Solutions Magazine - February 2018

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7
Solutions
|SOLUTIONS - MAY 2017|

From the General Manager
Hi all, we’re almost four months into our Smartgroup
integration journey and looking back, we’ve achieved
enormous outcomes in a relatively short time. Please
take time to look over the department summaries in
this newsletter. Ben, Paul, Kim, Julie, Vijay, Adrian and
David have relayed our activities in great detail, and
collectively paint a picture of some real progress.
As of course we're all aware, we have many projects
on the go! Phoenix development is running to plan,
communications to clients regarding Smartsalary and
Autopia transitions are well underway (as are
respective client meetings) and payroll reconciliation
is almost at BAU phase. All this while maintaining our
overarching focus on Client Retention and Employee
Participation. With all these activities seemingly
competing for dominance our challenge is to present
our evolving business in the most positive light,
focusing on extended benefits, efficiencies and of
course an excellent customer experience.
While on projects, we're looking to consolidate the
migration of our vehicles within PBI, Hospital,
Rebatable and Exempt clients to coincide with our
final migration of V2 to Phoenix. This ultimately
makes more sense as, although a broader task, it'll be
a single touch with clients and their employees. I’m
confident that our clients will agree!
Mostly, I’m mindful that with all these activities
taking our full attention and largely completing midyear,
we’re now straining to look over the July
‘horizon’. As we’ve discussed, Salary Solutions will be
a ‘GSP-focused’ brand from July. We will continue to
promote Novated Leasing (and indeed other product
opportunities that exist within the Group) to our
established client base. Naturally, this client base will
further increase over the next twelve months.
In a practical sense, this will mean that some staff in
our existing offices may report to different ‘brands’
(this has started already) and as Ben alludes to later
in this newsletter, we’ll begin the project of building
a greater operational footprint in Adelaide, to take
on some bigger support functions across the Group.
This is an exciting initiative, and is a very positive
step in our Smartgroup integration. So - we have a
good understanding of the shape of our business to
come, with the detail becoming clearer as we
approach July.
Perhaps most importantly, we’ll continue to
celebrate our successes along the journey, no matter
how big or small. With the next Quarterly Drinks in a
few weeks’ time, I’m looking forward to calling out
the achievement of each team (and people within!).
Best, BT
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NL Update
How are we tracking?
Plenty happening in our space since the return from the festivities of the festive season! Efforts have
been largely based on the transition of our corporate and government (taxable’s in SS lingo) to Autopia
and Smartsalary as their new novated leasing provider in the group. It has been a true exercise of
‘working as a team’ and ‘coming from partnership’ across our business units (and systems) to ensure the
collation of the client data is correct, and more importantly we find the best fit and home for them
whether it be Autopia or Smartsalary. At the end of the day what is more important is the client
experience!!!
The experience thus far has been a lot of things, challenging, lots of fact finding, getting to know our
colleagues across the group and using the strength of the relationships we have built over the years with
our clients. Last week we commenced our introduction meetings with Kim Stirling from Autopia right
here at home in Adelaide, with the rest of the team working with Kim over the coming weeks. We were
really pleased with the response from our clients, all very excited about Autopia’s unique novated lease
offering.
Salary Solutions and in particular the Novated Leasing Sales department have been through a number of
changes over the last couple of years but none more supportive than the most recent. It’s an exciting
time for a number of reasons, most of all the added value we can now offer to customers that make
driving their Novated vehicle much more rewarding.
Taking the time to truly understand each customer gives us an opportunity to offer products and
features that provide a tailored benefit to the individual and their lifestyle. Whilst having access to a
suite of fantastic products can be overwhelming, it’s important that we sell everything that’s relevant
and nothing that isn’t. A Novated Lease is a great way of saving tax, but it’s also a great way to add
something special to your car that you can experience every day.
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How are we tracking?
Operational Finance Update
Finance is really starting to heat up on the Project front, being involved in a number of procedural
changes.
Natalie Trotter & Brendan Shea have been working tirelessly in the Payroll Reconciliation space and
have been doing an amazing job of assessing and approving payrolls for process based on cleared funds
as well as identifying and working through any client exceptions or issues that have come out of the new
process. The systematic approach that both Brendan and Natalie have brought to this task is to be
admired and their work is giving us new insight into our clients which is invaluable.
On the Finalisation front, this month has been a huge success for the team with their efforts more than
halving our sizable reconciliation back log. In addition to the increased volume completed, the team has
adapted a targeted approach for their work on GSP clients in particular, focussing on reconciling clients
with money in holding first. Being on top of Finalisations will be critical in the coming months while we
are working with Smartsalary, Smartleasing & Autopia to transition the management of our vehicles.
Marketing Update
A fair bit has occurred in the Marketing
space since the last update.
