SafeGuard World International (SGWI) has emerged as a leading force in the global payroll market by focusing on cloud technology and serving the needs of multinational clients. In 2006 when SGWI launched its international payroll solution, the global payroll landscape was vastly different. Today, there are over 80,000 multinational companies and globalization is increasing, bringing greater challenges for payroll processing. SGWI has grown from 11 employees to over 300 by designing its services around what clients want through an agile, innovative approach. In 2015, SGWI will continue to disrupt the market through new employee and client portal technologies that will raise the bar for competitors.

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WHAT’S
INSIDE
january 2015
Cover stars
SafeGuard World chart
their journey through
international payroll
HMRC engages
with payroll
Stakeholder group
set up to deal with
employment and
PAYE issues / p5
Uptown Top
Ranking
Roll out the red carpet
for Rank Group’s
payroll manager
Steven Hughes / p24
Autumn
Statement update
The government’s
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decoded by Simon
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2. ●● In 2006 the global
payroll market was a vastly
different landscape, as was
SafeGuard World ●●
january / 201522
International
cover models
Human Capital Management (HCM) and so
on. Global payroll is going through the same
evolution. Cloud technology has enabled a
revolutionary way of processing multinational
payroll and SafeGuard World International
(SGWI) has emerged as the leading force in
the market. In fact it is now considered as the
market “disrupter”.
Multinational rise
Today there are over 80,000 multinationals
and globalisation is on the increase. The
rapid pace and demanding requirements
of the modern day global company means
that businesses are able to operate in more
countries with greater ease than ever before.
Naturally, this brings with it an increasing
number of challenges.
In 2006 the global payroll market was a
vastly different landscape, as was SGWI. At
the time SGWI solely focused on the domestic
UK market. At that time, founder and chief
guardian of the business, Bjorn Reynolds,
scrutinized the challenges facing the payroll
industry and realised that with this new era
of the single contract, the single technology
global payroll market was underserved, and
the companies that had entered into it were
massively falling short of market expectations.
Together with his executive team they
launched their international solution. One of
the early clients was FedEx which this year
has re-contracted for a further five-year term
and will now be SGWI’s first ten-year client.
In 2011 SGWI received high-praise from
the world leading advisory company Gartner,
referring to SGWI as “the young aggressive
disrupter in the market”.
“We felt great about that statement,”
says Neil Carpenter, SVP of SGWI’s Global
Managed Payroll division. “It summarised
everything we wanted to achieve; to disrupt
the marketplace by being agile, innovative and
focusing on our clients’ successes.”
Last year, 2014, has been a record year
for SGWI, with the company growing from
its early days of just 11 staff to more than
300. And 2015 is going to be a landmark
year again, as SGWI really looks to propel the
industry to new heights.
Confident growth
So what made SGWI different and able to
gain a client base that is the envy of the
market? “It’s a few key factors,” explains
Bjorn. “People and our passion to deliver
and focus on what our clients wanted and
needed. Technology too, enabling people to
have a single system to manage their end-to-
end payroll processes and reporting, and, as
luck would have it, timing.
“We entered this market when others were
not doing it, we designed how we deliver for
clients around what is important for them
and focused on getting it right for our clients.
Our competitors are everything from local,
A
few years after SafeGuard World
started in 1969, a band called Dr.
Hook made it onto the cover of
the iconic music magazine Rolling
Stone after lamenting in a song that, despite
their success, they had never been featured
in it before. The world has changed an
awful lot since then, but as a celebration of
our 40 year heritage we wanted the payroll
community to know that, in the spirit of Dr.
Hook, we too had made it… onto the cover
of Payroll World!
So, with 2015 ahead of us what are the
main developments we expect to see in the
international payroll market?
Undoubtedly, the advent of cloud
computing has fundamentally changed the
technological infrastructure within businesses,
leading to arguably the largest vendor
replacement cycles we have ever seen.
The cloud transformation has seen new
forces emerge to replace the old legacy
companies: Salesforce.com in Customer
Relationship Management (CRM), Workday in
SAFEGUARD / COVER STORY
Advertorial
They made it onto the cover of Payroll World, now in their own words
payroll experts, SafeGuard World International, outline the rapid
changes shaking up the international payroll market alongside the
transformative journey their organisation has been on in recent years
Bjorn Reynolds, SafeGuard founder
Spot the difference: Rolling Stone from 1973
alongside PW in 2015
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3. ll Other players in the market will need to invest
further in their solutions and technology in order
to keep pace with us ll
payrollworld.com 23
spreadsheet-based payroll in-country to multi-
billion dollar firms but the difference is the way
we shaped the service around clients and
worked hard to make them happy.
“In 2015 our mantra is very much ‘create
a legacy don’t buy one’. Other players in
the market will need to invest further in their
solutions and technology in order to keep
pace with us.”
Straight in
This month SGWI will launch its innovative
Employee Portal with a fresh Client Portal
following closely behind. SGWI chief
technology officer, Tristan Woods, notes: “The
tools our clients and their employees use as
part of our service delivery are key. We’re
taking our current technology to a new level,
built around a ‘mobile first’ philosophy. Our
new tools enable our clients to push payroll
inputs, command and control, report, analyse
their payrolls and Interact with us through one
SGWI are a provider of global managed
payroll, global employment outsourcing
and global workforce solutions. Founded
in the UK but now headquartered in
Austin, Texas in the USA, they provide
services to some of the world’s most
recognisable companies.
More information can be found at
www.safeguardworld.com
SafeGuard staff do ‘the Bolt’ in honour of the world’s fastest man, Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt
application on any device in any language.
“Our employee portal will enable them to
have a truly locally-compliant but globally-
holistic self-service experience for their
staff. We’re binding the social methods of
employees and the payroll teams interacting
with each other.
“These tools are intuitive to use, taking all
the best learnings from what clients want and
capitalising on how mobile technologies have
revolutionised the way people work. This will
continue to disrupt the market and raise the
bar again for our competitors.”
SGWI feel the future is bright with plenty of
opportunity. “Going global is now easier than
ever for any size company, but navigating
legislation and the procedural path is difficult
for them,” says Bjorn. “We are on a journey to
build a legacy business that makes history in
our space. We see the next ten years being
the time when we build SGWI into a $5Bn
business. With fantastic people on board and
our ability to support market leading clients,
we firmly believe we’re well positioned to
create that legacy. We have had great fun and
work with amazing people who are enjoying
growing a great business and are so excited
about the vibrancy of the market and the
future ahead. As one of our favourite songs
goes: ‘We have had all kind of thrills, but the
thrill that we’ve never known, is the thrills
that’ll get-ya when you get your picture on
the cover of Payroll World’.”
Lesley Parr , SGWI’s first employee
SGWI’s staff signature wall in their office
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