By Freya Purnell
Recently established childcare and education provider Affinity Education Group has selected Presence of IT’s EC-Payroll platform to run payroll services for its 57 centres and 1500 staff.
Incorporated in May 2013, Affinity listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on 9 December 2013.
With centres located nationally, Affinity’s strategy is to provide high-quality, localised education programs and care solutions for children aged six weeks to 12 years, while implementing the centralised management support functions and disciplines or a corporate entity.
Affinity chief financial officer John Bairstow said the journey from incorporating the company to acquiring the centres and listing on the ASX was quick.
“We had to have a technology partner who could get on board quickly and support us, particularly with payroll solutions that could be implemented quickly and cost-effectively,” Bairstow said.
He said Presence of IT was able to deliver a cloud-based system that could consolidate the disparate, manually based systems from the 57 centres within a tight timeframe.
The implementation of EC-Payroll, which combines the best of SAP Payroll and SuccessFactors’ Employee Central with Presence of IT’s own tools and accelerators, was completed in under nine weeks.
Affinity sought a cloud-based solution not only because of the geographic spread of centres, but to align with its business strategy.
“We have a tightly defined, focused business strategy that doesn’t include being technology experts, or owning technology assets,” he said.
