Affirm Software Group

NGA.NET and Affirm Software partner to provide integrated onboarding solution to market

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:24:00 +0000

NGA.NET has formed a strategic alliance with Affirm Software (Affirm) to provide innovative onboarding solutions to complement their existing recruitment and performance management software.

Donna Costello, NGA.NET’s Product Director commented “Affirm’s sophisticated onboarding system complements our eRecruit solution. As Affirm specialises in eforms, they are a strong partner to deliver a truly unique onboarding system, tailored to customer’s specific onboarding needs, particularly in the letter of offer phase.”

Both systems use a Software as a Service (SaaS) hosted internet model, and seamlessly integrated to ensure an effortless user experience. As customers don’t need to install any software or hardware, implementation times are reduced.

Both businesses also understand HR challenges with paper based and highly administrative processes, and the integrated solution provides huge efficiency gains, time and cost savings to recruit, retain and develop candidates.

Bryan Ericson, Affirm CEO added “Client’s are increasingly looking for an integrated offering, so our solutions and synergistic partnership brings us one step closer to providing a truly integrated end to end solution into a complementary customer base.”

Top 10 best/worst onboarding war stories as submitted via Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:41:00 +0000

Thank you for sharing your best and worst onboarding stories via Twitter. Below are the Top 5 onboarding stories, as submitted by you.

#5 – When I arrived, there a welcome banner on my pc for my first day, and then the whole team went out to lunch. I got a great feeling about the company and felt very valued and welcomed.

#4 - Three days into my new job, my company was acquired by another company. 5 days in, I was told I had to reapply for my job.

#3 - Went to work on my first day and as I opened the door, fell on my face and spilt coffee all over my boss. Very embarrassed!

#2 - Arrived Day 1 in suit and tie and everyone else in casual dress. What a dork. Thx 4 letting me know the dress code.

The winning entry by James Caldwell @cluemark: #1 - I joined a new start up project and before my contract start date I was given a welcome basket of goodies (nuts, chocolates,booze, etc.)..the value of which was deducted from my first pay(: Congratulations to James who wins a double-pass to Village Gold Class cinemas.

The process of onboarding a candidate can be frustrating for new employees, prone to error and involve lengthy delays to complete. It shouldn’t be like that. Getting the simple things right is often the best onboarding experience. Some simple tips:

Ensure selected candidates receive paperwork, policy manuals and all forms efficiently online before starting, and as fast as possible to avoid them accepting another offer.
On Day one, ensure the computer is set up with access to relevant system directories, payroll have the new candidate logged into their system, business cards ordered, phones set up and the induction program very polished. A team lunch is also a great way to welcome the new team member.
Create actionable goals and expectations early
Debrief at the end of the onboarding period confirming that the new candidate is happy and settled in

Innovative HR Managers can onboard staff so easily using cutting edge HR technology to help them improve efficiencies and make things easier for their staff and candidates.

HROnboard by Affirm Software allows HR teams to customise letter of offers being sent to candidates, with dynamic data driven letter of offer clause inclusion and assembly enabling them to include any specific clauses or terms within individual letters of offer. It can then accommodate internal approvals, to ensure everything is approved online quickly.

The HR Manager can customise employment packs to include policy and procedures manuals, pre-populated eForms, orientation schedules, videos, benefits documents, FAQ’s – any customised material you want new staff to see. This removes all paper forms and approvals.

The employees review and approve their offer online via a personalised and secure employee portal. They receive notification of their offer via their mobile phone (requiring PIN ID verification for security purposes). The candidate enters details only once, which pre populates all eForms. This saves the new staff member considerable time rewriting the same information across multiple forms.

Once accepted, the system sends forms and documents to relevant departments, e.g. IT and payroll, for processing. This ensures that an employee’s workspace and material are all ready for their first day. If they have all the material prior to starting, and all (IT and payroll) systems ready for Day 1, they can become productive much faster and start to quickly contribute to an organisation.

Brave the Metrics Madness

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon Carpenter) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:10:00 +0000

Kyle Lagunas, HR Analyst at Software Advice where this article was originally published discusses metrics for on boarding ROI.

