Upgrade or customize? StarGarden helps minimize internal resource costs

This Fire Department was using an earlier version of StarGarden, and relied on customizations to meet their changing requirements.

Download our eBook on Its Time for an Upgrade

Too Many Customizations = Overtly Complicated Maintenance

The Fire Services system had become overly complicated due to using a largely customized version of StarGarden that had been installed in the early 1990s. These complications led to issues in their organization:

Users were frustrated with the complexities of the system
The StarGarden system administrator was finding it more and more difficult to support the users
The system was entirely dependent on one or two technical resources to keep it running and produce the weekly payroll
Management was concerned about their dependency on key resources and feared an abrupt system failure and breakdown

StarGarden was called to help simplify and streamline their HR and payroll system

How did StarGarden help?

StarGarden encouraged Fire Services to get back as closely to the standard product version as possible
StarGarden consultants created a list of the old customizations, which Fire Services used to verify whether they were still needed
Customizations that were required were upgraded to the latest standards and implemented into the new release of StarGarden
From the lists of customizations, StarGarden consultants were able to create testing plans for Fire Services to verify that the system and its customizations worked as expected and required

All of the complicated pay and benefit requirements were mapped out and reviewed in the system.
The users were able to simultaneously test and learn the new payroll system that they had participated in customizing; their input was reviewed and changes made to accommodate internal procedures.

By upgrading to the latest release of the StarGarden product, Fire Services was able to:

Reinstate support and have redundancy for their critical resources needed to execute the payrolls.
Take advantage of regular updates as well as the functionality improvements that had occurred in the years since they originally installed the system.
Include user input in the upgrade to make the system work better for them.
Train their Internal users to be more efficient at using the system
Relieve their management of their concern about having support redundancy for such a critical application

Fire department upgrading its customized StarGarden HR and payroll system to the standard release

System upgrade

Upgrade or customize? Cutting internal effort by getting back to standard

A fire department had relied on StarGarden since the early 1990s, but years of customizations had left its HR and payroll system fragile, hard to maintain, and dependent on just one or two technical people to run weekly payroll. By upgrading back toward the standard product, the department restored stability, support, and redundancy, and made the system easier for everyone to use.

Weighing an upgrade against yet more customization? Our eBook, It's Time for an Upgrade, walks through how to make the call.

Get the Upgrade eBook

The challenge

Heavy customization, layered on since the early 1990s, had made the system overly complex and risky. It left the department with:

Users frustrated by how complicated the system had become
A system administrator struggling to keep those users supported
Total reliance on one or two technical people to run weekly payroll
Management worried about that dependency, and the risk of a sudden failure

How StarGarden helped

StarGarden focused on simplifying back toward the standard product:

Encouraged a return to the standard version wherever possible
Listed every existing customization so the department could decide what was still needed
Rebuilt the customizations that mattered to current standards and folded them into the new release
Created testing plans from those lists so the team could confirm everything worked
Mapped and reviewed all the complex pay and benefit rules
Let users test and learn the new system they had helped shape, and acted on their feedback

The results

By upgrading to the latest release of StarGarden, the department was able to:

Restore proper support and build redundancy for the people who run payroll
Benefit from regular updates and the improvements made since the original install
Shape the upgrade around real user input
Train internal users to work more efficiently
Ease management's concern about depending on a few key people for a critical system

Maintaining a heavily customized system? See how StarGarden helps you upgrade to a simpler, better supported platform.

Book a Demo

Upgrade or customize? StarGarden helps minimize internal resource costs

Too Many Customizations = Overtly Complicated Maintenance

StarGarden was called to help simplify and streamline their HR and payroll system

By upgrading to the latest release of the StarGarden product, Fire Services was able to:

Upgrade or customize? Cutting internal effort by getting back to standard

The challenge

How StarGarden helped

The results

Maintaining a heavily customized system? See how StarGarden helps you upgrade to a simpler, better supported platform.

CONTACT US

CONTACT INFO

STARGARDEN

Quick Links

StarGarden

Essential HR

Extended HR

Payroll

Workflow

Industries We Serve

Resources