Cutting Checks and Time

New payroll shipping system increases productivity, answers customer inquiries real time

Making sure the right taxes and deductions are charged to the right clients is easy for ADP�, one of the largest payroll processing companies in the U.S. In keeping with its World Class Service motto, ADP wanted to match that efficiency with faster response to customer inquiries and increased productivity in shipping those payroll checks.

"Providing a short turnaround on client questions regarding arrival of their packages is a core part of our world class service," said Craig Keyworth, project leader, ADP.

To do that, ADP wanted a computerized system that would:

• Create a shipping manifest,
• Identify the carrier,
• Show all information related to tracking of packages and quantity of packages shipped in a single system, and
• Provide cross-carrier tracking ability so it could, at any time, quickly and easily identify what packages were sent via which couriers.

"While ADP always did an excellent job of ensuring that payroll checks were shipped on time and to the right locations, we believed adding computerized enhancements to our system would reduce the need for a number of manual procedures and manual checks and balances. At the same time, we wanted a method to provide more instantaneous information, should a client need to know the status of their payroll package," said Keyworth.

Bar code system answers customer service requirements

To meet those goals, ADP wanted to install a bar code tracking system because of its high accuracy rate and speed of identification. ADP looked for someone with the necessary expertise to design and integrate this unfamiliar technology and system into ADP’s customized Lotus Notes application. After searching the Internet for scanner manufacturers, ADP found Symbol Technologies, a Bohemia, NY-based company which recommended Compsee, a national Auto. ID systems solution integrator and manufacturer. The Mount Gilead, NC-based Compsee provided the customer-focused assistance and hardware, a TurboWedge with advanced bar code editing features, to successfully integrate the scanning system into ADP’s customized Lotus Notes application. ADP decided to initiate the bar code solution with Compsee’s assistance in the Atlanta-based Southeast region first, then roll out the solution to other regions at a later date.

"Compsee acted as a solution provider from the bar code standpoint. Nick D’Uva, (national account manager) did a great job telling us our options, and their capabilities. And he did a great job helping us get up and running on the new equipment since we never worked with bar codes before," said Keyworth.

"Compsee met our needs technically, their price was reasonable and support was good. They were helpful in identifying the whole bar code technology application. They gave us a total solution; we did not need to look at multiple vendors," said Keyworth.

Benefits

The newly automated payroll/package tracking application brought the biggest benefits in timesavings to the shipping department.

Due to the nature of ADP’s payroll processing business, said Keyworth, shipping of payroll checks can involve many different carriers. While the larger ones, such as Federal Express and Airborne, offer their own computerized shipping systems, many of the smaller ones do not. As a result, ADP had been forced to write many manifests on paper. Under the old system, it took two people several hours to identify, label and prepare the wrapped payroll packages— on average 1,600 daily, but sometimes up to 5,000—for shipping. And that’s not counting the time once spent manually writing manifests.

Now it takes one person less than 15 minutes.

ADP also has used bar codes to its advantage in its wrapping department, before the checks get to the shipping department. There, payroll-wrapping associates can simply scan the bar code to look up the customized instructions for each client, which is close to a thousand in the Atlanta division.

Overall, the majority of the benefits came from the custom Lotus Notes application ADP wrote, says Keyworth. "The bar code provided the interface we needed to reduce data entry errors."

The process

ADP’s new document management/ADC application for its payroll package tracking system begins when checks are mechanically printed, inserted into envelopes and stored on trays. They go to a wrapping associate who prepares them for shipping according to each client’s specific packaging instructions.

"Payroll packaging involves customized packaging instructions for each of the thousands of ADP clients, each of which has more than a thousand employees," said Keyworth. "Every company payroll is completely different. The instructions tell them how to wrap the payroll, how to wrap the checks, how to index them or split them by department. The instructions can be unique for every company and every payroll."