Business leaders are aggressively looking for strategies to increase their organization’s output while keeping staffing costs in check. HR metrics are a hot topic, as they have become the key to making the most of an organization’s people. Of all the potential strategies for maximizing ROI, an improved on boarding process is one area worth investing in. Why? Because ensuring the new talent you hire is prepared to succeed from day one is critical to engagement and productivity.

Some organizations spend valuable time and money acquiring new talent, only to have the on boarding experience be little more than a checklist of tasks to be completed in the first week. Orientation is limited to a tour of the employee’s immediate surroundings, training is reduced to “Holler if you need something,” and their workstation is semi-complete (the phone’s been ordered).

On the other hand, an employee that experiences a smoother onboarding process will be better trained, more connected to the organization and quicker to produce.

When determining ROI of the onboarding process, you need metrics that will help you determine how efficiently new hires can come in and make an impact on their team and your organization. While some things are easy to measure (i.e. costs per employee, terminations at 90 days, total cost of new hires), other things are more difficult to assess – such as average time to proficiency or cultural fit of those who quit.

Establish a Baseline for Measuring Onboarding ROI

The biggest obstacle many HR departments must overcome is working with company leadership to establish a baseline for how your organization will assess ROI. Not only can this be incredibly subjective, but it’s also time consuming. Unlike other company metrics, evaluating the true value of bringing on new employees and measuring their contribution to your organization is not always a straightforward process. Thus, the time spent with leadership establishing a baseline for measuring ROI is invaluable.

I recently spoke with Dave Wilkins, VP of Research at Taleo, about some best practices for enhancing the onboarding process and measuring ROI. Based on our conversation, there are a few key concepts to keep in mind when establishing your baseline to measure ROI:

Onboarding should be consistent. All of your fancy data gathering will be for naught unless you can roll out a universal process for onboarding new hires. According to Wilkins, “Rather than have something that's being done ad-hoc between different groups or divisions, you need a way to standardize the onboarding process.” At the small and medium-sized business level, the core ROI lies in having a solid onboarding process. Without it, HR professionals spend a lot of their time fighting fires.

The onboarding process is just that: a process. Though checklists are great for staying organized, your new hires’ success depends on your ability to get them connected to your organization and keep them connected beyond their first day. A little food for thought: According to Leadership IQ, 46 percent of new hires don’t last more than 18 months. “The assumption that we can bombard people with everything they need to know in 90 days and not continually reinforce those things is a mistake,” explained Wilkins.

The onboarding process is a lot like dating. Though the normal probationary period for new hires is 90 days, The Wynhurst Group reports 22 percent of staff turnover occurs in the first 45 days of employment. As you are getting a feel for your new hire’s potential within your organization, she’s sizing you up as well. So be sure she knows that your office door is always open, buy her lunch on her first day and let her know you’re committed to her success.

At the end of the day, your metrics will inform your ROI, but it’s up to you and your leadership to determine the true value of an improved onboarding process.

Brave the Metrics Madness

Once you have a grasp of what information will be most valuable to your organization, it’s time to strategically determine how to track it. While some of the data you measure won’t be cold, hard facts that fit nicely into a spreadsheet, there are still three key areas you can focus on that will provide you rich information: performance, experience and effectiveness.

Furthermore, I think it’s important to broaden your scope beyond your new hires to measure the impact they have on their teams, as well as the impact your organization sees as a whole. Here are a few ideas of what you can measure (as well as how frequently):

	Employee (30, 60, 90, 180, 360 days)	Team (Quarterly)	Organization (Semi-annually)
Performance	Progress Milestones	Change in overall productivity	Headcount vs output
Experience	Employee Satisfaction	Impact on team morale	Cultural fit vs retention
Effectiveness	New hire temp proficiency	New hire time to proficiency vs. team average	Impact on retention (both quits and terminations)

For Maximum ROI, Take Engagement Beyond Onboarding

The best metrics are not just FYI-this-is-going-to-be-archived-immediately reports. They should be forward-thinking analytics tools. According to Dr. John Sullivan at TLNT.com, “They tell you who’s going to win the Superbowl next year, not who won last year.” But let’s go one step further: Your metrics should provide the information you need to develop strategies to ensure you’re winning the Superbowl every year.

