So, then, This Fusion Malarkey

I've been trying to get a proper idea what Fusion Apps will bring us - as usual someone else has asked the questions I wish I'd asked, and in a better way here.

Pensions Reform

Not to be outdone by HMRC in terms of creating potentially onerous requirements for payroll software, the Pensions Regulator has published a "guide to software developers".

I've read this and at first glance it seems to have a lot of extra data and transactions that need to incorporated into payroll systems. This is all around the new requirements to automatically enroll employees in a pension scheme in certain circumstances.

Once again, it'll be interesting to see the Oracle response.

RTI - a challenge to All UK payroll software

I'll try and keep this brief, if only because there is such a wealth of information already around about RTI. I am trying to focus on how this will/may affect PeopleSoft GP UK payroll.

HMRC has decided to use BACS for capturing a whole load of data that it either already captures via EDI, or doesn't capture at all for now. Part of the reason for this is the major overhaul of the benefits system that is due to take place.

What this means for GP is that major development work will be needed. The BACS delivery for GP in the UK in "vanilla" is highly inconsistent anyway in that it doesn't produce the files in a ready to send (i.e. with headers, footers and contra entries) format - PeopleSoft financials does. However there are other factors here - certain kinds of transactions - new joiners, etc, will need to generate data in the BACS file. This will involve some quite major changes.

I'll be fascinated to see how Oracle address this - it will all need to be live by 2013. That sounds a while away - but it seems like only yesterday we were celebrating the UK getting the Olympics.

Twitter - I am late to the party

I thought Twitter was a load of nonsense for self-obsessed morons with too much time, a sort of "Facebook lite". I was (not for the first time), utterly, utterly mistaken. Don't get me wrong - there are plenty of self-obsessed morons (they would probably speak highly of me), but there is some wonderful content on there too.

After I happened across a thread on Mumsnet I found a good explanation of what it was, from a Mum advocating the benefits to her small business - the key to this is that I tend to ignore geeks and meeja trendoids advocacy of this week's next greatest thing, but this was a real person citing real benefits.

Taking a new look at Twitter has led me to an ocean of quality comment and information in the world of HR and Payroll systems (which is what I do). I can't believe there is so much expertise out there that I hadn't tapped into. Most of these people write blogs and tweet their blog entries so because I hadn't done a Google (or any other) search for blogs about HR systems, I'd missed out entirely.

This is not news to anyone who already uses Twitter I guess, but it was pleasant surprise to me.