Hoyts ditches Telstra as internet costs bite

Australian cinema giant Hoyts has just completed a move from Telstra to TPG for its internet service, citing spiralling costs as the primary reason for the migration.

Speaking to ZDNet Australia at the launch of the new QkR in-cinema ordering system last night, Chris Robinson, support services manager for Hoyts Australia, said that the cinema chain has just finished moving its nationwide internet business to TPG.

"We left [Telstra] due to [high] costs," Robinson said, adding that Hoyts doesn't have just the connectivity needs of its cinemas to consider.

"We have Hoyts and Val Morgan, for shopping centres and cinema [advertising]," he said. So far, TPG has come through with the goods for the Hoyts Corporation. "TPG were the best on price, they're great in customer service and the coverage is always there."

Hoyts' ISP migration is just one aspect of a larger plan in place to bolster the technology backbone of the cinema network to better serve customers, according to Robinson.

The QkR app is a world first on in-cinema ordering technology, developed in tandem with MasterCard Labs. The app allows La Premiere patrons to order food and drinks right to their seats during a movie, eliminating the need for them to leave the cinema midway through the movie. Matthew Ezra, director of Retail, Food and Beverage for Hoyts, said that the company deferred the launch of the service pre-Christmas to avoid giving people a botched experience.

"We had hopes that it might have happened [before Christmas], but for Hoyts, Boxing Day week is the busiest. We didn't want a bad consumer experience," said Ezra of the app.

"We weren't comfortable rolling it out pre-Christmas. We had issues with telcos and reception, scanning issues, the difference between 2D and 3D QR codes," Ezra added.

Wireless connection in particular was an issue, Ezra said. The app itself requires an active data connection to function, which, in some instances, has presented a challenge to Robinson and his team.

As a result, Hoyts is currently in talks with all of the major telcos to boost the signal inside Hoyts cinemas to allow customers to take advantage of the new technology.

"If you didn't have [phone] reception, you couldn't order," Robinson said of the app. "Vodafone seems to be the weakest across the board," Robinson added, while mentioning that Hoyts is talking with the once-beleaguered telco about installing signal boosters to counter said problem.

Robinson and his team are also considering in-cinema Wi-Fi for cinema patrons at some point in the future.

Ezra said that the consideration will depend on how the deployment of mobile, Wi-Fi-enabled candy-bar carts, which are directly integrated into the existing point-of-sale system, fares with customers.

Ezra told ZDNet Australia that Hoyts is set to deploy 40 Wi-Fi-enabled candy-bar carts to 20 sites around the country.

When you come into the cinema, the mission is to get yourself the best seat, he said, adding that in future, it might be an option for users outside of La Premiere to order food directly to their seats, so that they don't have to give up a prime position.

Source http://www.zdnet.com.au/hoyts-ditches-telstra-as-internet-costs-bite-339330293.htm

USCIS Announces 58 Countries Whose Nationals are Eligible for H-2A and H-2B Participation

Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in consultation with the Department of State, has identified 58 countries whose nationals are eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B programs for the coming year. The notice listing eligible countries will publish in tomorrow’s Federal Register. Each country’s designation is valid for one year from the date of publication.

The H-2A and H-2B programs allow U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs and temporary nonagricultural jobs, respectively. USCIS generally may only approve H-2A and H-2B petitions for nationals of countries the Secretary of Homeland Security has designated as eligible to participate in the programs. USCIS may approve H-2A and H-2B petitions for nationals of countries not on the list if it is determined to be in the interest of the United States.

Effective Jan. 18, 2012, nationals of the following 58 countries are eligible to participate in the H-2A and

H-2B programs: Argentina, Australia, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kiribati, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Nauru, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Samoa, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay and Vanuatu.

In addition to the 53 countries currently on the list, the following five countries were designated for the first time this year: Haiti, Iceland, Montenegro, Spain and Switzerland.

This new list does not immediately affect the status of beneficiaries who are currently in the United States in H-2A or H-2B status, unless they apply to change or extend their status.

For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit www.uscis.gov or follow us on Twitter (@uscis), YouTube (/uscis) and the USCIS blog The Beacon.

Source http://www.ilw.com/immigrationdaily/news/2012,0118-h2ah2b.shtm

Payroll’s great cloud migration

SMEs are rushing to outsource payroll services in order to become more focused and productive, and ultimately more prosperous. Kevin Kevany has been scanning the payroll horizon for other new trends and developments too.