A new website was launched on the 17th
of January which has given the customers
a fresh look of the business when going
online, while also providing them with
new features and information which is
easy to access.
Additional marketing materials have
been produced and added to the newly
branded suite to assist CRM’s and BDM’s
to drive new business and increase
penetration.
Two car catalogues have also been
executed either side of the Christmas
break combining in over 175 quality leads,
and a brand new leasing promotion is
scheduled to tie in with this months
edition on February 19th
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How are we Tracking?
Operations Update
To say January as been busy for us would be an understatement! We have seen a number of changes
across the business and in particular within Operations as we continue to forge ahead and focus on
the current business strategies.
From a people perspective we have seen some significant changes. Ronny Singh has resigned and
Brian Voigt retired leaving a gap within our Contact Centre that we are now beginning to close with
the 7 contractors who have started in February. Sandra Hernandez also decided on a sea change,
opting out of the intensity that is people management within the Operations group to spend more
time with her family during their formative years. Fortunately we were able to find a fixed term
contract role for Sandra that will see her stay on until the end of June at 2 days a week as she
provides supports for our Phoenix project.
With the changes, you may have noticed that we haven’t backfilled the vacant roles as we would have
traditionally done in the past and I suspect the question being asked is why? The simple answer is
because holding our current FTE position and bringing on fixed term or contractor roles for the
short term will enable us to be successful and ready for our longer term plan. Our overall permanent
workforce is at a reduced volume compared to last year primarily as we work towards the
introduction of Phoenix, which will not only automate a number of manual functions currently
required, but will also allow us to truly connect, service and grow our customer base. Moving into
the second half of the year our focus will be on expansion which will see us grow the Contact Centre
and create new and exciting opportunities.
On the project front, the transition of employers to the appropriate partnerships within the
Smartgroup continues, namely to SmartSalary, Autopia and SmartLeasing with PBI Solutions on the
agenda as we look forward to March/April. Overarching this is the Phoenix project, which will be our
new operating platform for all GSP and NL operational, finance and sales related transactions. We
also have the Noble park office move occurring in Feb and even a new corporate telephony system to
be introduced in mid-April! The progress simply doesn’t stop!!
On a personal note, I want to congratulate each of you for all the hard work and effort everyone, is
putting in as he lead up the end of FBT Year. Our Success won’t be because of one person, but from a
team effort. Continue to focus our supporting your team mates in every way possible and the success
will follow.
I’m always happy to have a chat and provide answers to any questions you might have in regards to
what’s happening in our business at anytime.
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Salary Solutions has been actively involved in Phoenix testing for some time now and we have
also started creating process and training materials on the same. Look out this space for some
Phoenix snippets in the upcoming newsletters.
Last week we also started training our new Contractors. We created a staggered training plan
for them. Their training will be conducted on a weekly basis and will be closely knitted to DMS
requirements and customer experience. They started supporting our Operations team right
from their second day of joining and smashed through 519 email uploads in a span of 2 days.
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It's Trivia Time
Have a go at answering the 5 questions below and once you have finished please submit your
answers to: steven.picca@salarysolutions.com.au
1.In the movie "The Wizard of Oz", what did the
Scarecrow want from the wizard?
2. How many keys are on most baby grand pianos?
3. Who was the shortest player ever to play in the NBA?
4. In what year was the first Harry Potter movie
released?
5. Who was the last professional hockey player to play
without a helmet?
Previous issue answers: 1.Chess 2.Brazil 3.McDonalds 4Jack Nicklaus. 5. France
Congratulations to Sharon Hugo that answered all questions correctly in the last magazine!
Colleague Movement
The new year has seen some more colleague movement within the business. So we would all like to
acknowledge the following who have departed or will be departing the Salary Solutions business:
Brian Voigt
Ronny Singh
Julie Fairfull
Other colleagues who are either changing roles or
moving to a different brand within Smartgroup are:
Sandra Hernandez (Changing Role)
Soraya Fatouni (Smartsalary
Damian Currie (Advantage)
We wish everyone well and all those that are
departing or moving to another brand will be greatly
missed from the Salary Solution family.
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Social Committee Update
EASTER IS COMING
Look out for the Kyton’s Bakery order form for Easter 2018.
There will be an array of treats available to order, ready for
the Easter break! Please ensure you return your order
forms to Joanna Papadimitriou by COB Friday, 2nd March.
A little Bunny told us that there will also be treats available
around the office in the weeks leading up to Easter!
QUARTERLY DRINKS
We are well into the new year and fast approaching the end
of FBT year so what better way to unwind then a drinks and
nibbles with your team mates! We currently have a tentative
date of Friday, 2nd March with more information and a
formal invitation to come out in the next week or two.
Anyone can submit content
Don't be shy, if you have anything you believe to be of interest and relevant to staff please feel free to
send through content steven.picca@salarysolutions.com.au
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