Sometimes it is hard to change the course of a reengineering project.  What happens when the organization has made a commitment to a new system or process only to find out that it was a mistake?  Do you bite the bullet and live with the decision? Who do you turn to as your trusted advisor now?  Which is more important to my consultant? The relationship or the sale? These were all questions faced by one of our clients not long ago.

Goodwill Keystone Area provides support to persons with disabilities and other barriers to independence in achieving their fullest potential as workers and members of the broader community.   Serving 22 counties in Southeast and Central Pennsylvania, this year Goodwill Keystone Area provided community services to thousands of community members, job training to hundreds and through their 40 plus retail locations served over 2,000,000 shoppers.

Trusted Advisors

For many years, Goodwill Keystone Area relied on Sage Abra Suite as their human resources information system.  Throughout that time, we developed a strong relationship with the team at Goodwill and supported their Abra Suite system as their trusted advisor.

When the Abra Suite retirement was announced, Goodwill Keystone Area thought that they might have outgrown an on-premise solution and decided to go with a cloud-based product sold by competitor of Net at Work.

Harold Ford, Net at Work’s Consulting Manager, and his team worked with Goodwill to begin the migration process.  Net at Work is always committed to our client’s success, no matter what.

Disaster . . . and Recovery

As Colleen McAuliffe, Goodwill’s COO\CFO, described it: “we tried to move to a cloud based service but found that it was inadequate to meet the needs and complexities of our organization’s HR and payroll.”  The migration to the cloud service quickly bogged down as the vendor realized that they didn’t have the years of experience with nonprofits and Goodwill’s in particular that Net at Work brings to our projects.

Goodwill staff quickly found themselves in the difficult position.  As Tiffany Willow – Payroll Manager – expressed it, “I will never in my life forget the pain of (that product)!”  But now what?  Time and scarce resources had been committed to the effort.  Who could Goodwill turn to?

Kristy Williams – HRMS – takes up the story from there. Net at Work and Harold Ford were instrumental in GKA’s discussion of how we could transition from a cloud based service back to Sage.  When GKA migrated from Abra (Suite) to Sage HRMS, Harold chose to be our Project Manager.  Harold was currently not in a Project Manager role at the time, but knowing GKA’s past issues moving to another system, he took it upon himself to be that person for GKA.”

Soon Goodwill Keystone Area was moving back to Sage as well as enhancing their human resource management system with additional digital functionality.

System Integration Supports the Team

Complex organizations like Goodwill Keystone Area have many ‘moving parts’ that must work together to be effective – supervisors, HR, payroll and finance to name a few.  We at Net at Work pride ourselves on applying digital solutions that promote just such integration.

“The integration of HR and payroll within HRMS provides for a natural segue for team cooperation”, according to McAuliffe. “Having key employees in each department trained and versed in all aspects of the system promotes effective and efficient use of the system and development of processes and procedures needed in daily operations for all supervisors and employees.”

Embracing Digital HR

Selecting an on-premise solution doesn’t mean giving up on a system that takes advantage of digital means.  By incorporating Employee Self Service, Alerts and HR Actions, Goodwill Keystone Area can create paperless forms and promote communication with employees to engage them and make routine tasks easier.

As Kristy Williams observed, “[There are] definite efficiencies and effectiveness with HR Actions and HR Alerts. Being able to produce important HR/Payroll information and have HR Alerts automatically send emails and reports has saved HR and Payroll time in producing information for staff. HR Actions allows supervisors, employees as well as the HR team the ability to track forms.  No more lost in transition.”

One Size Does Not Fit All

Finding the right technology for the organization and successful deployment are the hallmarks of Net at Work’s client relationships.  By enabling the adoption of digital technology, we empower our nonprofit clients to unleash the potential of their organizations to fulfil their mission and do good.

If you would like more information about how Net at Work can help your organization, please visit our website or contact your Net at Work Account Executive.

If you already own Sage HRMS and would like to learn about how you can get more out of your system, please plan to attend our webinar “Fulfilling the Promise of Sage HRMS in 2021” on January 21^st at 1:00 PM ET to learn more about deploying Employee Self Service, HR Actions and HR Analytics in your organization.  If you miss the date, all our webinars can be accessed in our video library.