Your ROI is answering one question above all: What is the value of onboarding new employees more effectively?

Here’s a hint: the sooner they can begin making key contributions, the better. Take a look at your metrics and note improvements in employee performance, time to proficiency and increased retention. These are all major factors that will inform your organization’s answer to this question. And once you have this answer, move on to the next question: How can we maximize the value of a better-onboarded employee?

One way you can maximize this value is to keep the momentum going. “The hiring and onboarding process is really the start of the talent management conversation,” says Wilkins. “Engagement starts in the recruiting process, manifests itself in the onboarding process, and then continues on in how you motivate employees day to day.”

Many organizations leverage the tools and technology found in talent management systems to better manage the process of engaging and motivating their employees. Beyond core talent management functionality, these systems also offer reporting analytics and dashboard elements that provide the information you need to support your ROI analysis.

Regardless of the tools and metrics you have at your disposal, though, there isn’t one best practice for everyone to live by when measuring ROI. Rather, it comes down to having a clear conversation between HR and company leadership to determine the end result you’re going for.

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Effective on boarding of new staff well is intrinsically linked to staff satisfaction, retention and loyalty. Quick to implement and inexpensive, you can get your ROI back very quickly using Affirm Software's on boarding solution, HROnboard.

What do you think? What metrics do you evaluate in determining onboarding ROI? Leave your comments below.

Onboarding Strategies for Getting Seasonal Workers Up to Speed

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:13:00 +0000

Republished from Kyle Lagunas, HR Analyst at Software Advice

During peak periods - around the holidays, tax season or over the summer - it’s critical that businesses can easily manage the addition of temporary employees and quickly get them up to speed. And from recruiting and training to offboarding, seasonal employees can put your human resources software and processes to the test. Not only do you have to find and hire the right people, you have a very short time to train them and get them connected to your organization.

An effective, streamlined process for hiring and onboarding employees is essential to any organization’s success - especially those that rely on seasonal help. Here, I’ve outlined a few ways to go above and beyond your normal onboarding process to get seasonal employees geared up and ready to go.

Employee Integration: The Heart of Onboarding

According to F orbes Woman columnist and onboarding expert Emily Bennington, every employee in an organization should be integrated into the company on several levels - regardless of the length of employment. But because of the time constraints associated with onboarding seasonal workers, you’re going to need a concentrated game plan. How familiar with your products do they need to be to handle the register? Take a look at your existing onboarding process, and then adjust and condense it so you can achieve your optimal level of integration.

5 Key Factors of a Strong Seasonal Workforce

Some people may assume I’m focused on training when I say “onboarding,” but the fact is that the employee experience starts in the recruiting stage. With this in mind, here are a few key strategies to help you throughout every phase of the process:

Tailor your recruiting strategies. Your recruiting efforts should be tailored to meet the specific needs of a seasonal workforce. It’s important to make the details of the opportunity clear from the get-go. I would also be wary of how you communicate potential for further employment, as you don’t want folks making assumptions.

Perform due diligence. Don’t skimp on due diligence in collecting legal papers and monitoring employees’ schedules. “A lot of people short-circuit processes like verifying work eligibility or tracking hours correctly. It should go without saying, but you really need to be sure you’re following the law,” says John Rossheim, a senior contributing writer at Monster .com.

Provide proper training. According to Bennington, onboarding should focus on integrating new employees in three areas:

● Technical Skills: To what depth of expertise do seasonal employees need to be trained to perform their jobs?

● Company Culture: How thoroughly do seasonal hires need to understand company policies and values?

● Social Integration: In what ways can you connect seasonal employees to your organization so they feel like they are part of the team?

Furthermore, Rossheim suggests designing your seasonal workforce “to accomplish the task at hand, rather than haphazardly training everyone to do everything they may possibly have to do. Specialize rather than throwing everyone into the same bucket.”