The Christmas just past was another ‘season to be jolly’ for most of us. But for those in New Zealand’s (and we should probably make that Australasia’s) highly-competitive payroll industry, most of the companies we interviewed were busy adding two or three new customers each working day, while many were ‘kicking back’ after another tough year.

Comments like “it’s high season,” “the best in a long while”, “I’m sorry, but I’m just too busy to talk right now”, flowed from the red-hot mobiles of the senior executives late in 2011 sensing “the best year-end market in a while”.

The consensus is that SMEs, in particular, are increasingly recognising that they have no option in the current low-growth economy but to become more focused and productive if they are to succeed. And with the high levels of customer service and competitive pricing being facilitated by smarter and smarter technology and software available to the payroll sector, “this is the moment to outsource time and resource distractions like payrolls, and be ready to hit 2012 running,” according to one highly-pressured executive.

The outsourcing of payrolls to a multitude of companies offering a permutation of ‘off-the-peg’ solutions, SaaS and ‘cloud-based’ services has been a major feature of the last decade, as one person’s drudgery became others’ golden opportunity to provide a service which just keeps on growing.

Speaking at a staff celebration at a Taupo resort to celebrate the tenth birthday of New Zealand-owned online payroll provider, iPayroll Ltd, MD and online industry pioneer Martin Gleeson recalled that when he and co-founder Cary Thomson launched the company back in 2001, Amazon, Internet banking and services such as Trade Me and eBay were in their infancy.

“We’ve seen a lot of action in our first ten years as we’ve had to keep innovating and delivering to stay ahead of the curve,” says Gleeson. “As more and more businesses migrate to the ‘cloud’ we have been well-positioned to take advantage of that business model’s development.”

He also drew attention and “took pride in the fact” that ten people, a third of iPayroll’s current employees, had been with the company from the get-go.

“I believe that must be some sort of record for the industry and I would like to think it is a reflection of the dynamism and the solid client relationships we have enjoyed over the period too. That was a highlight for me, as I don’t think many companies in the IT services industry could match that achievement,” Gleeson says, noting they are processing “upwards of $1.5 billion per year”.

“That and the fact that we continue to be the country’s largest PAYE intermediary, with over $6.5 billion in client payrolls processed to date. On the back of that, we decided the time was right to open an office in Melbourne. CloudPayroll Pty Ltd is a fully-owned Australian subsidiary of iPayroll Ltd and has been trading since June.

“In truth, we jumped the gun a little bit, quietly establishing our Australian base earlier this year, so that we could ensure it was up and running successfully by our tenth birthday. I’m particularly pleased to say we already have clients in all the Australian states, and a staff of four, trained in our systems and culture,” says Gleeson.

Interestingly, the company was not intimidated by the move to ‘cross the ditch’.
“Being conservative in our approach in whatever we do, we researched the market thoroughly and found iPayroll was a good four-to-five years ahead of the market, so we’ve slipped in without fuss or raising our profile. Obviously we’ve still got a long way to go before we can say we’ve cracked it,” Gleeson says.

Competitive pricing

The consolidation of ‘cloud’ computing has caused others in the industry to challenge for a piece of the Aussie pie too. And that’s largely good news for local SMEs, with suppliers sharpening their pricing pencils.

Privately-owned iDt Limited, with offices in Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and employing over 50 staff, describes itself as ‘a leading Australasian provider of time and attendance solutions’ following its acquisition of Australian competitor Bio Recognition Systems (BRS).

“We’ve had our own development team for a long time now,” says MD Geoff Burnett. “However the IP and existing code which came as part of the acquisition will provide a significant leap forward in that we will be able to bring a number of innovations to both the local and Australian markets in the coming months.
“We will be putting major effort into not only bringing new solutions to market, but also changing the way they are delivered,” says Burnett on their plans for ‘cloud-based’ solutions.

2012 challenges

Other than the cost and efficiency benefits which flow from the payroll industry’s move to be Australasian and ‘cloud-based’, what else can local SME owner/managers look forward to in 2012?

MYOB general manager Julian Smith, as you’d expect, is right up with the play. “While 2011 did not see as many significant changes, businesses are still managing regular updates to legislation which have an impact on pay rates and compliance.
“In 2012 several key changes to KiwiSaver established in the 2011 Budget will come into effect, including the removal of the employer superannuation contribution tax (ESCT) exemption threshold, which employers will need to manage.”

