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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

America and France: Two countries united by failed military payroll

NEW YORK

“Dulce
et decorum est pro patria mori,” ancient Romans used to say. It is not only
good to die for one's country,but payroll software requires you do it for free

Last month saw France's president pay a state visit to the United States. Among the various topics on offer for Presidents Obama and Hollande one could mention the drop in foreign investment in France (due to the French government's idiotic policies), the impact of the NSA spying scandal (due to the US government'sidiotic policies), both leaders' marital woes (alleged in Obama's case, true in the case of Hollande who regaled the nation with two First Ladies, one official, one hidden), the various crises around the world (Syria, Ukraine etc.) However, there is one topic which the two leaders probably didn't get to discuss: how their respective military failed spectacularly in implementing a payroll system for their armed forces.

The U.S. tries first... and fails first
As in so many other cases, the U.S. was a pioneer in the use of package software to run its HR and payroll operations. In the late 1990s it adopted the HR software leader of the time, PeopleSoft (which had developed a specific Federal product) to integrate over 90 different systems into a state-of-the-art HR/payroll system. Several