NIKI GAMM
ISTANBUL- Turkish Daily News
Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Datassist has been offering payroll outsourcing services to companies in Turkey since 1999. The purpose of this service is to convince clients to target growth on quality of service rather than on profits

A technology-oriented human resources company, Datassist, has managed to firmly established itself in Turkey as a payroll application service provider (ASP) despite the 2001 financial crisis that affected so many businesses.

“I want to highlight that we have a very successful team; the importance of a well-trained team is unquestionable. We also think we are responsible for the cultivation of the sector,” General Manager Ayse Uca, who set up the company in 1999, told the Turkish Daily News.

“I worked for many years in fields intersecting with payroll and labor law. I tried to obtain the highest possible understanding in every company I have worked as either a certified public accountant or finance manager,” Uca said, adding that after settling down she began looking for a business that could be standardized in the same way and could give her free time for other projects and would grow steadily.

“During all those years of experience in finance when several economic crises occurred, I learned to look to the future. I saw how big companies suffered while small ones stayed afloat in massive crises; how big companies became flexible and small companies bought services that could be expensive if kept within the company. I ended up with the idea of outsourcing and I choose the specific section ‘payroll outsourcing,'” Uca said.

In 1999 it was risky to pioneer in Turkey because it was so little understood and there were actually no such companies in the country. But Uca is a determined woman of patience, vision and good organizational abilities.

“I was not sure if the sector was ready to receive such a service but the strength and speed of the winds blowing from the west were obvious. The number of investors in Turkey was increasing each day and this was giving the first signals of the upcoming demand for this service. It was risky indeed but I observed and realized the failures of Turkey's various consultancy companies lied in their broad scope of interest. So I decided to focus on a narrower niche subject,” said Uca.

The economic 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 Turkish investors have yet to warm to outsourcing, a great number of Datassist's clients are international. The market penetration of payroll services is very small, but there is a lot of potential for this business in the future. What lies behind Uca's success is that she firmly believes in concentrating on the company's main activities, the outsourcing of payroll services and the impact of labor law implications on payroll.

“I am a strong believer in focusing only on the main activities, this is the soul of outsourcing. Yes, we do training as well as payroll services but just for payroll and the labor law implications of payroll. Datassist organizes training twice a year on payroll and labor law applications to contribute to the development of the people working in this field. Another training course takes place in Istanbul Technical University's human resource program, aiming to improve the students' abilities in practical applications,” Uca said.

“In addition, Datassist sends a bi-monthly newsletter to inform human resources (HR)-related parties. They seek to inform the public further on the subject via the Internet. One such Web site is www.iskanunu.com (laborlaw.com), where questions of labor law applications are answered and published,” she said.

“In addition, our company has educational publications on the subject. The first book was ‘Guide to Labor Law Applications' and next will be ‘Guide to Payroll Calculations.' Their foundation is the fact that knowledge only grows as it is being shared,” Uca said.

Having dealt with the necessary technology for three years, Uca believes it gave her an exceptional ability to use the new technology and to transform this experience into an HR company. Datassist started developing BordroNET two years after it was established. At first, BordroNet was developed to serve Datassist's clients. It is the first payroll ASP in Turkey, an application as competitive as any other similar application in America or other well-developed countries. The new target is to turn it into a complete HR application.

BordroNET was quite an expensive project, Uca said, adding that it was necessary to provide high quality service. “Priorities are very important in business,” she said, explaining, “every company first aims to stay on its feet, and then grow. In my opinion, growth should not focus on the profit but on the quality of service.

“The purpose of the assistance provided is to convince clients to target growth in the quality of service rather than in making a profit. In the larger picture, growth is directly related to investments that will improve quality. That was just what we did, and we are content with the results. Once in a while, we get a customer who comes to us because they have received a response of ‘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,” Uca said.

Kaynak: Turkish Daily News