Know your capacity upfront. Whether you have a general human resources management system or a hodgepodge of spreadsheets and checklists - it’s important to know your capacity. Can your back-office system efficiently handle an increased volume in applicants and new hires?

Make them part of the team. Seasonal employees can easily feel isolated if an onboarding program doesn’t successfully connect them to the organization. According to Eddie Baeb of Target Corportate Communications, Target is focused on engaging seasonal employees and making them feel just as valued as anyone else from day one. With nearly 40 percent (about 35,800) of seasonal team members joining as permanent employees last year after the holidays, they’ve got this down.

Offboarding Offers an Opportunity for Improvement

You may have discovered a few star performers you’d like to bring onto your team permanently. For the rest, though, Bennington says “there’s definitely an opportunity to establish brand ambassadors.” Offboarding provides a chance to make a lasting positive impression, while gaining insight into the worker’s experience.

Standard offboarding practices include surveying workers on their experience. Bennington suggests going beyond surveying, and having one-on-one exit interviews with select employees to get more candid responses.

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Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice. On the surface, it's his job to contribute to the ongoing conversation on all things HR. Beyond that, he makes sure his audience is keeping up with important trends and hot topics in the industry. Focused on offering a fresh take on points of interest in his market, he's not your typical HR guy.

Tweet your new employee war stories

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 03:34:00 +0000

Share your best/worst onboarding experience and WIN a double-pass to Village Gold class

Ever joined a company and been welcomed in such a way that was either so incredibly good or terribly bad? We want to hear it. Affirm Software are giving away a double-pass to Village Gold Class cinemas in return for sharing with us your best or worst experience as a brand new employee at a company.

Comment below with your story or interact with us via Twitter.

The stories we like will be re-tweeted and a winner chosen. To be eligible for the prize, you must use the hashtag #affirmcomp.

The competition will run until 5:00pm AEDST on Friday 16th December 2011. The winner will be announced via Twitter, so follow us to see if its you. Follow us via @affirmsoftware

Disclaimers: When tweeting your stories, it is highly recommended you change the names of people and companies to protect the innocent (and the guilty).

Streamlined onboarding proves winning approach

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 03:31:00 +0000

Republished by Key Media 1/11/11

The Australian HR Awards held in Sydney last Friday saw recognition of excellence within the industry – and at the cutting edge of implementing streamlined HR processes, Brookfield Multiplex took out the award for Best use of Technology.

Upon winning the award, Kristen Madigan, General Manager of HR at Brookfield Multiplex, said it was excellent to receive recognition for the contribution their team has made to their organisation.

Brookfield Multiplex was recognised for their successful implementation of a streamlined onboarding system, HROnboard by Affirm Software, and Madigan said the software has completely removed the manual processes common to the onboarding process.

Speaking to HC, Bryan Ericson, CEO Affirm Software Group, said surprisingly there are not a lot of onboarding solutions on the Australian market given that completing the process using software is just 10-20% of the cost of manually onboarding a candidate. Ericson said the key factor and point of difference was that their onboarding solution allows for complete flexibility, and the system can be adapted to the needs of individual companies.

The key benefits that have driven positive feedback included the quick turnaround of candidate approval, and the option of sms acceptance of employee contracts. Ericson also said, “We had one candidate complete the whole process within 20 mins. Normally that would take upwards of a week, and when you can turn the process around really quickly you’re obviously more likely to get your first choice candidate.”

EmployeeConnect sponsored the award, and Ari Kopoulos, national sales and marketing manager said it was refreshing to hear of organisations harnessing the available technology, and using it to derive real benefits and value.“You know we talk about [implementing new technologies], but to see it actually happening, is great to see,” Kopoulos said.- Stephanie Zillman -

Brookfield Multiplex and Affirm's onboarding software win "best use of technology" award at the Australian HR awards

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 05:06:00 +0000

Brookfield Multiplex, the leader in construction and development projects, has an innovative HR team who have embraced a fully paperless onboarding solution developed by Affirm Software. Brookfield’s use of this technology was recognised by winning the “best use of technology” award at the Annual HR awards on Friday night, October 28^th, 2011.

There were 22 nominees within this category, and four finalists who included Atlassian, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Logan City Council and Santos.