The Budget also introduced changes to student loans, including new tax codes and reporting requirements. Employers and employees will have to go through the learning curve and management of student loan repayments based on pay period values, rather than an annual income – this according to PayGlobal COO Stephen Canning. “Groups likely to be affected will be students with student loans working during their holidays and employees in the lower income brackets with more than one job.”

“Paying staff correctly is one of the most important measures for any business, and staff will quickly become dissatisfied – as potentially will the IRD – if their pays are inaccurate or running late. The two key measures of the effectiveness of a payroll system are the time it takes and accuracy,” says MYOB’s Smith.

“Whether businesses elect to manage their payroll in-house or outsource – as is becoming increasingly popular – is a matter of resourcing and control. If SMEs don’t have the experience or time to manage a payroll, then an outsourced bureau can be worth considering. There are a large number of specialist bureau services and accounting practices providing payroll services – often using MYOB Payroll to support their systems,” says Smith, adding that more than two million New Zealand IRD tax returns are filed annually using MYOB.

He believes the big plus of an MYOB solution beyond “its powerful features and ease of use” is that it can take customers from a simple entry payroll through to an enterprise solution. This allows customers to expand their staff numbers or increase the complexity of their pay system, while being supported by an MYOB solution – right through the lifecycle of the business.

In terms of recent developments, we have recently seen the innovation of the Payslip Kiosk, empowering employees to manage their own affairs, and Payroll Giving – a free service for clients and their employees, providing immediate tax credits for employees for donations to 24 registered charities.

So what else is ‘in the works’ or an emerging trend?

Well, extracting more value from your system is perhaps the big one.
Evan Lyon, director of Keylink Payroll Services has been in the payroll business for as long as he can remember.

"This business is really all about the service and backup you provide. At all times, we aim to be ‘0800 Fix me up’; not ‘0800 P…me off’.

“Customers are looking to get more value from their payroll system. One way of doing this is to use the payroll to generate job and/or cost centre ‘costing’ information – to help analyse profitability.

“To facilitate this, time needs to be recorded by employees against jobs and/or cost centres. This can be done by writing down time spent on job cards, or by the use of time clocks that allow employees to record the job they are clocking into when they arrive, and again when they change jobs during the day. The payroll system then processes this data to generate costing reports.

“Using your payroll system in this way can be a very cost-effective method of generating costing information and so allowing businesses to identify where improvement is required, and where time is being lost each day.

“We have offered this on our existing system, and it is very cost-effective in our new payroll system, far more so than deploying a standalone-solution,” says Lyon, noting that the Keylink system remains flexible enough to capture faxed information, which is ‘still very much in demand’.

Where to start?

With so many payroll platforms and options available, what is the best way for an SME to approach the market when considering an upgrade?

“Companies of all sizes need to consider their return on investment by asking how a solution will increase efficiency in their business”, says PayGlobal’s Stephen Canning.

“For example, how many staff carry out manual award interpretation that could be automated in a new system?

“Do you do still do manual timesheet entry and how long does this take – one FTE? Half an FTE? What does this salary equate to versus using a time capture device like a finger scanner or clock cards with an automatic T&A award interpreter?
“How many different awards does your organisation have and are they compliant? And how much wage slippage occurs annually such as overpayments? Could these be reduced with a different system?”

Canning says it’s important to identify your top three areas for process improvements, cost savings and risk mitigation (think business continuity). “Do not select a payroll and workforce management solution based on cost alone. Look at the value that can be added by optimising internal processes and reducing cost and errors. Look at the value that can be found in your payroll and HR data through analytics and business intelligence. Good decisions are made from good quality information.

“Consider your future needs as well as current needs – for example, hosted solutions instead of infrastructure in-house and future markets for your business. You might be expanding into Australia, so perhaps chose a system that is compliant in both countries.”

Evaluate the provider, suggests Canning. Are they reliable and trusted? Do they have strong relationships with payroll professional bodies and government departments and are they used by businesses in your industry?
“Ask for customer reference sites that you can speak to and have a checklist of areas that are important by rank. Not every solution can do everything,” says Canning.

Behind the times?

Attache’s MD, Mike Rich is co-author of the ‘Business Improvement Guide’, which contains 700 tactics to improve your business. The Payroll Efficiency section has more than 140 tactics.

