For a business to last more than four decades in construction and engineering project delivery, it has to be doing something right. For Perth-based Decmil, which launched in 1978 and publicly listed in 2005, that has been about sticking to its roots.
Day to day, they’ve built a reputation for exceptional delivery of projects in construction, infrastructure, energy and resources, but it’s their commitment to supporting social, ethical and environmental initiatives that sets them apart.
Giving back to the community
The Australian-owned, multi-disciplinary company has a long history of contributing their expertise and resources to improve the communities where their projects are based. Their charitable giving also sees them supporting events to raise funds and awareness. The overarching goal is to help create healthy, vibrant and cohesive communities.
Unstructured data, unsupported software
Decmil was drowning in paper
In most ways, Decmil is a model of modern business but their payroll system wasn’t. That meant paper – and lots of it. Timesheets, leave applications and approvals were all filled out manually. The payroll team would then move data in and out of their existing payroll system, which was simply ‘bolt-on’ functionality within job-costing software, says Alison Thompson, Group Financial Controller and Company Secretary.
“We didn’t have support for it and it wasn’t being kept up to date.” she explains.
Increased manual work, more risk of error
That meant more manual checks and workarounds, with even more risk of error. The manual approach meant the payroll team spent a lot of time answering the same questions, updating details and chasing information. All that inefficiency, plus the risk of hefty fines for getting awards or pay conditions wrong, told Alison that it was time for an upgrade.
"With all the media around underpayments, we didn’t want to risk it," she said.
MYOB PayGlobal: A real-time payroll solution
Seamless integration, expert advice
Decmil thought it had chosen the right software, and Alison had her finger hovering over the ‘go’ button when the IT department sounded the alarm – the way the proposed software would integrate with other systems wouldn’t be able to deliver the real-time updates Decmil needed.
“We were all ready to go and we realised the information wouldn’t be real-time. It was going to be an overnight transfer which wasn’t acceptable to us.” explains Alison.
That was when a name kept coming up: MYOB PayGlobal.
“Fantastic” usability, flexibility and support team
Decmil was impressed with MYOB PayGlobal’s flexibility which made integrations with Decmil’s other systems seamless.
“It looked fantastic in terms of its usability, we pretty much got the pricing we were after and the IT team signed it off in terms of integrations,” said Alison.
But it was WA’s local MYOB PayGlobal support team that sealed the deal:
“The support team came in and showed us how the system worked and post the introductory session, we were excited that the solution manager really knew what he’s talking about. We want to work with someone like that, who knows their stuff but isn’t just sell, sell, sell.’ That was the reason we signed up.”
In August 2020, Decmil went live on MYOB PayGlobal’s Payroll, Time & Attendance and Self-Service modules, with some HR capabilities built-in to streamline things like employee changes and terminations.
Fourteen-week implementation a “resounding success”
Deploying new software is never a simple process, but with COVID lockdowns hitting the country about the same time, things were even trickier.
Even without face-to-face contact, the MYOB PayGobal and Decmil teams managed to implement the full system within fourteen weeks – with the whole project finishing two weeks ahead of schedule, despite a short delay to the start date.
Now the system is up and running. Alison says the self-service portal and overall efficiency have been a game-changer for Decmil.
“Now we’re on PayGlobal people can log in, change their details and submit their timesheets and managers see when leave is coming up, which saves payroll a lot of time. We’ve streamlined all of those processes that were previously quite manual and paper-based.”
“It’s just a better user experience, more efficient, more streamlined, less manual, less paper,” she said. “We’ve got a lot more understanding about the data in the system, how it’s processed and what is being accrued. We’ve got a lot more comfort that everything is covered.”
With all the practical considerations ticked off, and an efficient implementation, it’s an understatement to say that Alison is happy with the system.
"I really want to commend the MYOB PayGlobal team. They know the software inside out and helped everyone to stay calm so we could get the implementation done."
Improvements with MYOB PayGlobal
Flexible integrations with existing systems
Fantastic support team
Streamlined payroll, faster and more accurate
Implemented in fourteen weeks – two weeks ahead of schedule
