HR & Payroll Tech Marketplace News & Updates (Spring 2024, March)

[00:00:00] Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of HR amp, Payroll 2.0. I'm Pete Tilly-Akkus and as always I'm joined by the legendary Julie Fernandez. How you doing Julie? Doing great today Pete. I'm excited to play catch up. Let's play catch up today. Yeah yeah there was so much news I thought it would be a good idea that we do some some news episode right and just talk about all this there's just a lot going on.

[00:00:30] But there's many I'd love to get your opinions about and just yeah see what's going on. So thought we should do that yeah so we've been up yeah what do you put up too lately? Well I know we're gonna talk about it a little bit here but last last week I was out at Santiago with ADP. Yeah so the meeting of the minds and their global partner summit so I know we'll be talking about them a little bit today and just tons and tons of there's so much client activity going out there yeah going around out there

[00:01:00] I'll talk about it at the end but been doing a couple of these micro surveys with some results from the first one and I want to tell folks about a second one out there that's that we're we published and we're capturing some insights on AI in HR

[00:01:13] And I know you have your survey we want to talk about as well so yeah yeah very cool how did you get did you get to hang around San Diego at all? No no I was in and out. You think you'd be better about to do that but but we were staying right at the right at the Marina there. Yeah it is

[00:01:28] Just beautiful. Yeah I've done cornerstone conversions there several times up there at the Marriott Marquis and I love San Diego. Yes I always stay a week in yeah it's a lot of fun great great food just just good time man I love San Diego.

[00:01:41] Super close to the airport too. I didn't realize how convenient it was so yeah it was it was awesome I was in and out very quickly but it was convenient it was beautiful

[00:01:50] Yeah very cool yeah I miss meeting in the minds they didn't have analysts at that this year we did read thing instead as people probably saw my write up

[00:01:57] That's swirling around out there so yeah very cool well look let's let's get into the news we got a lot of news here and then we've got some stuff like you said that

[00:02:05] We want to kind of cover off and make sure people wear up so yeah let's do it I've been where do you want to start? Well look it's been what we we're

[00:02:11] How many days now into 2024 what probably 70 some days or so and we've already seen a lot of acquisitions right one of the big ones this week or in

[00:02:22] The last few weeks I should say late February there was workday picking up higher score

[00:02:28] Really cool stuff right like that they're really amplifying and boosting very very much accelerating their AI capabilities around recruiting

[00:02:36] I would say that and look I there are much better

[00:02:40] Points of view on this from my peers out in the marketplace. I know Kyle with goodness had a great write-up

[00:02:44] I'm sure Madeline Marano has a point of view

[00:02:46] And I've seen a number of different

[00:02:49] conflicting points of view about how impactful this is or isn't to the market so I will leave

[00:02:53] The deep dive into the recruiting world to them

[00:02:55] But my point of view from studying workday and working with workday recruiting has been a gap right? It's been a bit of a

[00:03:02] It's been a bit of a less than feature that worked. They had

[00:03:05] Or app, I should say module that probably wasn't getting the adoption that it should have and some of that was the maturity of its capabilities

[00:03:12] And they've brought it a long way

[00:03:14] It's come a long way and I think this is just another big accelerator

[00:03:18] That is going to amplify all of their use cases around

[00:03:21] You know finding and retaining and so hopefully attracting the best talent. So

[00:03:26] Very cool stuff. Yeah, so I have a question though Pete

[00:03:28] So in the recruiting space there's the kind of core recruiting applicant tracking type stuff

[00:03:34] Acquisitions and that sort of thing that's basic and then there's candidate management and and some of just sourcing of candidates

[00:03:41] Any thoughts on you know like the fit here or

[00:03:45] Or you know for folks that are familiar with workday modules

[00:03:48] But maybe not so familiar with higher score like where or how that's really going to impact

[00:03:53] Yeah, that's a great question. I mean that's probably a long long answer

[00:03:56] I'd say yeah

[00:03:57] No, it does it absolutely brings over a lot of that capability to find candidates and match them to skills right

[00:04:02] We know it worked. It's done a lot of work on their skills cloud

[00:04:06] So yeah, I think this is going to absolutely boost that candidate matching

[00:04:09] An identification right and certainly helping really helping the front line manager the hiring manager

[00:04:16] And the recruiter be more effective as well right as a big part around efficiency and you know guided experiences

[00:04:22] And recommendations through insights that I think is going to be big part of that experience

[00:04:26] So I'm excited to see what they do with this

[00:04:29] And I'll be at the innovation summit in April

[00:04:32] And hopefully we'll get a little bit more more insight as to what what this exactly means

[00:04:36] And yeah, I think it's cool. I mean, I think it's it's too really a really a really nice niche solution has gotten together with a very powerful

[00:04:43] Tech provider that is gonna you know just give it a place to flourish

[00:04:46] So I'm excited about it and this is just the intent to acquire note notification right

