Click here for update on HRplus V5 and general Softech plans for 2007
Customer News
January 2007
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HRplus Version 5.0 will be released in 2007.
First of all we wish to announce that work has already started on HRplus Anywhere 5.0. This version is being done in a java web client and will be mostly a major interface and reporting upgrade rather than a major structural upgrade. It will remove all the problems associated with the use of different browsers on different operating systems, the limits on ease of use and speed from using the browser interface, and solve reporting issues resulting from printing through the omnis web client.
Moving to the new interface will also allow us to reduce support request and get much more productivity out of our engineering department because of the new advanced tool set on which the new products are being built. It will look and feel like a rich client interface similar to your desktop windows applications but it will still be intranet/Internet based. It will also be much faster than the existing user interface through its built in caching mechanisms and will be very easy to deploy. It will work natively on all major operating systems, including Windows, Macs, Linux, and Solaris.
The new interface will be able to run in parallel with your existing interface so that you will be able to use either interface to access the system in the short-run. This is because they will both initially work on the same database installation. So there will be no upgrade pain. You will need to be on the latest version release of HRplus Anywhere 4 at the time of availability of version 5.
From version 5.1, only the new interface will be developed.
In addition to all the features available in version 4, some immediate additional benefits of the new interface will include the ability to print reports to excel and/or pdf. You will also be able to print preview full screen and zoom reports by up to 400%. Also included will be a wizard based report writer. There will be also be support for multiple languages.
For version 5 work will also be done to improve the competency framework in HRplus Anywhere, and to build the Easy Re-organization Utility to facilitate clean-up and remodeling of your organization. More thorough multi-currency support will be added to the HR side of the application to support the multi-currency payroll processing which is currently available. An import interface will also be built to facilitate import of data into the payroll for processing. Work will also be done to improve the workflow which will eventually feature the use of either a simple decentralized workflow structure or the existing centralized workflow structures.
Version 5 will be available either for in-house deployment or as a fully secure hosted solution using a software as a service (SAAS) or On Demand model. It will also be available on Sybase SQL Anywhere 10, which features among many significant enhancements, fail over support, greater scalability and faster processing.
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Version 4.xx
As for HRplus version 4, there will be one more update release forthcoming. This update will seek to continue our efforts to improve the use-ability of the existing modules.
The following modules are the full set of modules available in HRplus Anywhere:
Security Module
Organization/Personnel
Payroll (Including Amortization Loans, Retroactive Pay, GL Interface, Downloads, YTD Adjustment Utility, Multi-Currency, etc.)
Benefits
Pension Administration
Health Plan
Compensation
Leave
Time Tracking
Property
Employee Relations
Employee Assistance Programmes
Education Assistace
MBO/Balance Scorecard/Performance Management
ART Query Module (replaces EASY ASK)
Health and Safety
Medical
Training
Diary/Event Alert system/Directories
Employee Self Service
Managers/Supervisor self serve
Department Administration
Minor changes will continue to be made to the above modules to further enhance their capability and ease of use. The cycle changes window in the payroll has been improved and is both faster and more user friendly.
Improvements have been and will continue to be made to the Recruitment, Succession Planning, and Budgeting modules. Improvements will also be done to better support salary surveys in the compensation module.
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www.myhrp.com
Our software as a service (SAAS) edition for small and medium sized businesses which has been available since September 2004 at www.myhrp.com, will also be significantly upgraded in the near future. The payroll will be expanded to handle more user defined allowances and deductions and will be available to meet the needs of at least eight Caribbean countries during the first quarter. Additionally a full compliment of HR and self service modules are being added and this exercise should be completed by the end of the first quarter. We are working on having records for over 50,000 employees processed through this service over the next two years and a major advertising and promotion campaign is being launched to support this effort in 2007.
Internal Developments
Software Technology Limited is now 15 years old. Our systems also now process records for over 75,000 employees across 8 Caribbean territories. We are making a major push over the next three to five years to provide Human Capital Management software for some 15 countries and over 250,000 employees through the myhrp.com service. This effort includes plans to get into the larger markets of the US, UK, and Canada in this period, and possibly some Latin American countries.
We have moved to a leaner, smarter working, organization. We have built/are building our own CRM software to manage our processes and have simplified our network environment through a mixture of wired and wireless infrastructure to minimize downtime. We are also working to fully deploy a complete virtual broadband environment so that employees can work and provide support from anywhere globally. This should be fully deployed by the end of first quarter 2007.
With the completion of our upgrading of 95% of our old customers to version 4, and the settling of most issues in version 4, we can now provide better service and turnaround on customer issues.
One of the issues with which we were faced, was the need for the various software modules to be able to address the diverse needs of our customer base. By nature it required the software to be pretty complex in order to support all manner of rule configuration and getting this right took some time to achieve.
Within the next three months, through a joint venture partnership with a US company we expect to release our first joint product in the US market. We have been working on this project for almost two years now and believe we will make a successful entry into that market place with a new E-Recruitment software, code named Applicant Search.
We are also working to further improve our engineering processes in order to provide a better standard of software product and a number of investments have already been made in January 2007 in this area.
Among the new processes to be introduced in this first quarter is an online helpdesk system which you can visit currently at http://softech.helpserve.com. It includes real-time helpdesk support, Customer News, FAQs, and soon a Learning Management System. Another document will be sent to you shortly explaining the full details of this system and how and why you will have to use it from March 1st 2007.
These developments, as they materialize, will also likely lead to a further strengthening of our human resource base. Our staffing is currently at nineteen employees.
From 2007, although the updates will continue to be free under your maintenance agreements, you will have to pay for its installation if we are required to do it for you. For those of you who are interested we will also be offering a database validation, tuning and monitoring service for databases which have been in production for some time, may be very large and may have been subjected to serious data fragmentation.
We look forward to serving you better.
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Gregory Fernandez
Managing Director.