With a distributed workforce around Australia and the globe, the system has created huge efficiencies for the HR team to create customised letters of offer, issue policy documents and relevant corporate information and eForms to all new recruits and transferring staff quickly.

Once Brookfield develop their offer letter, all internal approvals are done electronically, and then the offer, policies and eForms are all issued via a candidate portal, which the candidate can view and accept legally, online. The system also includes mobile PIN validation for additional security.

Some of the key results that Brookfield Multiplex achieved through using Affirm’s onboarding technology have included:

- Reduction of over 85% in total cost per welcome pack

- 100 page new starter pack is now an entirely paperless process

- Achieved an ROI within 1 year

- Roles redesigned to avoid non redundant admin tasks and focus on value added tasks

- Streamlined and automated, consistent process to send personalised offers to employees

- Complete audit trail for employment online (SOX compliance if audited)

- Comprehensive tracking and reporting to manage IT and payroll and their KPI's for helping onboard new starters

- Enable a quick turnover time (including approvals and receiving offers - 10 days down to 20 minutes!) and reduced vacancy time per role.

Bryan Ericson, Affirm CEO added “Working with such a visionary and innovative company such as Brookfield Multiplex has made it easy to deliver significant efficiency gains in the area of onboarding and eForms.”

Affirm is thrilled that Brookfield’s implementation of their onboarding technology, HROnboard has received such a highly acclaimed HR award.

Revolve super - eforms software solutions for the superannuation

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 01:05:00 +0000

Affirm will be exhibiting at the Innovation and Technology:superannuation event in Sydney later this year. With such high volumes of paperwork and forms within this sector, Affirm's innovative eforms and contract management software allows forms to be pre populated, completely accurately and quickly, and stored compliantly online.

The event will discuss changes in the superannuation sector and promote technology solutions for the sector.

The event is to be held on 6 December 2011 at the Hilton in Sydney http://www.fst.net.au/Index.aspx

Affirm Software announced as finalist for Business3000 awards

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:50:00 +0000

ANNOUNCING THE 2011 BUSINESS NOMINEE FINALISTS FOR THE BUSINESS3000 AWARDS.

Business3000 would like to thank all the businesses who submitted a business entry kit for the awards for 2011.

The following businesses successfully met the awards criteria and are the finalists to win the 2011 awards, which will be announced at the Gala Luncheon on Thursday 13th October.

Affirm Software
Corporate Creative Directions
Doxa Youth Foundation
Enspire
Gewurzhaus
Hub Melbourne
Huddle
Illumination
Life Elements
m.a.d.woman
MBD Energy
Pozible
Victorian Youth Mentoring Service

Visit Affirm at the HR Technology Conference October 12

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 06:23:00 +0000

Affirm showcased it's web based onboarding software, HROnboard at AHRI's Technology conference in Melbourne on October 12th.

HROnboard has dynamic data driven letter of offer clause inclusion and assembly enabling HR Managers to include any specific clauses or terms within individual letters of offer. It can then accommodate internal approvals, to ensure everything is approved online quickly. Once the letter of offer is approved, the HR Manager can customise employment packs to include policy and procedures manuals, pre-populated eForms, orientation schedules, videos, benefits documents, FAQ’s – any customised material you want new staff to see.

The system then issues the pack to employees for their review and approval online via a personalised and secure employee portal. They receive notification of their offer via their mobile phone (requiring PIN ID verification for security purposes). The candidate enters details only once, which pre populates all eForms. This saves the new staff member considerable time rewriting the same information across multiple forms.Once accepted, the system sends forms and documents to relevant departments, e.g. IT and payroll, for processing. This ensures that an employee’s workspace and material are all ready for their first day.

One of our clients, Brookfield, has seen measurable benefits since implementing “HROnboard” including:

· A reduction of over 85% in the cost per welcome pack due to the lower mailing, printing and HR administration costs to create and distribute the employment offers

· Full compliance with delegated authority levels through the implementation of online electronic approvals, removing all paper forms and approvals

· Improved turnaround around time for new starters to receive their welcome pack, offer and policies.