[00:04:51] So there's probably still a little bit of working out the

[00:04:55] Mechanics right? Yeah, I don't think it's yeah

[00:04:58] I don't think it's closing until like April or May or something yeah April 30 if that thing is what they said

[00:05:02] But uh, yeah and just to clarify I think higher score positions themselves as a talent orchestration technology right there AI and automation

[00:05:10] Enable you know, big companies to do much better recruiting much better outcomes more productivity

[00:05:18] And just effectiveness in in in how they're hiring so yeah very exciting and interesting Julie

[00:05:23] Hired score is live in 150 countries and supports 70 languages so

[00:05:28] Very very ready for the localizations. Yeah, that is a very cool stat and it's very cool in the recruiting space where there's you know

[00:05:35] There's still so much

[00:05:36] You know like like global payroll. There's still so much localization. Yeah, it's happened in that space that it's very difficult for

[00:05:43] All sorts of firms to break out into truly, you know multi-country multi-region multi-compliant

[00:05:50] Yeah, yeah

[00:05:52] Well and look I mean again, I'm not the foremost expert on recruiting

[00:05:55] I think you should certainly if you want deeper details on this you should look to my peers

[00:06:00] But from what I you know my experience with the recruiting space and my experience with recruiting

[00:06:05] Technologies and looking at this is it's it is a bit like global payroll right there's a lot

[00:06:10] There's a lot out there and there's a lot of micro solution. There's a lot of ATSs

[00:06:14] There's um and it's and it's confusing I think right just like a lot of this stuff

[00:06:19] And so maybe this gives a little bit of clarity to the market in some ways

[00:06:22] I know Kyle Lagoon has had a very strong opinion that this was highly highly impactful

[00:06:27] Where some others thought uh, maybe it's not that impactful

[00:06:29] But I do think it it probably brings a massive injection of of

[00:06:34] Value to the workday platform and if nothing else right they're they're gonna nurture that and take it forward

[00:06:39] So yeah, not sure how much clarity it gives us in the market

[00:06:42] Well as with everything it's all about the execution. So there's there's magic to be had the question is

[00:06:48] You know can folks really figure out how to make the magic together? Yeah

[00:06:51] Well look workday's kind of gotten away from its power of one right

[00:06:55] It's not one anymore

[00:06:56] It's bought not a number of things over the years and so I think it's now a power the power of the ecosystem

[00:07:01] Ecosystem and the power of the apps the workday apps

[00:07:04] And I think that workday has done a great job of taking what they do by very very smart stuff

[00:07:10] Uh, and bringing it in and and and integrating it properly and making it putting it to work right away right seamlessly

[00:07:16] So I had no doubt they'll do great with this as well

[00:07:19] Awesome that's cool news. Yeah, what else do you have on your on your bag of tricks?

[00:07:23] Well coming back to ADP a little bit

[00:07:25] Let's talk about we were talking about the marketplace before we got started right

[00:07:29] It's still it's still largely the largest marketplace out there in HR

[00:07:33] 800 partner solutions

[00:07:34] I think you're a partner solution in their world

[00:07:37] Yes huge right and and that's fantastic for extensibility and filling white spaces and

[00:07:42] Finding the apps and things that you need to fuel your business

[00:07:45] And so well what they've done now is introduced a

[00:07:48] AI enabled or really machine-enabled

[00:07:51] Machine learning capability to help companies surface the best fit applications to meet their meet their needs

[00:07:57] So if you're out there searching for say earned by jaxs or whatever it is you you need

[00:08:02] It's going to help you find that much faster

[00:08:04] But one of the great things too is is that any partner offering an AI solution inside of that marketplace has to

[00:08:12] Meet ADPs requirements on ethical AI usage right so they have to be able to have that human oversight the monitoring

[00:08:19] And make sure that it is meeting their principal you know standards for for ethical AI

[00:08:23] So so look just another another drip if you will of artificial intelligence coming into the to the world of of HR

[00:08:31] This time in the marketplace space to help companies find the right thing for them. That's going to complement their ADP investments

[00:08:36] So

[00:08:37] I think it's type of thing you're going to see more of yeah, and I'm just going to clarify so I don't

[00:08:42] We're I have a lot of relationship with ADP but nothing no app or any product in their marketplace per say

[00:08:49] I would say

[00:08:50] You know there's the there's the funster in me that that looks at this AI enabled experience in the marketplace of 800 plus

[00:08:58] You know possibly really cool solutions and wants to go out there and start querying like

[00:09:03] You know how to find the AI ones yeah

[00:09:06] and

[00:09:08] You know, and so I don't know. Maybe I'll play around with that this weekend and see what happens

