We live in an era where most individuals, every day, use their smartphone to call, sms, WhatsApp, Facebook, you name it.
Industry experts believe that global mobile internet usage is projected to overtake desktop by 2014, meaning that globally, more individuals will access the internet from their smartphone as opposed to their desktops.
Philip Meyer, technology director at Sage Pastel Payroll & HR, says, “Seeing that more people in South Africa have Internet access from their smartphones and other mobile devices, we first developed an Android application because it is highly popular globally and was clearly the most logical deployment.”
According to a South African Network Society project done at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2012, over seven out of ten Internet users use their mobile phones to go online and more people have Internet capable phones than own computers.
Employees can do pretty much everything from their phones
Sage Pastel Payroll & HR developed a hosted, web-based tool enabling employees to manage and maintain their own information online called Self Service.
The app enables employees to make applications for leave, salary advances, loans, bursaries or other financial assistance, online, no matter where they are in the world as long as they have an internet connection.
Employees can view their previous months’ payslips, update personal information, submit their travel claims and more.
No more manual capturing of forms
For payroll administrators and business owners, there is no manual capturing of the employees’ request forms. Once approved on the smartpone, the desktop payroll software is updated automatically.
“The application is unique in that it is the first mobile payroll application developed by a South African company enabling employees to apply for leave, submit travel claims and update personal details anywhere at anytime.”
Other apps under development
Meyer says the app is available in a mobi site environment and apps for iPhone and Blackberry smartphones and Windows Mobile are now being developed.
“The mobile application eases the pressure on HR departments, allowing them more time to concentrate on important areas such as staff wellness, efficiency and training instead of wasting hours on capturing leave forms, dealing with HR data-related queries or distributing payslips. It also makes services more accessible to sales and services employees who are frequently out of the office visiting clients,” concludes Meyer.