Brookfield’s HR Manager, Kristen Madigan comments “It has been amazing how fast we can get offers accepted now. Last week, it took only 20 minutes from the time the letter of offer was issued, to the time it was accepted by the candidate, including collecting all required data and acceptance of company policies.”

Find out more about it: http://www.hrtech.ahri.com.au/

Affirm scored a "Highly recommended" in Australian achievers award for customer satisfaction

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 23:57:00 +0000

The Australian achievers awards are an independent, unbiased award system based on assessment ratings from a business's own customers. Affirm Software achieved a highly recommended 84.11% in the Computer Systems and Software services category for 2011.

Some of the comments Australian achievers received from Affirm Software clients are:

"All the staff I deal with at Affirm are always very pleasant and professional in their approach and are keen to do the right things by their customers. They want to do the right thing and are very flexible and helpful."

"They're very customer focused and always keep us informed of updates and any changes. They have a real understanding of our business and consequently have adapted their product to suit our needs."

"Throughout my dealings with Affirm, I continue to find them to be very efficient and friendly. They have an excellent product and take excellent care of our needs in their level of service."

For verification of this release, please call Geoff Harwood, Director, Australian Achievers on 1800 638 318

It is not the end of IT - but it is a change

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Bonnes) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:53:00 +0000

David from 37Signals wrote a great piece on ‘The end of the IT department’.

"When people talk about their IT departments, they always talk about the things they’re not allowed to do, the applications they can’t run, and the long time it takes to get anything done….None of this is a good foundation for a sustainable relationship."

"But change is coming….You no longer need a tech person at the office to man ‘the server room.’ Responsibility for keeping the servers running has shifted away from the centralized IT department. Today you can get just about all the services that previously required local expertise from a web site somewhere"

We always involve the IT departments in big companies when we are implementing. We are usually pleasantly surprised at how willing they are to use a ‘cloud-based’ solution. Less headaches for them and they don’t need to be involved in support calls – the business just calls us directly. I can understand why.

The number of business applications they would need to be across in a large organisation would be huge. Do they really need to get across a new application used by 5 people in HR for Onboarding new employees?

I don't know if they IT department is ending in large corporate, but it is changing – and they seem to be welcoming the change.

Successful team rock climbing event

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 03:22:00 +0000

Affirm staff attended another successful and fun team event - this time the fit group all enjoyed indoor rock climbing. The post event beers and pizza made the hard work not so worthwhile though!

Personalising your Onboarding processes

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Bonnes) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 05:55:00 +0000

Last year, we met with a potential client to discuss our hr onboarding software, HROnboard. He liked the system but was a little hesitant, saying “our whole new employee onboarding is so personal. Your software might take away from our personalised approach.”

I heard the same argument against automation almost 15 years ago. I was a consultant at the time, and everyone was building their own Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This was before Salesforce, Highrise or any other online CRMs. Besides building your own, your next best option was ACT!

As we rolled out new CRMs, some salespeople who were going to be forced to use them hesitated, saying “This is a waste of time – sales are more personal than this.” However, they found that the CRM tool actually created more time for them to make sales MORE personal. More people in the organisation could appreciate the breadth of relationship the salesperson and the company had with their clients. People got things done the right things done faster, with less explanation. There was also less ‘key-person’ risk and excellent metrics on how well the sales process worked. By automating the administrative tasks, there was more time to spend on the important things such as building trust and delivering on promises.

The CRM users also appreciated the ‘institutional memory’ that the systems created. People stopped asking them for information multiple times. Old paperwork could be retrieved within seconds and orders were taken correctly the first time.

Creating a ‘personal’ relationship is about creating trust. Using a smart system that remembers who did what and when helps that relationship – it doesn’t take away from it.

15 years on, we’ve seen so many more systems enter our working lives. Our HROnboard system helps automate alot of the administrative tasks associated with onboarding new staff members, but infact can strengthen the personalised approach to onboarding new staff members.

