The vision behind the nuQ HR/payroll software has always included being a modern, flexible payroll. Under the management agreement recently entered into between NuQ and Xpedia, Xpedia has expanded the development and management team and has now released a short- to medium-term product roadmap, indicating the start of an exciting year for nuQ, its existing user base, and any new customers.
In an industry like payroll, it is easy to let software development be guided exclusively by the latest statutory changes. However, this mindset can quickly lead to archaic systems that are inflexible and confining for users. Xpedia recognises the need for innovation beyond simply keeping up to date with legislative changes to ensure nuQ and its customers benefit from latest improvements in technology.
The nuQ development roadmap up to the end of 2014 is therefore based on the goals of innovating for ease of use and expansion of functionality, while maintaining 100% statutory compliance in payroll. With this in mind, key focus areas during 2014 for the nuQ development team will be:
1) Ease of use: Customer feedback has allowed Xpedia to identify specific key areas where incremental ease-of-use improvements will bring significant value to customers. These improvements are all about making the user interface easier to understand and navigate, and, ultimately, making it quicker for users to capture transactions, calculate the payroll and generate reports. Planned improvements in this area include user interface refinements over a wide range of nuQ's existing functionality.
2) Complete HR functionality: NuQ has entered into a strategic partnership with a prominent human capital software vendor to provide a complete integrated solution that spans the full spectrum of HR functionality, inclusive of recruitment, training, succession planning, personal development, performance management, leave, payroll and industrial relations. Development work to fully integrate the two products, as well as the first customer implementation, is already well under way. The current basic HR functionality in nuQ will remain available, but clients looking for a more comprehensive human capital management solution will have the option to upgrade to the integrated product.
3) Reporting standardisation and technology upgrade: NuQ will provide new functionality to support Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services and will gradually transform existing reports to the new format. This change will not materially affect the bulk of existing reports in nuQ, but will provide better agility and flexibility in servicing new report requests from customers, and allow more user-friendly report formatting, especially when exporting reports to Excel. As part of the process of converting reports to the new standard, the nuQ development team will also review report design from a more holistic point of view to ensure better standardisation across reports.
4) Legislative updates: The nuQ development team is already busy finalising development to cater for the new Employment Tax Incentive Bill that will affect South African employers from 1 January 2014. Employers stand to benefit greatly from the introduction of this Bill, provided that the administration behind it is done properly, and nuQ customers will benefit from having the administration largely automated by the system. Regular annual tax table updates and other statutory updates in all 19 countries currently supported by nuQ will continue to feature prominently in the development schedule to ensure compliance with legal requirements.
Aside from the nuQ functionality improvements as detailed above, the development team is also committed to continuous improvement of its internal processes. This includes more complete rollout of software engineering practices like automated unit tests as well as process improvements aligning development efforts with modern Agile methodologies. While these are internal process changes that will happen in the background, customers can expect to benefit through improved turnaround times in incremental software releases, improved quality control processes, and more direct incorporation of customer feedback into development priorities.
The customer-centric approach in nuQ's roadmap will help clients to manage their HR and payroll processes more efficiently than ever before.
For further information, please contact us on info@xpedia.co.za or on (+27) 12 667 2970 or visit our Web site on www.xpedia.co.za.
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