“New Zealand is, I believe, behind the times when it comes to medium-sized-business payrolls (typically $1 million to $50 million annual sales and the biggest future growth and employer sector in the economy).

“The trend elsewhere in this space is to all-in-one systems where financial software – debtors, stock, etc – also includes CRM, dashboards, business intelligence etc, plus payroll in one totally integrated system,” he says. “For example, our Attaché All-In-One.

“We charge a single licence fee; the product is quick and easy to master; ‘one price fits all’ irrespective of the number of employees, and while there is a place for third-party add-ons, that should only be in specialist areas like rostering, electronic time clocks, etc.”

Rich is disappointed that “many of the better New Zealand payroll companies still charge by the number of employees.”

A final thought from Rich: “One of the greatest benefits of intelligent business systems is that staff become more productive, because they have tools which make their job easier, faster and most importantly, more enjoyable.

“This helps increase revenue per employee through increased productivity and improved customer satisfaction.”

Kevin Kevany is an Auckland-based freelance writer. Email kevwrite@xtra.co.nz.

Source http://www.nzbusiness.co.nz/afa.asp?idWebPage=13579&idAdrenalin_Articles=1585&SID=667346895

Investors taking a punt on education as Navitas finds major backer

Hyperion Asset Management - which manages more than $3 billion in Australian equities - has lifted its stake in education provider Navitas to 6.4 per cent from 5.2 per cent.

NAVITAS operates pathway colleges and managed campuses and is Australia’s largest English language provider. The group delivered more than 13 million teaching hours to 83,000 students in 23 countries in 2011 but is targeting a bigger bite of the international tertiary education cherry, a sector which is set to grow to 8.2 million enrolments by 2025 from a current 3.3 million.

“Compared to a few years ago, it’s more expensive for international students to come to Australia but relative to other major regions like the US, Britain and Canada, it’s still attractive from both a price and security point of view,” Hyperion senior portfolio manager Joel Gray told Deal Journal Australia, describing the attacks on Indian students between 2005 and 2009 as non-recurring.

The fund manager is taking advantage of the market’s focus on the decline in student enrolment which were down 9.2 per cent on the prior period in the third semester of 2011.

Though Navitas itself has welcomed the government’s acceptance of all 41 recommendations of the Knight review into an inbound student visa program, it does not expect a rebound until the beginning of 2013.

“[It] now presents a series of measures which will signal to the world that Australia values international students and wants to welcome them back,” Navitas chief executive Rod Jones said last year.

The Knight review was instigated to provide the government with guidance on how to enhance the continued competitiveness of the international education sector and to strengthen the integrity of the student visa program.

Hyperion is also confident in Navitas’s US rollout model, where it intends to partner with established universities to create a footprint in one of the world’s largest education markets. It is currently associated with the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth, Lowell and Boston, the University of New Hampshire and Western Kentucky University.

Navitas is currently trading at $3.31 a share and has a market capitalisation of $1.2 billion.

Mergers and acquisitions activity in the education sector has recently experienced an upswing.

In November, Pearson announced it would acquire NASDAQ-listed Global Education and Technology Group in China for a $250 million. The company is a provider of test preparation services for students in China who are learning English.

Source http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/investors-taking-a-punt-on-education-as-navitas-finds-major-backer/story-e6frgcjx-1226242463896

Immigration policy changes could bolster economy, report says

Most foreign-born workers tend to pay more into the economy than they receive in government services, and end up helping create jobs for U.S. natives, a new report shows.

The report from the American Enterprise Institute and the Partnership for a New American Economy outlines several areas where changes in immigration policies could help job growth, decrease deficits and improve the economy.

“American's immigration policy is not geared toward stimulating economic growth and job creation,” the report states. “Every other developed country puts more emphasis on admitting immigrants that will meet economic needs.”

The report recommends incremental changes to the country's immigration policy that could “boost employment and accelerate the country's economic recovery.”

Also suggested is an increase in the number of workers' visas made available annually, particularly for highly skilled workers trained in advanced math and science fields. Making more temporary visas for both skilled and less skilled workers “would help generate the growth, economic opportunity, and new jobs America needs,” the report states.

According to the report:

About 7 percent of the more than 1 million green cards issued yearly are based on employment. Canada admits about 25 percent of its immigrants based on employment, Australia 42 percent and Germany and the United Kingdom almost 60 percent.