HROnboard allows you to send tailored letters of offer and welcome packs, which might include personalised welcome letters, videos and tailored marketing materials. Throughout the process, the HR Administrator can track the status of staff being onboarded and can make friendly reminders to request forms and documentation be returned. It ensures new employees feel welcomed, valued and prepared, with a favourable first impression of their new company. Equally, internal staff are well organised and prepared for the new recruit, to ensure they are onboarded efficiently with things such as phones, computers and equipment all ready before the employee arrives.

Through automating the onboarding process, you are also creating the impression of being a forward-thinking, and environmentally friendly company by going paperless and streamlining the onboarding process by eliminating data entry.

Automation in our eyes is a tool that can strengthen a personalised approach to onboarding staff.

How to Make an Employee's First 90 Days Successful

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Bonnes) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:10:00 +0000

Inc.com has a great article on how to on-board a employee successfully. The first 90 days are the key:
"The amount of time you have as an employer to motivate a new employee and make them a successful team member is quite limited. Many past studies indicate that the first ninety days are the most important in a new job, but for many, it's a process that starts long before the employee is even in the building."

By automating the 'administrative' part of the onboarding process, businesses get more time to concentrate on the parts on on-boarding that really make a difference: introductions, conversion, and assimilation.

What impression are you giving your new employees with your onboarding process?

eForms speed approval even when physical documents are needed

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Bonnes) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 21:59:00 +0000

Malaysia's Housing Loan Division is embarking on a 'eForms' project to take applications online. They estimate it will reduce approval time from 14 days to 2 hours. However, physical documents will still be needed:

"although the application was made full on-line, the borrowers were required to submit physical documents such as salary slip, employers' endorsement, sale and purchase agreement and other relevant documents"

Good to see a government agency automating their processes AND using a 'approval with conditions' to speed up the loan approval process. I find it surprising that more private business are not doing the same.

Source: bernama.com

Revolve HR Onboarding - employees onboarded faster and easier

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 05:55:00 +0000

Affirm will be showcasing its solution to manage the on-boarding and new employee transition process for corporates at the AHRI HR Technology Conference in October 2010. Through automating the process of on-boarding with smart forms and electronic signatures, significant efficiencies are achieved, enabling companies to create professional first impressions on new employees..

Affirm to showcase at Thriving in the New World Order

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:50:00 +0000

With Affirm's forms automation software highly relevant for the financial planning and superannuation industries, Revolve will be attending the 13th annual investment administration conference in Sydney in February.

Revolve allows customers to complete forms online with field pre population and has inbuilt data validations, error checking and fund allocation calculations online, making it very useful for super funds.

Forms automation technology to be showcased at FPA conference

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:33:00 +0000

Affirm will be exhibiting again at the annual FPA conference this year (Stand number 63).

Revolve is our forms and document automation solution that delivers straight through processing benefits within the finance and wealth management industries.

Our software is quick to implement, provides measurable business benefits, is secure and highly customisable to suit each client's individual needs.

Come and see a demo of our software, discuss your individual needs for automation and go into our business card draw to win a pamper session at Endota Spa.

We hope to see you at the conference on 18-20 November, 2009 at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre.

Affirm Software launches quoting and originator management software

noreply@blogger.com (David Kennedy) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:24:00 +0000

Today, in conjunction with this week’s prestigious IFSA Energise 2009 conference, Affirm Software Group unveils its innovative contract automation and management software for the finance industry.

Built as software as a service, Revolve Finance allows financiers to automate, share and manage accurate finance deals efficiently in one secure online location.

The system streamlines the entire finance origination process, reducing errors and dramatically cutting administration expenses. Businesses are document driven. With the stock market down more than 30% since last year, financiers and planners need to reduce costs and create efficiencies in the way they work.

Contract automation technology is critical in high contract volume environments. PWC published a research report into the real costs of paper and estimated that 90% of paper is merely shuffled, the average document is copied 19 times and 7.5% of documents are lost daily, while 2-4% of the remainder are misfiled.

Contract automation and management technology eliminates these sorts of paper costs whilst also saving time through streamlining repetitive tasks and processes, and creating data efficiencies, therefore increasing staff productivity.

