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Thread ID: 127874	2012-11-19 06:20:00	Novopay - pr disaster	Digby (677)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1313429	2012-11-19 06:20:00	As someone who has written and sold payroll software I'd love to hear someone tell the fact behind Novopay and the payroll providor company. How many teachers have not been paid at all 1, 10, 100, 1000, 2000? And how many have had things such as allowances missed. According to the news media its a disaster. But I tend to think that with thousands of employees there were bound to be some teething troubles. Is it the software design or the initial data set up Or is it the fortnightly data input ? Has the software been used anywhere else? Also no one has had the sense to tell the public that you cannot keep software going for ever as it becomes a patchwork of old legacy systems. (Indeed the government has said that WINZ and the IRD both have old systems that will need replacing soon at the cost of hundreds of millions) So yes a new system was probably needed. What say you ?	Digby (677)
1313430	2012-11-19 07:01:00	From what I hear in the Media it sounds like a god awful disaster. I have never used it or know how it works but it sounds like it should never have left it's alpha testing.	The Error Guy (14052)
1313431	2012-11-19 19:15:00	I'll be its no where near as bad as the media is making out. Still no hard data on how many people have not been paid.	Digby (677)
1313432	2012-11-19 19:26:00	I heard a whisper that the software company who worked on Novopay have a contract with Google to do the software for the self driving cars that they are developing. Ken ;)	kenj (9738)
1313433	2012-11-19 21:19:00	Chances are the software is fine, although there's been a suggestion the troubles primarily lie with relief teachers, who may be an unforseen niche that have variable working hours, multiple and variable work places, and non-standard contracts which vary from one school to the next. Problems begin when you add humans to any system of this size. Who (in each school) is submitting the data regarding employess and hours worked? Are they competent in making the discrimination between John Smith in Whakatane and John Smith in Wanganui? And do they really care, or do they want to rush through the process and get off home? Training thousands of payroll officers in thousands of schools is bound to result in cases where 'dumb user' is the issue.	Paul.Cov (425)
1313434	2012-11-19 21:48:00	Novapay=Nevapay	Brucem (8688)
1313435	2012-11-19 22:22:00	Novapay=Nevapay Have you any stats to back that up I'm with Paul.Cov To me its just typical of anything to do with teachers, they are anti National and anti-change and anti-improvement.	Digby (677)
1313436	2012-11-19 22:41:00	I am picking its the teachers that have messed things up.	prefect (6291)
1313437	2012-11-19 23:04:00	Chances are the software is fine, although there's been a suggestion the troubles primarily lie with relief teachers, who may be an unforseen niche that have variable working hours, multiple and variable work places, and non-standard contracts which vary from one school to the next. Problems begin when you add humans to any system of this size. Who (in each school) is submitting the data regarding employess and hours worked? Are they competent in making the discrimination between John Smith in Whakatane and John Smith in Wanganui? And do they really care, or do they want to rush through the process and get off home? Training thousands of payroll officers in thousands of schools is bound to result in cases where 'dumb user' is the issue. Any well designed application should be able to cope with this scenario, especially given the general lack of computer/technical skills and/or common sense of the majority of the population... This software (and I no nothing of the detail of the particular application) should prevent selection of any payee who is not part of the specific school group - so this scenario should not arise. However I tend to concur with Digby here: teachers are notoriously anti-National and love causing a stir if the finger can be pointed in any way in that direction. That said, a payroll system is a very sensitive application (no-one, no matter who they are, likes errors in their paypacket - or not receiving one when they should!), so particular attention should have been paid to it's implementation, and perhaps a soft-launch, with a few pilot schools, should have been the approach.	johcar (6283)
1313438	2012-11-19 23:14:00	Any well designed application should be able to cope with this scenario, especially given the general lack of computer/technical skills and/or common sense of the majority of the population... This software (and I no nothing of the detail of the particular application) should prevent selection of any payee who is not part of the specific school group - so this scenario should not arise. However I tend to concur with Digby here: teachers are notoriously anti-National and love causing a stir if the finger can be pointed in any way in that direction. That said, a payroll system is a very sensitive application (no-one, no matter who they are, likes errors in their paypacket - or not receiving one when they should!), so particular attention should have been paid to it's implementation, and perhaps a soft-launch, with a few pilot schools, should have been the approach. Well said. You had one part timer getting paid for work in Auckland and Wellington at the same time which to me is a design flaw but I think most of it will be TIBTK.	mikebartnz (21)
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