"When the trays of checks arrive at an associate's station, they include bar-coded and human-readable reports identifying which company's payroll it is. The bar-coded reports are printed on high-volume Xerox 4165 printers. To get the wrapping instructions for that client, associates can either scan the bar code and have the directions appear on their workstation screen, or look it up on their workstation."

If an associate works in the same list order as the clients are listed on the workstation's screen, Keyworth says they usually just use their mouse to sequentially pull up the specific instructions for each company. When an employee is jumping between several clients simultaneously, however, the scanner is preferred.

"It’s not like your merchandise application where they are getting prices. In this case, the bar code is helping us identify what the instructions are," said Keyworth. In both situations though, the bar code is used to pull up data in a database about a bar-code identified item. The ADP bar code includes a company and location code and what courier method to use. The bar code software was written in house and simply places the information in a special field on the payroll 'header' page. That field is set up to print in Code 128 symbology using the bar code font on the printer.

Once the paychecks are appropriately wrapped, the packages are sent to the traffic department. There, the traffic department associate scans the bar code on the top page of the payroll package. It appears through a clear window of the package. At the end of the day, an associate generates a shipping manifest from the Notes system that lists all packages that were handed to each courier for that day.

"We can typically process several thousand packages per day," said Keyworth.

The technical connection

ADP tied the shipping application into its existing Lotus Notes e-mail platform by using the application development environment of the Lotus Notes operating system. The in-house developed workflow processing application not only compliments ADP’s existing e-mail program, but also avoids time-consuming interfacing issues.

But it did "involve some tricky things on the bar code side to get it automatic," said D’Uva. That’s where Compsee’s TurboWedge was beneficial. It fits between the hand-held, multi-directional scanner (Symbol Technologies’ LS9100 laser scanner) and translates the bar-coded data into machine-readable data. Using advanced editing features, TurboWedge takes the multiple fields of bar code data and puts them into the correct screen fields. It also can send a message to the system requesting a different screen format to insert additional information into different fields. Take an example where the first eight characters of a bar code represent a part number and the last four a quantity. The TurboWedge ensures the part number gets inserted into the correct field in the first screen, pulls up the product’s description in another view and then inputs the quantity in the correct field in the second view. Finally it tells the workstation to transmit the data to the host server.

The scanner, normally used at a retail sales counter, has a Compsee-customized mounting arm with an adjustable height, to suspend it over the congested work areas. When not needed, it can be moved out of the way, similar to a lamp with an elbow-type joint.

It was Compsee’s customized assistance, along with its expertise in the bar code area and its total solution capability that made it unnecessary for ADP to do comparison shopping, noted Keyworth.

The bigger picture

The Lotus Notes custom application is tied into ADP’s mainframe payroll application AutoPay� that informs management which company payrolls are being processed at that moment. The customized Notes program, where all the customer data is first entered, tells management the status of each payroll: if the checks have been printed, stuffed into the envelopes, wrapped or sent to the traffic department, shipped or received by the client.

The same system also identifies how many wrap associates are needed on which days. "We already knew what type of volume to expect," says Keyworth, but the new program is much more detail oriented, allowing ADP to make better staffing decisions. "This really quantifies it. We can also identify which wrap associate bundled which company’s payroll and tell the average productivity per associate. Before we couldn’t do that."

ADP created the Notes workflow processing application in eight months.

"The new system got rave reviews at ADP. Even vice presidents came to visit and are really excited," said D’Uva. "The people at ADP are really the geniuses. We helped them create the bar-coding side and integrate it into their system, but they did the software part. We just helped them integrate the hardware into their application ideas."

The teamwork paid off. ADP wrapping associates can now choose whatever method is easiest to lookup payroll wrapping instructions. In addition, the shipping department’s productivity has vastly improved while customer inquiries are now answered much more quickly and efficiently. Now when ADP cuts checks, it knows its processing time and customer response time have been cut as well. To ADP, it’s all part of providing world class service.