[00:09:13] Yeah, I might still get a pool of 800 giving how how AI is

[00:09:18] Yeah, no totally that folks are promoting in their space

[00:09:22] Yeah, I mean, it's good right curiosity

[00:09:24] I was playing with the co-pilot from Microsoft this morning just messing around with some images for some blogs

[00:09:29] I'm writing and it's it's fun and I I end up spending an hour doing it right you're just kind of plundering around and

[00:09:35] I think that's that's part of being human right exploring this stuff and figuring out where it fits in your world

[00:09:39] um, yeah

[00:09:40] You know while we're talking about ADP while meeting in the mines was

[00:09:44] Was a little bit different format and different participants. They did it

[00:09:48] Have at the same place and the same time basically their global partner summit, which is where they have

[00:09:55] And partnering organizations their systems integration partners, you know like all sorts of partners not marketplace tools but partners

[00:10:04] I thought you might be interested because I know that one you didn't make

[00:10:07] Just to run down some of the major topics that they shared

[00:10:11] This is where they share a lot of the roadmap information for folks who aren't rethink where you were

[00:10:16] and

[00:10:17] Maybe just share a little bit about that game. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah

[00:10:22] Yeah, so as usual, you know

[00:10:25] They often start with a welcome and just a global product update

[00:10:30] Tony James is the one that that shared that global product update and their network is as strong and and thriving as ever

[00:10:37] And there's always the credentials that come out of the different

[00:10:41] peaks and squares and you know different sorts of analysts sorts of things

[00:10:45] And their major theme I thought was interesting but also, you know, maybe back to basics

[00:10:51] Was really about bringing forward the global with the local

[00:10:56] practitioner experience

[00:10:57] So a lot of what Tony was really focusing on was you know integrated experience updated experience and that that kind of I just wanted to check with you

[00:11:06] I think that kind of hangs with what you were highlighting from rethink is that yeah

[00:11:10] Yeah, yeah, absolutely. They've unveiled their I would say refreshed experience user experience at UI for for payroll

[00:11:17] A very centralized command center much like what we're seeing most organizations build

[00:11:22] You can find all of my my bits on rethink I wrote a bit about

[00:11:26] They're just the value the different value of rethink I think as an order as a as an event

[00:11:32] But yeah, but going back to that. I did detail some of that some of that

[00:11:36] That product and the eight ADPI assist ADPSist AI

[00:11:41] um

[00:11:42] Solution so yeah, I think that what they're really doing is trying to get bring some clarity around

[00:11:48] The fact that right Solergo and streamline

[00:11:51] I think it was a little confusing they they sharpened that and kind of pointed one for up market global view up market

[00:11:58] And then of course salargo down market. I would say thousand thousand below

[00:12:03] Populations if you will

[00:12:05] But I think that that tech is going to clarify all of that help help create that that single layer that single view

[00:12:11] And really fundamentally power

[00:12:14] Their way forward which you know again their hcm has a lot to do with with leading some of that too

[00:12:18] So um a lot going on there

[00:12:20] And I think they're really trying to refresh you know really bring a new new look to all of their global payroll capability

[00:12:25] AI assist was certainly front and center in the morning as well as you can imagine with the

[00:12:31] You know generative AI and how they were doing that

[00:12:34] You know, there was quite interesting. I think a lot of people were really interested by another morning topic was

[00:12:39] next gen

[00:12:41] Yes, yes, and so besides the the product and sales leaders that were front and center talking a little bit about where they're at with next gen

[00:12:48] They brought up a couple of clients which was interesting

[00:12:52] Because one was from

[00:12:54] AEG

[00:12:55] Tanya Oglesby was there

[00:12:58] She's an early adopter and was sharing some of her experiences, but the one that might be you know the headline

[00:13:05] I catcher attention catcher

[00:13:08] Is Greg harmer from amazon. Oh and so you know

[00:13:12] Of course amazon obviously just by its name and its size

[00:13:16] And Greg is always such a great speaker on stage

[00:13:18] He's really fun to listen to he's very down to earth good good speaker

[00:13:23] Amazon just catches everyone's

[00:13:25] Oh, yeah, yeah, oh my god amazon's going to next gen and of course if you don't know any

[00:13:31] You know if you wouldn't know any better wouldn't suspect any better that starting you know with with

[00:13:37] Small populations right by their population

[00:13:40] But Greg had you know, Antonia they both had some

[00:13:44] Wonderful things to say about next gen just a couple of stats that caught my attention there is you know

[00:13:49] They're now up to 36 clients that are live on next gen

[00:13:53] And have 49 that are actually work in product for our address right now work in process and

[00:14:00] A total of about 22,000 employees live so it's it's up. It's stabilized. It's

[00:14:05] I'm sorry 22,000 is the largest client live yeah, yeah

[00:14:11] So and lots of different major and minor releases. So very true to the agile release

[00:14:16] You know like something about in the neighborhood of 600 and 32 major and minor releases and