“It's a frustrating thing,” said Greater Oklahoma City Chamber CEO Roy Williams. “We hear from the business community about this very thing ... and it's not about cheap workers, it's about the companies being able to recruit internationally.”

Immigration can complement job growth, particularly over the long term. Supporters of tougher immigration laws often characterize the argument as one of job competition — an immigrant takes the job of a U.S. citizen or lowers wages for a certain job.

Educated immigrants tend to start up businesses, apply for patents and drive innovation, creating more jobs. Foreign-born workers often have different skills than U.S. natives, and frequently work in jobs where it's harder to recruit native workers.

“It's not about taking jobs,” Williams said. “It's definitely more complex than that.”

The more educated the immigrant, the higher their tax payments and lower their government assistance. Foreign-born adults pay on average about $7,800 in federal, state and employment taxes while their families receive $4,400 in cash and other assistance from the government.

Undocumented workers comprise about 30 percent of all immigrants here, and make up about 20 percent of all adults in the country without a high school diploma.

Foreign-born workers are heavily present in highly skilled jobs in sciences and medicine and in low-skilled jobs like construction, housekeeping and agricultural laborers.

‘Race for talent'

Also at issue are U.S.-educated graduates who grow up living in the country, going to school here and find no sanctuary for their undocumented status when they're ready to enter the job market, according to the report.

Recently, this issue has been brought up through proposed legislation like the Dream Act, which would allow a path to residency for undocumented youths educated in the U.S., who've lived here a number of years and meet other criteria.

“This is about a global race for talent,” Williams said. “When we export foreign students back home, they inevitably will compete against us.”

Oklahoma City immigration attorney Vance Winnigham said an issue lightly touched upon in the report is the declining American birthrate and a rapidly aging population here.

“The gap between employed versus retired is continuing to narrow,” Winnigham said. Immigration policies in other developed countries seek to attract and keep highly educated immigrants.

Winnigham said more “enlightened” immigration policies also would likely decrease the numbers of immigrants overstaying visas or entering the country illegally to work.

Highly educated workers seeking permanent residence here has subsided while underdeveloped or undeveloped countries are offering increased opportunities for them, he said.

“We have a lot of global companies here. If they can't bring the talent here, they go to the talent,” added Williams.

Source http://newsok.com/immigration-policy-changes-could-bolster-economy-report-says/article/3638125?custom_click=pod_headline_financial-news

Detained man pleads: 'I'm not a threat to Australia'

A PAKISTANI warehouse worker swooped on by intelligence services, who deemed him a security risk, says he is not an extremist and has pleaded to be released.

Salman Ghumman was taken in to custody on December 21 by Immigration Department officials at Merlynston Station, just days after he was quizzed by authorities about phone calls made to Pakistan, NATO attacks, his movements and why he was in the country.

But the 23-year-old denied he was an extremist and said he was not a threat.

"I've got a beard. I can't think of any other reason (my visa was cancelled)," he said.

"I've got no future. I'm not a threat to this country."

Mr Ghumman's Facebook site links to a group backing terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani doctor with extensive terror links jailed for 86 years in 2010.

But authorities won't tell Mr Ghumman why he is being thrown out of the country.

"Then they interviewed me again and they were asking me one by one about my friends ... Most of friends are in Pakistan. I don't have (many friends) in Australia."

Mr Ghumman, who is being held at the Maribyrnong detention centre, came to Australia in July 2010 to study accounting at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE.

He lived in Melbourne's northern suburbs, worked in warehouses and attended mosques in Fawkner and Preston.

The Department of Immigration declined to say why Mr Ghumman's visa had been cancelled, but said he was now in the country unlawfully.

"The person no longer met the legal criteria to hold a visa, therefore the visa was cancelled making him an unlawful non-citizen and subject to detention," a spokeswoman said.

A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General's department also refused to say why Pakistani authorities had been contacted or whether he faced charges.

"It would not be appropriate to comment on operational matters," she said.

Liberty Victoria president Spencer Zifcak said adverse security assessments from ASIO meant people could be kept in detention indefinitely.

"The problem is these people cannot find out the reasons for these assessments," he said.

"To hold people indefinitely on no charges without appeal is in breach of virtually every human rights convention Australia has signed on to."

Source http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/im-not-a-threat-to-australia/story-fn7x8me2-1226234451697