That is exactly what happened when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the entire global economy. Several companies were impacted; traditional channels of operations were hampered and that became a wakeup call to all enterprises. Surprisingly and fortunately, several organizations were able to respond to the stimulus, dodge the adversities, and immediately bounce back to almost normalcy with robust business continuity plans in place.
Any guesses on the catalyst behind this plan B?
One word – “Virtualization”.
Virtualization can be defined as the process of creating a virtual environment for organizations through server/ cloud based applications. Virtualization helps organizations remotely display interfaces and enable employees to work from remote locations. Technologies today allow desktops and applications behind the firewall to be securely accessed from any remote device, irrespective of the OS in use.
Virtualization in HR and Payroll
Virtualization in HR and payroll would require organizations to adopt & adapt to cloud-based technologies and automating processes to eliminate manual dependencies. Virtualization is, in fact, an enabler to any globalized business model. Unless you virtualize your technology and processes, you cannot globalize.
Virtualization and globalization of payroll go hand-in-hand. Achieving globalization becomes a possibility only when the processes involved are virtualized i.e., manual dependencies and physical touchpoints eliminated. An increasing number of technologies and applications are getting ‘cloudified’ and a more significant number of processes that had to be delivered locally like support, for instance, are getting virtualized. New computing abstractions are transforming how and where virtualization will be consumed. In such a case, companies are today leveraging technology to the fullest to make their payroll process as ‘virtual and global’ as possible.
The following are some of the use cases where virtualization can help considerably in global payroll processing.
1. Chatbots
Chatbots and voice assistants play an important role in payroll support. Regional and multilinguistic support through AI that leverage Natural Language Processing (NLP) engines, deep learning technology, and dynamic translation feature to offer real-time resolutions at remarkable speeds. Furthermore, these bots promote extensive self-service, thereby empowering remote workers to resolve their issues virtually.
2. RPA & Holistic Automation
RPA is another exemplary use case that reinforces the powerful capabilities of virtualization. Firms that have been embracing this emerging technology early in the game are gaining significant benefits. RPA-enabled and holistic automation-driven payroll is substantially free from processing errors and exhibits improved scalability and compliance. RPA’s ability to enable resources to zero-in on value-adding activities rather than transactional ones is being vindicated across markets.
3. Straight-through processing in payroll
Virtualization is looked upon as a force with enough potential to open doors for straight-through processing (STP) in payroll. With STP, the scope of automation increases rapidly paving way for the entire payment process to become almost free from human intervention. STP-enabled payroll can streamline the payments and routing information to an extent that the need to manually enter instructions every time diminishes.
Enterprises are always on the quest to find the possible in the seemingly impossible. The pandemic has just made it more evident. With technologies like DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service) and public cloud IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) becoming the new norm and the need to accelerate business agility rising, how will the post-pandemic era be for global businesses? Will companies be forced to embrace virtualization at an accelerated phase?
Industry experts are discussing several other impactful questions too in the webcast Virtualizing global payroll to ensure service continuity. Join them to understand how you can leverage virtualization and globalization and deliver undisrupted payroll amid chaotic environments. Click here to grab a seat.
This post was first published at www.neeyamo.com