[00:14:22] In fiscal 2023

[00:14:25] They're fiscal 24 I guess yeah, right? Yeah, they've got like a summer. I think you're it starts

[00:14:31] Yeah, yeah, so you know, I think it's been out there for a little while

[00:14:35] It's been a little bit slow and kind of you know plotting along but but they're I think we're just gonna see a little bit more of them coming to

[00:14:42] You know coming to the stage with with stories and names that are iPoppers. Oh yeah, yeah 100% I you're right

[00:14:49] They you know next gen very visionary very cool stuff for you know all the bells and whistles you would expect AI

[00:14:56] Enable micro services

[00:14:58] Highly integrated highly seamless very mobile driven

[00:15:02] It's the it's next gen right it fundamentally is but it did get out of the gate a little slow

[00:15:06] But I think and I wrote about this a little bit. I think what's really exciting is is that Shrine Kutam who was the former CHRO

[00:15:12] Former client of ADP as well long long time ago, I think

[00:15:17] You know spent five years as the CHRO is now the head of product strategy and and I know that that next gen is one of his pet

[00:15:24] projects and he's got a really great vision for that so

[00:15:27] And certainly obviously doing a lot with ADP assist and all the AI

[00:15:31] They're they're generating around their platform. So yeah, I'm excited for next gen and you're right

[00:15:37] They are starting to you know

[00:15:38] One of the things I noticed is when I was at re-think and I wrote about this is that you know a lot more organizations are

[00:15:44] Looking at ADP and and considering them as part of their HCM decision making which is a very validation

[00:15:50] Big validation for the work that they've done to bring themselves in line with the conversations around a work day

[00:15:55] Or SAP or a day force or UKG or something like that that's been in you know making HCM for so long

[00:16:02] So that's that's take a lot of credibility to their products coming a long way

[00:16:06] That's right. Love code no code and just the ability to you know Greg Greg was fun about it

[00:16:11] You know he described how you know you can really within the second study takes you to move your phone down to

[00:16:18] You know swipe in or do a time clock the time punch right with the phone to the time you look at it and see

[00:16:25] The impact it has on your pay is really you know like spectacularly low-code no code and that was just very

[00:16:32] Appealing oh yeah, it was a fun story

[00:16:35] Well, you think about Julie like think back to like you know

[00:16:38] I always think back to like when we were using the legacy on-prem systems right back at the time

[00:16:42] The the latest and greatest and you'd have to go get IT to help you build a report. It's like

[00:16:47] Like come on, you know what I mean like it and now it's drag and drop right or you've got to go to IT to get some some some

[00:16:52] Wage type configured right and it's gonna take you two months to get it done now

[00:16:56] It's it's very quick you can test it very quickly

[00:16:59] And it's rapid. It's there and and and too. We you know, we've joked about this before

[00:17:03] But think about all the due diligence is diligence if that's a word

[00:17:08] Efforts that you've been through where

[00:17:11] It's especially payroll right where there was where there was a guy who was managing access databases somewhere in the basement

[00:17:16] And they had two of these databases that were absolutely holding the whole company together whole whole HR and payroll together

[00:17:22] And without that guy or

[00:17:24] Payroll doesn't run

[00:17:25] that I think is where market micro services and

[00:17:28] and and and apis are all gonna are going to solve that right because now you can go into that marketplace and find that thing

[00:17:35] that can

[00:17:37] Do whatever that access database did before but also you're you're not doing this heavy lift development on changes, right?

[00:17:43] You're you're fundamentally able to do it in a very rapid again guided drag and drop kind of way where you don't need that

[00:17:48] But that IT lift and that saves cost right that saves time

[00:17:53] I mean, there's so much impact to that so yeah

[00:17:55] Yeah, for sure and you know my last comment here before we move on to some other folks because we do have a checkful newsroom is

[00:18:02] You know just know it 80p like everyone else has a lot going on and so if you're a client

[00:18:08] You know if you're product lead in within 80p

[00:18:10] That's great. You know like I'm I'm leading the global view product

[00:18:13] And I know I were taking a transition a move to Hana right to us for Hana or

[00:18:18] I'm dealing with Sillargon. We're releasing a major upgrade or I'm dealing with you know

[00:18:23] E time to workforce management since yeah, I'm moving from Seable to you know like I'm in the 80p ecosystem moving us from Seable to you know

[00:18:32] our next gen case management

[00:18:35] Embedded tools but but the client on the clients and they could be on the receiving end of multiple ones of those components of their

[00:18:44] 80p relationship and their 80p solution that are that are hitting them

[00:18:49] You know at the same time or at different times and so

[00:18:52] You know there's really an individual client

[00:18:56] Lens yeah, they need to apply and go you know what you could you could be you could be getting you know new new things

