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Check Out What We’re Up To (Spoiler: We’re Improving The Client Experience)

CMMA Blog

We’ve improved our client experience so to simplify worker classification/compliance, onboarding workers, and obtaining more customized reports. PLUS, we have new updates around the corner.

Here’s How We’ve Been Working to Continually Improve Our Processes

Streamlining Compliance

Independent contractor payroll management can be complicated, but a good partner specializes in simplifying it. With California’s AB5 and the subsequent shockwaves it has sent through the industry, worker classification  is on people’s minds for good reason. 

While it’s really hard to standardize some aspects of worker classification, we make the process consistent so clients are using the same rules across the board. Our AI-based software takes much of the subjectivity out of classifying workers by using a consistent set of measurable rules and parameters rather than someone’s opinion.

Another way we continue improving is refining our wording and processes every time we see an opportunity–a big focus for our team! As such, we’ve streamlined communications to reduce email traffic and updated our questionnaires for efficiency. In addition to reducing the turnaround time for onboarding workers, these changes give clients a solid leg to stand on if they ever have to justify their decisions in a court of law. We’ve also made it easier, quicker, and more efficient.

PayReel Online (PRO)/Software Development

Software development may not seem very glamorous until you realize how much time, money, and headache it can save! We’re continually improving operational efficiencies with PayReel Online (PRO) and with our Sick Leave Accrual Management application (SLAM). More states continue to add sick leave and FMLA compliance regulations into law and we’ve enhanced our proprietary tool to manage these rapid changes. No need to worry about the many new complexities these paid sick leave laws leave in their wake. That’s good news for clients who can rest assured we are staying up to speed with the laws. 

In addition to the above software development, we’ve also matrix-ed our system so it can “learn” clients’ system’s language with no human translation necessary. We developed an Application Programming Interface (API) that bridges the gap between client software and ours. This is extra special because it allows PayReel software to communicate with clients’ time-tracking (or any other kind of) software without any human intervention. That means clients can fulfill changing needs quickly without having to rewire/recode (i.e. without disruption). It also allows clients to intuitively connect people to critical information, forms, and reports, and skip maddening double data entry/typing. Sexy, right? 

Take a client with a self-developed proprietary system for time tracking, for example. When we plug their Enterprise Relationship Program into our API, it sends everything needed for a project or a job and updates all 32 necessary fields automatically. That allows us to forego manual data entry with absolutely zero human involvement required in the middle.

Increased Team Training

We really like solid software, but it’s still good people who make the world go around. We’ve instituted a weekly training for all of our Client Relationship Managers (CRMs). In addition to covering any legal changes, this training addresses internal practices to make the client experience as standardized and efficient as possible. 

The Reports Clients Asked For!

It’s true. We saved the best for last. Clients asked for more reports to provide insight into backend payroll information and we listened! CRMs now have the ability to offer many additional customized reports including project cost reports, invoice detail reports, and more–giving supervisors and managers better visibility to see where workers are in the process. 

The post Check Out What We’re Up To (Spoiler: We’re Improving The Client Experience) appeared first on PayReel .

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Video Consumption Continues to Rise. Is Your Network Prepared?

CMMA Blog

Video Consumption Continues to Rise. Is Your Network Prepared?

With 270 million monthly active users , usage of Microsoft Teams and its live video capabilities has risen dramatically in the past two years. While return to office movements have made in-person meetings more frequent, the prevalence of hybrid working has continued to propel the growth of live video as companies seek better ways to connect their dispersed teams. As 74% of U.S. businesses currently have or are planning permanent hybrid options, video will remain a central part of the modern workplace and pivotal to the digital experience of all employees. The ongoing boom in virtual communications makes it more important than ever to ensure enterprise networks can meet the increase in demand for digital collaboration tools.

Teams and Live Video Usage Continues to Climb

How many Teams meetings do you have on your calendar right now? Chances are it is significantly greater than the number of meetings you had two years ago. Microsoft’s Work Trend Index 2022 found that Teams users have experienced a 252% increase in weekly meeting time and a 153% increase in the number of weekly meetings since February of 2020.

