JSE Securities Exchange-listed Illovo Sugar, Africa`s largest sugar producer, is in the final throes of implementing one of the most challenging payroll upgrades in the country. In conjunction with Q Data DynamiQue, the e-HR specialist in the PQ Africa group, it is upgrading to UniQue Version 3, from Q-Pac PC, at nine sites across South Africa. The total cost of the software and installation is estimated at over R2 million.
The Illovo Group overall produces 4,6 million tons of cane and nearly 2 million tons of raw and refined sugar and a wide range of downstream products. It employs more than 4 000 permanent and 5 500 seasonal workers in South Africa, and 15 000 permanents and 14 500 seasonal workers in the rest of Africa. Seasonal workers are employed in rural areas for up to nine months of the year, depending on the length of the season, and are typically paid weekly or fortnightly, while permanent workers are generally paid monthly.
Illovo`s KwaZulu-Natal sugar mills run as individual business units and are geographically widespread, from Pongola in the north to Umzimkulu, the world`s most southerly cane sugar mill.
Because of the sheer number of workers, and the pressure to pay them accurately and on time, Illovo needed a high-performance payroll system to replace Q-Pac. After an extensive market survey, in which it considered a number of company`s payroll modules, Illovo settled for UniQue.
"We had had experience of UniQue, having implemented it in Swaziland and Malawi, and we knew it could process high volumes of transactions efficiently and quickly," says Desmond Kurz, Illovo group IT systems development manager. "This is largely because it runs against the ISAM flatfile database, while other payrolls are based on relational databases.
In addition, it`s a South African solution, tried and tested in South African conditions, which was important for us given our geographical realities. It`s also tailored for South African tax structures, which are among the most complex in the world."
Illovo has a pragmatic approach to IT, viewing it as important in supporting the strategic direction of the company. The payroll fits in with this philosophy, but its importance needs to be viewed in the context of the fact that Illovo is obligated to pay large numbers of people correctly, and on time.
"The conversion has gone smoothly to date," says Kurz.
Data was ported from Q-Pac PC to UniQue and the first payroll on UniQue run in parallel with Q-Pac PC. The team of payroll consultants performed the installations around South Africa, averaging two sites per month.
Seven of the nine South Africa sites have gone live, with only Merebank and head office still running on Q-Pac PC. Illovo has made a strategic decision to standardise on Web browsers as its primary corporate interface; accordingly, it is keenly anticipating the soon-to-be released SQL version of UniQue, DynamiQue 1.0, adds Kurz.
"It will create synergy with our other major applications which are driving in a similar direction, and make life easier for our users. In addition, we intend to provide enhanced management information on our corporate intranet, and UniQue`s value-added information will be used to assist quality decisions on HR costs."
Kurz says support from Q Data DynamiQue Durban and Illovo`s outsource partner, InfoWave, has been exceptional.
"Although Illovo had been a client of ours for 18 years, it was by no means a foregone conclusion that they would choose UniQue when deciding to migrate off Q-Pac," says Sheila Corfe, account executive at Q Data DynamiQue in Durban. "In the event UniQue has proven to be the best choice from their point of view, with the lowest risk and no disruption to users and workers."
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