[00:19:03] Upgrades from multiple

[00:19:05] Dimensions in your relationship with 80p and that's awesome

[00:19:09] But it also means there's a lot of things to think about from a change management perspective or

[00:19:14] From a staffing perspective on on the client side right yeah absolutely order to be able to ingest all of that goodness

[00:19:20] Yeah, no, that's a great point of view now you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. I totally agree

[00:19:24] Yeah, all right. Let's move on to something else because I know there's more yeah

[00:19:28] We got lots here so one little quick one that I think that kind of kind of hid if you will was the acquisition by first advantage of

[00:19:35] Sterling check so if you know first advantage. I don't know them well

[00:19:39] I do know they are a big background screening provider

[00:19:43] Essentially took out one of their bigger peers in a two billion dollar plus

[00:19:48] All stock dealer cash and stock, I think so yeah just a little a little a little one there right not that little but yeah

[00:19:54] A quiet one as I would say maybe maybe didn't not as glamorous to some of the other ones

[00:19:58] But certainly very impactful as we see more this consolidation. I think happening around the space

[00:20:03] um

[00:20:04] So one that I got very excited about was a firm. I know well and we're closely with his deal

[00:20:09] uh the global EOR the will very much the unicorn

[00:20:13] uh, you know rocket ship ride

[00:20:15] Uh, darling of the industry in terms of disruption and and really just growing quickly

[00:20:19] Um, so deal as you know has been really aggressive about building out there

[00:20:23] Um, I would say ambitious aggressive is probably a little bit too much

[00:20:27] Uh really ambitious about building out their offering right really trying to be that one stop shop as they all are

[00:20:32] And I think what they've done here is a really nice move. They've added

[00:20:36] Zavi a um, I believe they're based in Munich

[00:20:39] And it's a people enablement technology

[00:20:41] That is really coming into their gonna come into their world and create the opportunity for employers to be able to develop

[00:20:47] Um and retain right through learning and development

[00:20:50] capabilities

[00:20:52] Their workforce right and so the the beauty of this is I think it complements what Dio already had

[00:20:57] Been building around their their their their global employment capabilities

[00:21:01] And many of the little add-on solutions that they have

[00:21:03] uh, value added solutions

[00:21:04] They've brought into their ecosystem either by way of organically building it or in this case acquiring it and so

[00:21:10] Um, I think it makes total sense

[00:21:12] I think it's where you'll see many of the EORs go

[00:21:15] Is now they're kind of starting to pull into maybe providing some performance management

[00:21:19] Something Dio already had

[00:21:21] Um, learning a development

[00:21:23] Um, and that sort of thing right because even if these employees these workers aren't necessarily yours

[00:21:28] And maybe won't be forever

[00:21:30] Uh, they certainly still need to be developed and retained and have a great experience

[00:21:33] And I think this is just another step in that in that direction

[00:21:35] It's a reminder that is it deal that picked up pay as a wild back

[00:21:39] They did yeah, and and that's why I'm gonna get to that too

[00:21:41] They made another acquisition in that area

[00:21:43] Well before you get to that

[00:21:44] I just wanted to ask you know, it's though do you see are you seeing when you see these deal things

[00:21:49] Is it more about the functional capability and the experience that would then be broadened or is it more

[00:21:56] Is the more secrecy in more umph in the you know in the in the Gio portion?

[00:22:01] I think yeah, it's a heavy German based right

[00:22:03] So like where how do you how should we be thinking about that?

[00:22:06] Yeah

[00:22:07] So with Zavie

[00:22:07] I think this was more of a fold-in capability that they wanted to have sooner than later right

[00:22:12] They wanted to have this learning capability

[00:22:14] And training capability and be able to help people develop skills

[00:22:17] So that was more of a tech pick up this piece of tech drop it into our our ecosystem and help us accelerate that

[00:22:22] So and that's that's actually I think that's maybe the first one they've done like that

[00:22:26] The other acquisition they made which is very similar to what they did back in

[00:22:30] I guess it would have been what 2019 now maybe for pay asia is they also picked up pay space

[00:22:36] Okay

[00:22:37] So pay pay pay pay space as a South African based payroll provider

[00:22:40] They are a technology provider. There's been around I want to say almost 15 20 years something like that

[00:22:45] And basically deal was

[00:22:48] leveraging pay space as both their go-to-market partner in that region

[00:22:51] But also their internal partner to help them enable their own employment in that area

[00:22:55] And so what I think is really exciting here is um to go to get to your point is you know

[00:23:00] You look at pay asia and you look at you look at pay space

[00:23:02] These are both localization capabilities right that'll that'll fuel engines and technology behind their technology to help them grow

[00:23:10] Their global payroll presence and capability

[00:23:12] So this is really really big

[00:23:14] I think for deal because they have that global payroll ambition

[00:23:18] But didn't have the engines to power that right they certainly have great tech

