CASE SUMMARY
Dual Digital Media is a Canadian based technology business which originally started as a family computer company that has become an international provider of digital media in many different forms. The company operated in 3 Canadian provinces and has expanded its operations nationally and internationally through the acquisition of smaller firms of similar vision aimed at both the consumer and business markets. In conjunction with these acquisitions DDM has acquired a range of payroll processing methods, systems, pay cycles and reporting structures. Currently, 11 staff oversees the payroll delivery for 1,238 employees at 5 different site locations.
DDM’s current business plan calls for all support operations to be centralized at the Head Office over the period of one year. The goal of this change is to sustain the expected growth of the company by reducing overhead costs for Payroll and Human Resources in each operational centre.
CASE SUMMARY GUIDELINES:
 What are the issues in this case?
Our objective is to determine the set up of a centralized payroll at the Head Office. To do this, the following existing payroll issues will have to be considered:
1. There are many payroll systems currently being used in the different operational centres (outsourced: ADP & Ceridian; in-house: Simply & ACCPAC; manually for management).
Analysis of the situation: Using a mix of in-house systems and outsourcing partners in a large company operating in nine sites, can make it difficult for the head office to get visibility into their individual payroll operations, ensure they are all compliant and in some cases, it is a struggle just to get basic data/information. Similarly, quality of service may vary widely from operation to operation, yet it can be hard to extract enough relevant data to make meaningful comparisons between the different operational centres