Saved over $17,500 in 2024 from not having to maintain a payroll server
Saved $4,500 in 2024 with tax upgrade packages provided by MYOB
Payroll processing 2–3 hours quicker per pay run with MYOB PayGlobal Online
Lyttelton Port Company is the largest port in the South Island of New Zealand. It operates 24/7, supplying the region with the goods and materials it needs to thrive.
“It’s a great place to work,” says Payroll Manager Dianne Sugrue. “It’s very community based. It’s got that small town feel that you get from Lyttelton but on a big business scale.”
“With the harbour, the wildlife and the history of the place, it’s just somewhere really special.”
- Dianne Sugrue, Payroll Manager
Dianne joined Lyttelton Port Company three years ago and manages the payroll team and function.
“It’s my job to make sure we’re complying with all of our collective agreements with our unions as well as our individual agreements, and make sure payroll is as efficient and accurate as it can be,” she says.
Server-based software causing stress
Lyttelton Port Company has used MYOB PayGlobal since 2003. With the software deployed on-premise, Lyttelton Port Company had to manage the server, security and software updates themselves.
When they needed support, the team had to give consultants access to their servers and software. This wasn’t a quick and easy process and meant getting help and resolving any issues wasn’t as simple as it could have been.
The server performance could be unreliable, too. Any outages caused the payroll team significant stress as they had 650 employees to pay according to their individual or collective employment agreements.
Prior to Dianne coming on board, the payroll team struggled on. “I think there was that apprehension around something new and making a change to payroll when it’s such a critical function,” Dianne explains.
Fortunately, though, Dianne also had decades of experience with MYOB PayGlobal and most recently with MYOB PayGlobal Online. Dianne knew that having the system hosted in the cloud makes life easier for everyone in payroll.
Payroll easier with MYOB PayGlobal Online
“Cloud-based, everything’s so much smoother.”
“It’s quicker, you get all your updates, and your consultants can access your software without you needing to get an IT resource involved,” Dianne says.
Dianne says it’s also more cost-effective. With automatic updates included in the subscription fee, there are savings from upgrade costs, support, services and from having to maintain a server.
There are also time savings for the payroll team. “MYOB PayGlobal Online saves them time doing the payroll, so they’re available for other things,” says Dianne.
“They can be there for employees or work on processes and procedures and develop efficiencies. All those things that are nice to do in payroll, but the pay has to come first.”
Dianne was also aware of the cloud’s value in strengthening payroll security, enabling system access from anywhere, and having a single point of contact for support.
“I knew that being cloud-based, we’d get faster support, and I’ve been utilising that support,” she says.
Integrated, online payroll solution
It was clear to Dianne that Lyttelton Port Company needed to modernise its payroll function, but there was no desire to change payroll software.
“For us to go to another payroll provider would’ve been a huge change, whereas this was just taking what we’re using and putting it online.”
Within MYOB PayGlobal Online, Lyttelton Port Company uses payroll, time and attendance (Daily View) and employee self-service (ESS) modules. They have also integrated third-party HR software Humanforce for rostering to meet their full payroll needs.
Having an integrated, online system has made payroll so much more efficient. The payroll team no longer needs to store records outside the system or manage paper timesheets or leave requests. This makes people processes more transparent and easier to manage.
“Now it’s much more user-friendly,” Dianne says. “We’ve got ESS working a lot more efficiently and can get rid of paper and see who has done what and why.”
No.1 benefit is time savings
Dianne says that the number one benefit from migrating from desktop to online has been time savings.
“Since we went to cloud-based, we close the pay two to three hours earlier than we did prior.”
“That’s due to the fact that the processing time is quicker, we’ve been able to streamline, get ESS working well and implement efficiencies there.”
However, she also cites other key benefits: Automatic updates, so the software is always up to date and compliant; better support as an MYOB consultant can easily access the software and resolve any issues; and stronger payroll security with two-factor authentication in place.
An easy transition to the cloud
Dianne says that the process of migrating to MYOB PayGlobal Online was straightforward. The key consideration for Lyttelton Port Company was helping their people with the change, as they had to do some things, such as logging on, a little differently.
“A lot of them didn’t see the extra security as a benefit, they saw it as a bit of a hassle,” Dianne says. “They’ve been able to get in so easily before and now we’re putting up these barriers.”
Dianne and the project team addressed this by explaining why additional security was required, and by having a trainer on hand to help the team when needed.
Working with MYOB
The team was also supported through the implementation process by their MYOB consultant, Tim Jackson.
“He had everything covered and he was able to speak to everybody – the digital team about what they needed to know and the people team about the change process,” Dianne says.
“He was just a one-stop shop, so that made it so much easier."
"He delivered on what he said when he said he would, so it couldn’t have gone better from that point of view."
"The fact that he had all the answers to everyone’s questions just made it all run so smoothly.”
With MYOB PayGlobal Online up and running for Lyttelton Port Company, Craig Ashby is now Dianne’s account manager.
“I think Craig and I have a great relationship. Craig has a sort of open-door policy, which I really appreciate because if I have a problem, I don’t want to wait for our next catch up. And this is the way he works as well, and I think this openness is a good way to be.”
Moving to the cloud a win
When asked what Dianne would say to other businesses considering moving from on-premise MYOB PayGlobal to MYOB PayGlobal Online, she doesn’t equivocate:
“100% go for it. You get better performance, better security. It’s just win-win.”