[00:23:21] And pay space is going to boost that by 40 plus

[00:23:25] 40 plus countries right including

[00:23:28] Africa

[00:23:29] Brazil as well as the UK so they've got a little bit more than just just Africa for sure

[00:23:35] Yeah, menna

[00:23:36] And so I think this is a really nice addition here and and just speaking to to Alex the founder

[00:23:42] You know he's he's really amped on this they were they were they talk about this

[00:23:46] I think a little bit on on the tech crunch article that came out

[00:23:49] And I have a write-up coming on this any day now it could be out one day or Tuesday

[00:23:53] But this is huge right? I mean this really this is a really

[00:23:56] At this point it thrusts deal to the top of the list in terms of global payroll capability from an engine's perspective

[00:24:04] Right, I mean the majority of their peers are fundamentally aggregators

[00:24:08] And those that do have a rich global payroll capability are largely global payroll providers that then turned on

[00:24:14] EOR on top of that so so like a Neyamo for example

[00:24:17] But this really gives them a lot of credibility in that way it gives them the tech to now build on

[00:24:21] They've got now 50 if you're so engines between what they had with

[00:24:27] Pay Asia what they've picked up with pay space and they're developing the US Julie

[00:24:32] In in and around a

[00:24:35] I would say a partnered go-to-market capability for PEO

[00:24:38] So not only is deal able to offer global payroll global EOR

[00:24:42] But they can technically now offer

[00:24:44] PEO that's something they launched last year with venture HR

[00:24:47] To power that but deal is

[00:24:50] Out there building their own capabilities as well and that includes a US and Canada payroll engine

[00:24:55] so they are really really building that ecosystem out and really I think planted their flag now on seven continents

[00:25:02] And very serious here so I think this is going to be a solution to watch

[00:25:06] So tell me something Pete when you mention you know the build out and this is always it's always exciting

[00:25:11] It's actually a little bit of a thrill

[00:25:12] But by the same token you can acquire a lot of toys and you need to put them together artfully right but

[00:25:17] In pulling together all these pieces is the focus really still on the technology the solution

[00:25:23] Or will there be services around this especially when you start thinking about competing in the managed payrolls in the payroll space

[00:25:29] Oh, they're already doing it right. They're already do they're already taking managed services on

[00:25:33] I don't know to what scale right how big the customer yet

[00:25:36] I'll be curious to see how that goes

[00:25:37] But that is the goal right is to become a global payroll provider

[00:25:41] And so yeah, they're out there if you look their sponsorships are happening around global payroll

[00:25:45] They had a great global payroll summit last week that I attended. I thought was really really nice

[00:25:50] Had some great perspectives from some of their clients and partners

[00:25:53] So yeah, no, they're dead serious about this and yeah managed services is a hundred percent part of this

[00:25:59] And I think as they now that they have this engine in their in their world

[00:26:03] They're going to throttle it up to a hundred countries

[00:26:05] You know as as most of the major pet players are doing

[00:26:09] And I think they feel like that's going to set them up really nicely to go ahead and build on you know

[00:26:13] This global again if you remember very the very beginning

[00:26:16] They talked about being the apple of HR globally sure. I think right

[00:26:19] I think they're on their way and and look that they

[00:26:22] They're doing very well with it

[00:26:24] And I think this is just another piece of the puzzle right that takes them take some ones that further

[00:26:29] Fun very fun. So two very different yes very different things but a lot going on over polar opposites

[00:26:35] But very very critical strategically so look for my write-up

[00:26:38] It'll it'll be coming coming on Monday Tuesday, I think so yeah

[00:26:42] All right, what else you got man? We got a couple more we've just around things out our good friends over at a light

[00:26:48] Have put out a couple of big announcements recently one

[00:26:50] I think is is is somewhat quiet

[00:26:53] But somewhat important is the fact that they are fundamentally now moving all of their SAP payroll engines the global payroll engines

[00:26:59] Which are partially enabled as you know through the ureca solution back in the day

[00:27:03] Which is now work life a light work life

[00:27:06] That is powered

[00:27:08] In part by SAP's on print engines and they are moving those all to the cloud s4 hana which I think is

[00:27:14] Just indicative of something they had always been talked about doing

[00:27:17] And it makes sense just for the future proofing the solution and I'm sure cost perspective and all of that so

[00:27:22] You know for sure. It's been actually probably it almost yeah

[00:27:26] More than eight years, so I can remember clients, you know, that have asked back in the day

[00:27:32] It was Northeater Rinceau now light and then ADP where they have these engines that are built on

[00:27:37] You know SAP technology when are you going to ask for honnett?

