Accsys at the forefront of global growth in HR and payroll

The level of innovation around payroll administration and HR environment is growing at a phenomenal rate and South African companies have a real opportunity to enhance competency in this mission-critical business discipline. So claims Teryl Schroenn, CEO at Accsys, a national provider of HR and payroll management solutions.

Schroenn and the CIO of Accsys, Liam Terblanche, attended the 10th Annual Sybase User Training and Solutions Conference held recently in Las Vegas.

The company used exposure to the latest in technology offerings by Sybase, a global provider of enterprise software and services, to bolster its position at the forefront of solution development, design, support and service in South Africa.

Accsys has been supporting Sybase SQL Anywhere 8 for the last four years. Microsoft upgrades necessitate constant realignment for developers and we are extremely excited about the timing of the version 11 release,”
says Terblanche.

According to Terblanche if all goes according to plan, PeopleWare 7.0, scheduled for release early 2009, will be supporting Sybase SQL Anywhere 11.

“Techwave represented a unique opportunity to network with IT professionals from around the world and discuss the latest developments in training and related technology at various levels,” adds Schroenn. “We have a vested interest in ensuring that we capitalize off this knowledge and transfer understanding of best practices globally within our own organization.”

The five day conference covered a variety of issues that focus on the strategic application of technology in business. Subjects discussed included application development; business intelligence; enterprise modeling; education and training; and data management.

Terblanche also attended a series of workshops, information sessions, keynote speeches and technical breakaway sessions with industry experts.

Among a number of exciting aspects and features identified by Terblanche for application by Accsys in the local market include high availability; handheld devices and replication.

With SQL Anywhere 11 a client can now have a dual-server setup where users would be working on a ‘live’ database with all the changes being replicated in real-time to a ‘backup’ system.

If, for any reason, the connection to the ‘live’ server goes down, all users will automatically be redirected to the ‘backup’ server and continue work as normal.

“This adds a tremendous amount of reassurance in a wages department where deadlines are tight and server downtimes can be ill-afforded,” Terblanche continues.

Support for RIM Blackberry and embedded Linux will open opportunities for replication to handheld devices to deliver information (pay summaries, HR statistics) to clients on their cell phones in a much more elegant fashion.

“Advances in the replication capabilities will enable Accsys to build a new software updating system that will enable us to keep our clients on the latest version of the software without the clients having to download updates or run software installations. This, in itself, will simplify our distribution process and ensure that all the clients are always on the latest version,” says Terblanche.

“In addition to the benefit of networking with IT professionals from around the world and generating what could be very worthwhile business leads, attending the event meant being at the right place at the right time as far as emerging solutions and application is concerned,” Terblanche added.

Schroenn believes the partnership with Sybase South Africa definitely adds value to its target market, for both established and emerging businesses.

“Our focus is on supplying management software and solutions to a market that incorporates start up operations as well as those that are in the process of enhancing systems and procedures to better capitalize off growth,” says Schroenn.