Kollective’s usage statistics for live video mirror Microsoft’s findings. Between Q2 and Q4 of 2020, live events delivered by Kollective increased by 187%. During that same timeframe in 2021, growth continued at a similar rate with a 170% increase in live video and a 92% increase in Teams Live Events.

Over the past two years, Kollective observed that the rise in live video usage is global – a trend that can be seen across all regions:

  • Americas – 130% increase (2.1x growth)
  • EMEA – 156% increase (2.6x growth)
  • APAC – 264% increase (3.6x growth)

Live Video Enables the Hybrid Office

The return to office has been reimagined and hybrid work models are being widely adopted to meet the needs of both businesses and employees. A July 2022 study by McKinsey found that 58% of U.S. workers currently have the option to work remotely or on-site. The prevalence of flexible working has placed more pressure on businesses to facilitate effective communications between employees at different physical locations. Whether it is day-to-day team meetings or large-scale corporate communications, live video has become integral to connecting employees and fostering collaboration and communication in the modern workplace.

Hybrid Networks at Risk

While Teams and live video offer businesses the opportunity to enable hybrid work, its success depends on the quality of each user’s experience. As a bandwidth-intensive medium, video can overtax unprepared networks and cause excessive buffering, jittery streams, or event failures. During larger events like All-Hands, viewers in locations with insufficient bandwidth may not experience the same event quality as those working remotely. These poor experiences lower engagement, reduce productivity and derail communication efforts.

Exacerbating this problem is a phenomenon known as network volatility. Network volatility is caused by the ever-shifting number of concurrent streams running across corporate networks. In a hybrid scenario, the number of people working in the office on a given day is in constant flux. While networks may perform well on days with low employee attendance, high-demand days push the limits of a network’s capacity and cause live event failures and business-critical cloud applications to perform poorly or, in the worst-case scenario, total network failure. However, even a relatively small number of employees streaming live video in an office can cause problems for networks that are not equipped with an ECDN.

ECDNs Prevent Network Failures

Adding an enterprise content delivery network (ECDN) to your technology infrastructure is a simple and cost-effective way to optimize networks for live video. An ECDN reduces the bandwidth needed to deliver high-quality video, allowing you to securely scale communications across the enterprise.

As flexible workplaces often bring added network complexities, not all ECDNs can meet the needs of the hybrid office. Kollective’s ECDN, Edge Accelerator, offers the complete coverage necessary to meet the needs of modern networks. With three content delivery methods built under the same architecture, Kollective offers the flexibility to handle even the most complex network environments and ensures that every employee receives flawless video.

Preparing for a return to the office, Michelin, the world’s largest tire manufacturer, added Kollective to optimize their network for Teams video distribution. Since implementing Kollective in 2021, they have run over 1,300 Teams Live Events reaching over 50,000 people globally with a total bandwidth savings of 60% in every region. Their employees rely on high-quality video communications with no impact on their network.

As the numbers show, Microsoft Teams and Teams Live Events are being utilized on a massive scale to connect people and organizations across the globe. The hybrid office’s dependence on video will continue to fuel that growth, putting unprepared networks at risk. Investing in an ECDN like Kollective’s Edge Accelerator will ensure your network can support your hybrid workforce and deliver a flawless digital experience to all employees.

The post Video Consumption Continues to Rise. Is Your Network Prepared? appeared first on Kollective Technology .

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Expanding Quantum Support for the Veritas OST API, and Another Feature to Strengthen Cybersecurity

CMMA Blog

This week we introduced another feature in our secondary storage products to help strengthen data protection and cybersecurity.

Our latest DXi software, DXi 4.5.2, is now available for download and introduces support for Veritas OST WORM.  As a brief background, Veritas Open Storage Technology, or “OST”, is an API that allows NetBackup Media Servers to take advantage of intelligent disk devices. 

Quantum DXi backup appliances were among the first appliances to support OST, and over the years we’ve added support for key OST features like optimized deduplication, AIR, and now OST WORM.

OST Write Once Read Many (“WORM”) is an OST feature that makes a backup image immutable.  Here’s how it works with Quantum DXi Backup Appliances:

image

So why do you care about all of these acronyms?   Because this is another, simple way that you can strengthen your data protection approaches, and your cybersecurity, by using this Veritas and Quantum combined solution.