[00:27:41] It's interesting that you know like now is kind of the time for both of them. Yeah

[00:27:46] Yeah, take that to take that

[00:27:48] Don't oh yeah and look there's an evolution going on at SAP as we know with with their payroll solutions right they're moving towards a very

[00:27:55] Very visionary long-term next-gen solution that is already in beta that might even be past beta now in the UK

[00:28:01] So beta in the UK yeah

[00:28:03] Yeah, that that is progressing so I think this you look I think this just

[00:28:07] Re-recommits them to SAP. They're still a big SAP shop. They can still sell deploy and operate

[00:28:13] SAP just as they are workday

[00:28:14] I think I think the workday part of it maybe has shown for shadow the SAP

[00:28:18] But listen this is a very deep heritage with them

[00:28:20] And I think it just makes total sense

[00:28:22] And bringing them to you know bring everything over to the cloud here

[00:28:25] So yeah, and you know a lot of that is because those deep the deepest of capabilities on the SAP side came from their NGA

[00:28:32] Yeah, heritage and so yeah

[00:28:33] Orinzo right if you aside. Yeah, if you us side you weren't super familiar with the you know that acquisition

[00:28:39] You know back in the day and and the real bench strength that that brought on the SAP side of the house like you should be

[00:28:45] You should know about that yeah, yeah absolutely absolutely and look

[00:28:48] I'm sure there's a lot of their own customers that aren't on the cloud yet, right? I mean how many people soft

[00:28:53] You know holdouts do they probably have

[00:28:55] And I know there's a few

[00:28:57] But yeah anyway, so we'll see we'll see

[00:29:00] They also made another announcement in the AI world

[00:29:03] Really launching I guess what you would call they're calling it lumen AI

[00:29:07] I guess kind of like a light lumen illumination

[00:29:11] You basically I what I would say is is really platforming all of their AI capabilities into a unified ecosystem

[00:29:17] So it really gives them the ability

[00:29:19] I think you know you got imagine they had a couple of different solutions, right?

[00:29:21] I mean a light's got a couple of things from the a on humid days

[00:29:25] You've got your work life now. You've got your reka

[00:29:28] You know, I'm sure a lot of that had different codes and different

[00:29:32] Different ways of solving for their for their solutions

[00:29:34] And so this I think platforms and and aligns everything to begin building forward. So

[00:29:39] Yeah, very exciting stuff. I think a light's doing some things to to bring its solutions

[00:29:44] You know further future proof them if you will

[00:29:46] And I love what they're doing with with with work day right? They're also leaning hard on

[00:29:50] Or workdays leaning leaning on them to help with their global expansion as well right Germany and France and other areas

[00:29:57] So yeah, I think the lights in the integrate place. I've always said I think they're one of one

[00:30:02] They can they can I don't know of too many firms have it or any that can do all that they can do at the scale and and

[00:30:09] The capability that they can so I like it. I like to see them clarify things and continue to push forward

[00:30:15] And I think they can do some some cool stuff

[00:30:18] Yeah, for sure and and I think some of the things that we're mentioning here

[00:30:21] I mean those these you really feel touch and feel and appreciate

[00:30:27] Even more so from the you know payroll

[00:30:30] Payroll side of the house then from the you know the staples benefits side of the house right yeah because they're

[00:30:36] They're fun date. They're they're foundational part of the platform and the technology that comes forward on the HR in the HR

[00:30:43] Capability space and you know in benefits. They have just a whole host of other things right that

[00:30:49] That that are a little bit more front and center. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely absolutely

[00:30:56] Well, did we get to the end? Yeah, that's it. I know was that that was a lot of news right

[00:31:01] Gosh almost half hour of news we've talked about here

[00:31:04] So yeah lots going on

[00:31:05] I thought it would be good idea to just to put some perspectives out there and

[00:31:08] Yeah, just share what we're seeing and and certainly we'll be back with more of it as it comes

[00:31:12] So yeah, so listen let's put a wrap on this but tell me about like let's push again the survey

[00:31:17] The payroll sentiment survey right that that you have and

[00:31:21] Make sure that folks know about that please

[00:31:23] Yeah, please if you haven't taken the payroll profession confidence survey or shared the payroll profession confidence survey or see me talking about it

[00:31:31] Please go engage with that. Please please give us your feedback. We want to help

[00:31:34] I think we had last time I checked Julie

[00:31:36] We were up over 600 respondents and I would love to get that into the thousands so

[00:31:42] That's a healthy response

[00:31:43] So thank you. Thank you for everyone that's been a part of that

[00:31:45] There's still what three two four weeks to go we have so we're gonna try to make another push and and and thank you to everyone all the vendors all of the

[00:31:53] Parallel associations all the people your yourself everyone Julie for helping I couldn't be more thankful for that

[00:32:00] Yeah, and listen. I'm cheerleading us on to at least like you

[00:32:03] I'd love to see you get a good hearty double or more of that because yeah

