Payroll for the ages
ust up the road from Salisbury in the south of England stands the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. The circular arrangement of standing stones erected thousands of years ago on a grassy hill in the English countryside is a constant reminder to Karen Paterson, founder and Chief Executive Officer at Patersons HR & Payroll Solutions Ltd., of Great Britain's ancient heritage.
Since Patersons is headquartered in Salisbury, Paterson often passes Stonehenge on the road. "It's not that impressive," she said.
Just as familiarity can breed indifference toward one of the oldest and most mysterious ruins in the world, so can something fresh and new like prepaid cards capture attention.
Patersons, which has been serving the human resources and payroll needs of a worldwide clientele since 2000, is finalizing an agreement with an undisclosed bank to give Patersons the ability to load payroll onto prepaid cards.
"There's an international demand for it," Paterson said. While the prepaid markets in Europe and the United States are more established, such is not the case for much of the rest of the world.
Especially for employees without access to traditional demand deposit checking and savings accounts, prepaid payroll cards provide an electronic way to store money and then quickly and conveniently access it. Paterson boils it down into one word: choice.
"What we want to do is bring some choice back into payroll," Paterson said. "You don't want boring old checks. We're living in the modern world now. It's electronic. And we want to bring some choices back to employees."
The SaaS of lore
Since its founding in 1996, Patersons has been at the forefront of software as a service (SaaS) technology - the online outsourcing of important and costly business functions, such as payroll and customer database management. SaaS applications help streamline businesses by reducing paper-based filing systems and the staffing needed to manage them.
Patersons' application - what Paterson characterized as "1.8 million lines of beautifully architected code" - is an entirely automated process. Businesses connect to Patersons' secure online platform to pay employees all over the world. Patersons supports hundreds of currencies and over 30 languages. "Multinationals have to have control over their payroll," Paterson said. "It is the single biggest cost or item on their profit and loss account. Even in these days of doom and gloom, we're still growing at 360 percent plus per anum because there's a global demand for global control of business practices."
Currently, Patersons funds employee accounts mainly through direct deposit. But, when prepaid cards are implemented, employees will be able to access their wages with cards through ATMs, Paterson said. Once inserted into ATMs, the cards will be automatically reloaded or recharged with employees' earnings. "And it doesn't matter where you are in the world, as long as you can get to an ATM," she added.
Monument to the Information Age
Recently, Patersons was recognized by The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 as the 27th fastest growing technology company in Britain. It was also cited for its community portal - an online resource where its clients can quote other businesses for services, attend webinars, network with colleagues and buy books.
Paterson said the company leveraged its relationships with payroll partners in such far flung corners of the planet as Mongolia and Kazakhstan, as well as in countries like Germany, France, the United States and China, to develop a searchable directory for clients seeking business partners.
According to Paterson, the portal also functions as a business generator for the company itself.
With over 200 employees worldwide and offices in Singapore, China, France, and Raleigh, N.C., Patersons is set to open an office in the San Francisco Bay Area; that office may include a direct sales force.
Patersons is also a Stevie Awards Inc. finalist for technology innovator of the year honors. Paterson is herself a finalist for entrepreneurship in two Stevie Awards categories. The awards honor the achievements and contributions of businesses and businesspeople worldwide.
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