The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh was founded in 1670 and is one of Scotland’s most popular visitor destinations, employing over 250 people. As a registered charity and non-departmental public body, The Royal Botanic Garden must secure value for money.

As part of this, in 2019 CGI facilitated a change in payroll solution in order to provide a better service capable of decreasing the risk of payroll errors and increasing cost efficiencies. With a strong public sector market presence, over 40 years of experience and a trusted reputation among similar clients, most notably London’s Kew Gardens, CGI was selected as RBGE’s partner of choice.

Specialist expertise

CGI processes £13bn of salary payments every year and over 5 million payslips across 250 clients. RBGE has two monthly payrolls and a wide range of employment contracts to handle. With CGI’s fully managed payroll solution it knew it would be in safe hands.

CGI was able to offer RBGE the highest standards of security for its real-time accurate payroll data and reporting. A full disaster recovery capability and CGI’s specialised Cyber Security Business Unit meant that all RBGE operations could be reviewed to ensure best practice. Planting seeds of growth to support Botanical Garden payroll solutions © 2021 CGI Inc. CASE STUDY 2 Cutting-edge financial knowledge and expertise offered RBGE the ability to remain across ever-changing legislation and new pension reforms.

The fully-managed solution RBGE required included services for automatic handling of absence management, seamless on- and offboarding, process analysis, data management, recruitment and real time PAYE reporting. Its employees would not only get electronic payslips, but also be able to access their own password-secured payroll information to claim benefits, manage pensions or apply for mortgages.

Ease of transition

RBGE was able to procure its services quickly and efficiently, with complete clarity around pricing as CGI is a registered user of G Cloud, the public sector’s pre-approved digital marketplace. It could also benefit from CGI being part of a framework consortium, with benefits ranging from cost sharing of pension schemes to driving innovation around product development.

RBGE appreciated the smooth transition to its new payroll solution. A client satisfaction survey in the latter stages of this phase scored an impressive 9 out of 10, leading the way for implementation.

 

glasshouse-royal-botanic-garden
An accurate, bespoke payroll solution
 
Ease of use
Electronic payslips and employee payroll access 
 
High level cyber security
Large green house plants under a glass dome

Extra support to bloom

During the implementation phase, RBGE took advantage of CGI’s customised General Ledger (GL) work, offered over and above the fully managed service. CGI helped RBGE produce an essential reporting system to enable it to track its complex and varied payroll-related transactions, and ensure its information is as accurate and up to date as possible.

Excellent communication plays a vital role in CGI’s customer service. Like all clients, RBGE was given a dedicated Payroll Manager, supported by a team of six others, available at any time during working hours. RBGE also benefited from access to a Client Engagement Manager, responsible for designing and managing RBGE’s service to ensure that its exact and changing requirements are met. With this team in place, CGI can guarantee that any issues RBGE might have with its payroll are responded to swiftly and dealt with efficiently.