[00:32:07] You're having folks

[00:32:08] chime in from around the world right so oh totally

[00:32:12] And so we know we have folks that listen around the world

[00:32:15] But like 600 is great, but let's let's go double or nothing

[00:32:19] Yeah, absolutely and and look for just this week I went on

[00:32:22] I mean obviously we've talked about it on our show ad nauseam

[00:32:25] But I went on Nick Day uh show legendary Nick day of jga recruiting who there's so much great stuff for recruiting

[00:32:31] Parallel folks into this world and promotes the industry. So thank you Nick for everything you guys do

[00:32:36] He had me on here show so that just came out this week. So go check that out

[00:32:39] I talk a bit about what's going on in the world of payroll and why this is the survey is so important

[00:32:44] And so yeah get it on it if you haven't

[00:32:46] Awesome other things on your radar like what else are you?

[00:32:49] Yeah, well, I'm leaving Sunday to go to the uh to Washington DC for the

[00:32:54] Parallelord capital summit

[00:32:56] I'm gonna be presenting on Tuesday there um

[00:32:58] I think it's a two-day event Monday Tuesday. I'm gonna present Tuesday morning on

[00:33:03] AI and in payroll

[00:33:05] So we'll be talking about that quite a bit

[00:33:07] And then I'm gonna jump on a plane Tuesday night and I'm gonna head out to Vegas for the um

[00:33:11] I believe it's the is it the internet? I don't know if it's international the the payroll partners uh

[00:33:16] or excuse me

[00:33:17] the independent payroll

[00:33:20] Providers association

[00:33:22] Independent payroll providers association say that three times fast they are having an amazing event

[00:33:26] I've never been. I'm so excited

[00:33:28] It's in Vegas. I'm looking forward to that

[00:33:30] I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of clients and I will be spending some time with uh with my client

[00:33:35] I solved at their booth answering questions with um with some of the leaders that are becoming around

[00:33:40] And attending some of their events and talking to folks about just about what's going on in payroll

[00:33:44] So yeah, look look for me at those two places

[00:33:47] Um and then look for my write-up like I said on deal uh and their acquisition of pay space

[00:33:51] I've put together a good market alert on that to give you all all the ins and outs in my opinion about that

[00:33:56] And then of course

[00:33:56] I've got something on adp rethink which also talks about a good bit about some of these new

[00:34:01] These new solutions around

[00:34:02] Uh adpsist and the new global payroll user experience and all of that so always a lot going on Julie

[00:34:07] What do you what do you got? What do you got?

[00:34:10] Yeah, thank you

[00:34:13] What do you have to? Well, you know what I wanted to make the tie to some of the eight the AI stuff that you mentioned

[00:34:18] You're doing right so you you have that coming up

[00:34:20] But we also have just finished doing you know

[00:34:23] I think ones out there and ones coming out very very soon a couple of episodes specifically on AI

[00:34:28] Yes from a couple of different perspectives

[00:34:30] So if that's if that's the buzzword that's catching your attention

[00:34:34] Don't don't miss at all the two back-to-back episodes that I think we've put out

[00:34:39] In that on that topic I myself have one of those microsurvey's that's that's kind of my stick for the year is to get a little bit bits and chunks of research out on AI in HR

[00:34:49] Specifically, it's not it's not more than 15 questions. It's 10 minutes

[00:34:54] You know if somebody's time so I'm just getting I'm just getting the the visual together to be able to push that out

[00:35:00] But please look for folks to spend 10 minutes and give a little bit of input specifically on AI and

[00:35:07] And how what they're thinking in the market and and I'll make that available so that you can have that

[00:35:12] For that for folks and I do have some results now from the leave the first

[00:35:18] microsurvey that I did earlier in the year on leave leave pain points

[00:35:23] And so I don't even think I've had a chance to share my rough copy with you

[00:35:26] But we're ready to send that out and for folks that liked to hear from Keith chryschenson on leave orchestration and the million different ways to try to

[00:35:36] Put leave together and make it smooth and happy

[00:35:39] You know, we we had some findings and we were specifically diving in to figure out like what is it that makes what are the elements that are really

[00:35:47] contributing the most to leave pain points so yeah, that was a good episode

[00:35:51] Yeah, leaves are such a pain

[00:35:53] No, no, I'm so pretty. I don't know. Okay waiting for AI to solve that. I mean I'm waiting for you to solve it

[00:35:58] Yes, yes

[00:36:00] All right, well, hey, that's a lot. That's a lot right? It's going on

[00:36:03] Well look get me those links. Let's make sure I share those as well. We'll get them to our community and yeah

[00:36:08] Look stick with us. We'd like Julie say we got a lot of great episodes coming up

[00:36:12] We're gonna be on the road a little bit so I'm hoping to maybe capture some conversations out there

[00:36:16] But yeah, we appreciate you and have a great week. Thank you

[00:36:19] Thanks everyone take care, Julie