SME Commercial Finance has been an early adopter of the system. Michael Pratt, Managing Director, believes “The financier of the future must be able to quickly deliver finance solutions to their clients. Revolve can deliver real efficiencies in the origination process.”

Jeff Bonnes, Affirm Software Group CEO states “our Revolve product is quick to implement and easy to use. It empowers users to create and manage complex, multi step contracts and document flows in one simple step.”

In a tight market, for Australian companies to weather the storm, they need to adopt such technologies and create greater sales opportunities, business efficiencies and drive down internal costs.

Affirm to exhibit at IFSA Energise 09

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:10:00 +0000

Affirm will be exhibiting at the annual IFSA conference this year.
Revolve forms and document automation software has been specifically built for the wealth management, finance and insurance markets who will be attending this event.

Please visit us on stand 17 at the event.

Revolve Auto-fill form vs Hand written form

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Bonnes) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:06:00 +0000

We keep talking about how much time your will save using Revolve to complete your forms - but a video is worth 1000 words. This is a quick and fun example of how much time you can save with just a two page form – and we know most forms are longer than that. Of course, you and your staff would never be so frivolous to take a tea break – you would be hard at work!

What will you do with your spare time?

SME reduce document data entry by 67%

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:40:00 +0000

SME Commercial Finance was looking for an additional IT solution to improve efficiencies in providing finance to their clients. Their quoting process involved a lot of double handing, was time consuming and led to errors in the origination process.

SME wanted a system to eliminate errors in documentation, reduce time in processing transactions and allow multiple parties within the business to work on a single transaction at the same time.

Affirm Software’s Revolve™ was installed to automate and streamline the creation and management of SME’s finance deal documentation and paperwork. Within the origination process, SME typically produced up to ten sets of paperwork, starting with a quote through to a customer agreement. Affirm developed “smart” documents, forms and contracts to automate this process – effectively enabling users to only enter client information once which then auto populated across all documents. Revolve effectively reduced document data entry in their origination process by 67%.

Revolve enabled multiple parties authorised by SME to centrally produce and control new documents and client contracts through all stages of the negotiation, formulation and administration of a contract. This has reduced the time it has taken to process deals significantly.

The key benefits Revolve has delivered for SME include:

• Improved productivity and reduced errors by enabling content to be entered once and reused up to 10 times for any one deal
• Multiple parties work on a single transaction at the same time, reducing errors and saving time
• A reduction in the volume of paperwork, providing significant archiving and print savings

With Affirm, SME are developing the system further so that all introducers can access the system from their office or their client’s office and generate and accept quotes for SME products.

To download the case study go to: http://www.affirmsoftware.com.au/sme

Latest Software Release v3.03

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 04:41:00 +0000

Affirm is excited to announce our latest software release of Revolve v3.03.

Here's what's new:

- Rich UI - The system now allows you to view an overview of groups of documents within a contract – something that previously was harder to view in the navigation.
- Editing excel documents online - You can now edit and upload excel documents quickly.
- Lookups - The system now provides for postcard and ABN look ups from within the system.
- Quick save - The system now has a quick save button to enable you to easily return to a contract and re edit them, if you are working on multiple activities and need to do so.

Email us back any further ideas and suggestions for improvements.

Latest software release: v3.0

noreply@blogger.com (Jane Herring) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:37:00 +0000

Affirm is very excited to announce our latest software release of Revolve v3.0.
Here's what's new:

1. Copy fields
This new field enables you to copy all information about a client or deal to a new record for repeat customers and consecutive deals. You’ll never have to retype data such as company names and address' again.

2. Invite enhancements
The ability to share documentation to multiple different parties has long been a feature of Revolve. Now you can have greater control over that sharing, as well as being able to invite multiple parties at the same time.

3. Rich UI
Our rich UI now allows the editing of forms or contracts into a UI just like you are typing onto a sheet of paper. It is based on PDF layouts and makes it perfect for completing pre-defined forms.

As usual we have had a lot of help from our clients in coming up with the key development initiatives. Thank you to everyone for your ideas and feedback over the past six months or so. Your feedback continues to be critical to driving our innovation.

Email us back any further ideas and suggestions for improvements.