If you are a Veritas NetBackup or BackupExec user, and whether you are a Quantum DXi customer or not, consider deploying DXi systems as part of your backup infrastructure.  To learn more about our DXi systems, go here . 

The post Expanding Quantum Support for the Veritas OST API, and Another Feature to Strengthen Cybersecurity appeared first on Quantum Blog .

To view our Partner blog, click here

Does Outsourcing Payroll Make Sense For Your Business?

CMMA Blog

For some businesses, getting out from under onboarding, vendor payment, classifying temporary employees, and other hiring/payroll demands makes all the difference. It can free them up to focus on the central aspects of their business.  Some of the top issues intertwined with payroll are overtime rules, federal and state compliance, insurance requirements for workers, benefit eligibility / management, and worker classification. Each of these issues is a world unto itself—with corresponding needs. It takes a solid foundation of knowledge to handle them accurately. Plus, anytime you’re dealing with payroll, the stakes are high! Businesses have an ethical obligation to pay people accurately and in a timely manner as well as a legal obligation to abide by the rules and regulations.

10 Questions to Help Determine if Hiring a Payroll Partner is Right For You

  1. Do you regularly hire independent contractors and/or temporary employees?
  2. Is the time required for said hiring and onboarding a stressor/hindrance to other aspects of your work?
  3. Does red tape ever cause frustrating bottlenecks?
  4. Has your company’s hiring process ever hindered you from being able to onboard a worker quickly enough to accomplish your goals?
  5. Have you ever made a bad hire because of a time crunch?
  6. Do you ever end up fighting payrolling fires?
  7. Would outsourcing payroll (and/or corresponding issues such as worker classification) free you up to focus on more profitable/interesting aspects of your business?
  8. Do concerns about compliance, worker classification, IRS audits, and workforce headcount keep you up at night?
  9. Have you ever lost favor with one of your best contractors by paying late?
  10. Do you have a reputation among contractors for paying late?

Not everyone needs a service to handle payroll. For those who do, though, it can be a game changer. If you answered yes to any of the questions above, it’s worth taking inventory and considering what kind of partners could change the way you do business.  A good partner makes classifying, onboarding, and paying freelancers painless, paperless, and personalized. Any company that needs quick/frequent access to qualified contractors or that wants to take all the risk out of dealing with the independent workforce could be a good candidate to outsource payroll. If that’s you, we’re ready to chat  about whether PayReel’s independent workforce engagement solutions make sense for you. It’s about time.

The post Does Outsourcing Payroll Make Sense For Your Business? appeared first on PayReel .

To view our Partner blog, click here

Worker Classification: The Billion Dollar Dispute

CMMA Blog

While many things remain in question right now, one thing we know for sure is that each year takes us ever further from the traditional employment model of our ancestors. As always, when things rapidly change, there’s a period of trial and error (emphasis on the trial) while we figure things out. What’s been changing (and getting litigated) in this case, has everything to do with how companies classify workers.

Worker classification battles are waging and the cost to companies is staggering. While many companies have long played the odds–liberally classifying workers as independent contractors to save money and hassle–the odds keep tipping more in favor of the house. This list  identifies the major worker classification disputes (and corresponding fines) that played out in 2021 alone. The cost is staggering.

 

As we stare down whatever lies around the bend, one thing is for sure: the government cares about worker classification issues and it’s one area they are very efficient in! Sate labor departments and the IRS share information to identify companies that are misclassifying employees as independent contractors. The number of audits and corresponding fines has been climbing steadily since 2010. The risks of non-compliance are high.

I understand that as we are continually adapting to changing environments, we are also desperately trying to fit all of our management tasks onto our already full plates. The increase in demand and uncertainty leaves even more reasons to get serious about a process for managing our contractors, freelancers, and consultants. Fortunately, every challenge can be overcome with the right game plan and the right partners. In this case, a partner that specializes in worker classification and payroll can turn some of the most dizzying and high stakes aspects of your business into a breeze. Pinky promise!

The post Worker Classification: The Billion Dollar Dispute appeared first on PayReel .

To view our Partner blog, click here