies have come to realize that our product is working wonders and they have opted to go our way. This is because outsourcing is increasingly being used as an alternative way of coping with large scopes of work in various companies. So the payroll software is really easing the work for many.”
He lists Bamburi Cement Ltd, Karen Hospital, Lloyd Masika, Archives Solutions, Stantech Motors, Kenya Dairy Board and Hima Cement Ltd in Uganda, as a few of the top-level companies currently using the software.
According to Sam Ayumba, director of finance and administration for SCS, “SmartPay” outsourcing services saves up to 30 percent of what it would cost a company to employ in-house personnel to do the same work.
“Many companies who prefer to do such work on their own end up incurring massive costs, which they would have escaped from if they chose otherwise,” he says. “First, they have to purchase hardware, which include computers, printers and servers in order to install such services in their network of duties, then they have to employ a lot of trained personnel to execute the workload. We otherwise provide an easy way out to cut all these costs.” Anyumba further argues that the package is the only one of its kind developed locally capable of processing and transefering payments electronically to employee bank accounts”.
To small-scale companies in real need of technological assistance, this software ensures that they do their work more professionally at far less cost, since few can afford the alternative of costly imported software/programs.
SCS charges a base rate of Kshs 200 to process a single employee pay slip, but this varies depending on the number of employees in a company.
“Whenever a company requests our services, we are always there to offer training to their workers on how to go about with the software and this parts with a less charge,” explains Kiragu. “We ensure that we create more jobs to those leaving institutions of higher learning by offering them a chance to train with us and improve their skills further.”
He adds that Excel, the software most companies use for their daily, monthly or yearly accounting, is prone to errors that can be avoided with the “Smart Pay” software. “If the installed program is well updated, it keeps track of all the employees, accounting their off days, leaves and pensions, and with this the employer is kept in touch with his employees.”
As the transition from analogue to digital rapidly progresses, it is inevitable that all stakeholders in the ICT industry, including program developers and those in telecommunications, will have to update their software in order to reduce workloads.
“The governing body, ICT Board, which started its operations recently, should ensure that the Government’s approach and management in matters of ICT are well handled if we long to be fully digitalized by 2015,” Ayumba says.
SCS appeals to all companies, whether large or small, to join them in keeping themselves up to date with the advancing technologies of the times.
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