Datassist is Turkey's only company giving service on payroll and labor law applications is in constant raise in terms of both customer profile and service quality.

What was the idea behind Datassist? How is started?

For many years, I have practiced in fields intersecting with payroll and labor law. I tried to obtain the highest possible experience in every company I have worked for as either CPA or Finance Manager. After settling down on my own, I was looking for a business that can be standardized in same way, could be give me free time for other project and grow steadily.

During all those years of experience in finance with have had several economical crises, how to deal with the though days I have also learnt to look into the future. I observe how big companies suffer and how small one stays on the surface in massive crises. The way how big companies get flexible and small companies buy services that can be expensive within the company. I ended up with the idea of outsourcing and I choose the specific section which I found of "payroll outsourcing".

That should be risky at those days

It was risky indeed but I observe and realized the failures of turkey's various consultancy companies due to their broad scope of interest. So I decided to focus on a narrower but a niche subject.

The vitality of that investment, called "prevision" but It's not enough. At that time almost all HR companies were foreign investors. Yet, without the power of an international brand and investment behind me, while I was taking the  first step, all I  could do, was hope to have fore castled the force of the winds. But I believed I am strong; along with my prevision patience, stubbornness and ability of organization.

In those days it was quite risky to start a payroll company, but the market was empty. I wasn't sure if the sector was ready to receive such service but the strength and speed of the winds blowing from the west was obvious. The number of the investors in Turkey were increasing day by day and this was giving the first signals of  the oncoming demand for this service. The economical crisis of 2001 was  a good opportunity for outsourcing companies, as it caused many organizations to shrink and realize the importance of the flexibility brought by outsourcing. "Since Turkey's investors still are cold towards outsourcing, a great number of Datassist's clients are international. The market penetration of the payroll services is very small, there is a lot of potential for this business in the future.

You brand your ability and knowledge on payroll and employment with new technology places Datassist on a different  track than their competitors. While dealing with technology, we expect that the person behind it would have such a background. Yet, that's not the case how it is possible?

Right from the beginning, it was clear that Datassist was to be a technology-oriented company. We established two different companies were formed under the brand Datassist in 1999 with my Australian partner Donald William Bursill. One of them was a payroll outsourcing company which was my profession the other an ISP it was my partner interest, a Corperate Internet Service Provider. Being affected fatally from the 2001 crisis, as most other technology based investments, the ISP stopped operating. Yet,"you can lose but don't lose the lesson"  my bitter experience with the ISP was vital for the technological base of the payroll outsourcing company. Dealing three years with the technology gives me intents ability how use the new technology and how to transform this experience into HR company. Two years after the start  establishment, we started developing BordroNET.

At first, BordroNet was developed to provide service to Datassis's clients. In time it has turned in to the first payroll ASP (application service provider) of Turkey; an application as competitive as any other similar application in America or other well developed countries. Our new target is to make it into a complete HR application.

I must admit BordroNET was quite an expensive project but it was necessary to provide high quality service. The priorities are very important in business. Every company first targets to stay on it's feet, and then grow. In my opinion, growth should not focus on the profit, but on the quality of service. In the larger picture, growth is directly related to the investments that'll improve the quality. That was just the thing we did, and we're content with the results. Once in a while, we get a customer who come to us because they have received an answer as "sorry, we don't have the necessary system to make such detailed payroll the way you want". From other companies. We can provide good service to them because we know we have such flexibility.  I also want to highlight that we have a very successful team;the importance of a well trained team is unquestionable. We also think we're responsible in the cultivation of our sector.

I know you provide training as well, could you please mentioned a little bit about your training?

I am the strong believer of focus on only main activities, this the the soul of outsourcing. Yes we do training as well as payroll services but just for payroll and labor law implications of payroll. Twice a year Datassit organizes trainings on payroll and labor law application to contribute to the development of the ones working on this field. Another training  takes place in ITÜ human resource program, aiming to improve the students' ability on practical applications.

Besides, Datassist has a newsletter sent to inform HR related parties twice a month. Moreover, they seek to inform the public further on the subject via the web. One of these is www.iskanunu.com (laborlaw.com), where questions on labor law applications are answered and published.

In addition, our company has educational publications on the subject. Their first book was  "Guide on Labor Law Applications" and next will be "Guide on Payroll Calculations". Their starting point is the fact that "only knowledge grows as its being shared"

As a lady entrepreneur and without the back up from your family what is the key to your success?

First of every business should have good purpose that include the help other people and ease their life. Payroll is really mundane task and have no added value if you manage do to it in excellence. On the other hand if it is done inadvertent could cause big consequences. I want companies not to involve with the activities that throttle back in their competitive race. Beside the good purpose, in step with the ever competitive globalization, one needs to to create again and again and never stop creating.

One more thing, I also believe being too serious ruin your success. I always have fun while working and tried to make my team have fun too. Life is game and people have to ability how to play have fun and successful. When something become so serious your mussels is tighten up and your inner source drain.  And life is not enjoyable adventure anymore.

www.datassist.com
0212 275 02 00