No.2010003

Business Challenge

The Solution and Implementation

Tragus was formed in 2002 and is one of the UK’s largest independently owned restaurant chain operators offering a range of food from pizza and pasta to French classics. It is home to the leading high street brands Café Rouge, Bella Italia and Strada.

Tragus required a web-based HR and labour management solution with integrated payroll. The main objectives were:-

Combine six PAYE companies into a single PAYE company for the group Implement the full solution in time for the April 2009 start of tax year (a 12 week implementation) Reduce labour costs Improve control and reporting of labour within the business Reduce management time spent on payroll processing Streamline processes, standards, terms and conditions across seven major brands

Fourth Hospitality and Tragus worked successfully in partnership to implement a single HR, labour scheduling and payroll system – in conjunction with fully managed bureau service across 287 locations, with a total of 7105 employees in 13 different brands.

The project was completed in 12 weeks from start to finish including a six week pilot comprising of the 11 most different cross-brand restaurants in order to capture and test variations prior to full roll-out.

The project team comprised of nine individuals from Fourth and Tragus plus the support of the restaurant management team. During the project, weekly conference calls were held with area managers of pilot sites to gain feedback and make any changes as required.

Following a successful pilot, the people system was implemented with training sessions for 287 restaurant managers and 29 area managers which amounted to 30 training sessions all completed within a two-week period.

Since successful implementation of the project, the two companies have continued to work in partnership to facilitate a continuous stream of ongoing improvements and enhancements.

Case Study: Tragus

Fourth’s payroll and labour management integration is their differentiator. Other providers were simply not on the same page!

Mohan MansiganiTragus GroupChief Financial Officer

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The Results

people systemEmployee lifecycle management from HR and scheduling to payroll and benefits Provides:

Fully integrated, on demand management of HR, scheduling and payroll 2-7% saving on wage cost Adherence to statutory compliance (including tronc) Management of staff training Payroll module with experienced and specialist payroll team Biometric identification T&A system

The experience and expertise of the combined Fourth/Tragus project team meant all the project objectives were successfully met on budget and on time.

Key project achievements were:

Integrated payroll system with outsourced payroll bureau Single system, removal of data and effort duplication (replaced 4 systems with 1) Management timesaving at restaurant level (avg three hours per week) Improvements to accuracy of holiday pay calculations and NMW compliance. Elimination of back pay and supplementary pay runs. Full rate of pay management and pay increase approvals – including streamlined processes for managing cross charges between restaurants

Tragus has seen benefits in three main areas:

1. More accurate pay for employees 2. Saving restaurant managers time 3. Driving cost savings through a superb integrated labour management system to provide management information and a process that facilitates savings. The system paid for itself in three months.

Tragus now has 1000 users using the application on a daily basis whether it’s adding employees, checking employee eligibility to work, scheduling employees, running reports, authorising payroll or viewing payslips.

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Key Statistics

3 national brands 270 sites across the UK More than 20 million meals served annually

Jan Feb March April May June July

1st project meeting

Sign off& rollover

ROIAchieved

2009

Pilot, testing &configuration

Go Liveon all Sites

From the start we knew this was going to be a big challenge because changing payroll systems is never easy, particularly within these timescales. However, this solution has transformed our business in a very short space of time and we could not run our business without it.

Mike CassTragus Group Financial controller

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