In order to access an app, software or a website from anywhere, that platform needs to be on a cloud-based hosting server.
Cloud-based technology is a simple process of hosting a software or an application on a server which is placed at a remote location by service providers while users are able to access it over the internet. There is now no need to install a particular software on your personal or office computer.
The majority of HRMS and Payroll software out there do not create their own cloud hosting and/or server maintenance services. Due to the ever changing technology landscape, hosting and server maintenance is a whole industry in itself. HRMS and Payroll software usually engage third party hosting and server maintenance services for their payroll. Therefore, it is important to make sure that the hosting and server maintenance that comes with your payroll and/or HRMS software is a reputable one.
5 core pointers to take note for hosting –
1. Security
It is very important that your employees’ payroll and personal information remain secure. The necessary measures need to be taken to ensure utmost security. A good web hosting service (that more often than not requires some costs), comes with good security that will protect all your HRMS and Payroll software data, so that hackers will not invade your system and steal any information.
A dedicated hosting plan is recommended when it comes to your site’s security as this means that your site has its own hosting providers which are not shared with any other sites, which helps ensure that your site is more secure.
2. Backup
Backup is very important when it comes to HRMS and Payroll. As a Payroll Support Specialist, I have experienced plenty of occasions where our clients accidently deleted certain employees’ data or made a monthly submission, only to realise that they forgot something and needed to revert back.
Therefore, in order to prevent any unnecessary stress due to missing data and also the time taken to dig for past deleted data (which may be impossible to retrieve), you need to be able to have the option to backup your HRMS and Payroll software. It is also ideal that backup is done on a daily basis and that the backup process is as easy as possible.
A platform that is used to manually create back ups is cPanel. Many web hosting plans come with cPanel. cPanel gives you a way to manually create backups—you just have to remember to go in and take these steps on a regular basis.
Instead of having to go through a third party vendor to retrieve your backup, it is so much more efficient (and stress relieving) to be able to do the back up by yourself.
3. Customer Support
As HR practitioners or small business owners, the last thing we want to do is to troubleshoot and research on how to fix issues related to our HRMS or Payroll platforms. Such troubleshooting can easily take hours of our precious time that we could have used to do other more important tasks. We want to leave such troubleshooting to the experts.
As much as we want to leave such troubleshooting to the experts, it can be expensive and sensitive to fully pass all Payroll matters to a third party vendor to do. Using a service with great support can help us get the information we need as soon as possible at a much lower cost than letting a third party vendor fully handing over all your Payroll matters.
The provider’s Support team can assist you with your existing hosting infrastructure, identify potential issues and provide recommendations on how to address them. We can make sure your backup policies are set up correctly, server configuration is sufficient for your applications, apply OS patches and security updates as needed and more.
4. Server Maintenance
With this fast moving technology landscape, it is important to constantly be up to date with your software and constantly maintain it well. All websites require maintenance to ensure that they remain stable, fast loading, virus-free.
It is important to do consistent Server Maintenance to ensure that all of your code is up to date and secure. If you are not properly maintaining your site, issues are bound to happen. You can check with your hosting provider’s support team about how you can go about with your server maintenance. Alternatively, if you want the support team to do the server maintenance for you, you can enquire with them how the cost for this is like.
5. Loading speed
According to a study from Microsoft Corp., people now generally lose concentration after eight seconds, highlighting the effects of an increasingly digitised lifestyle on the brain. This means that in order to have good user experience for your website, you need to ensure that the loading speed is fast. Good hosting can help ensure that the loading speed of your website remains at an optimum level at all times.
By using high-speed storage devices, your website can have faster load times and better performance. A good website host has dedicated resources specific to your site. This means that even if they also host a dozen other sites, traffic to those sites won’t impact your load times.
Conclusion –
I hope that this article has been useful in helping you understand why good hosting is very important for your Payroll and HRMS software. Remember to do some research on the hosting that comes with the Cloud Payroll and HRMS software that you have shortlisted!
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