Paychex, Inc. is a company that provides payroll, human resource, and benefits solutions
to other small and medium sized businesses. Founded in 1971, Paychex employs more than
12000 people and provides services to over a half million business within the United States. In
2005 Paychex adopted an Enterprise Data Warehouse and all the data flows through one of four
“Source Systems”. For example, “Source System 1” is client payroll data, and “Source System
2” is client human resource data. Data from each source system is collected, since all of it is in
different codes it is then ran through a “Extract, Transform, Load” (ETL) tool. The ETL tool
translates all this data into a common form and then it is moved to the data warehouse. Analysts
for Paychex then use business intelligence tools for examination and communication to non-IT
employees. The four main areas analysts look at are revenue producing clients, new product
packages, key performance indicators, and key risk indicators. Analysts then use their findings to
create competitive advantages, sustain financial performance, and has allowed them to stay
successful even in uncertain times and economic downturns. The article really highlights the
success that Paychex has had with the use of the Enterprise system and poses the question on
what role the Enterprise Data Warehouse has played in their continued success.
Paychex could use a gap analysis to explore growth into serving larger corporations. By
performing a gap analysis Actual State would be defined, along with outlining what leadership
thinks Future could or would look like. During the analysis Needs/Solutions would be identified.,
letting the company know whether the goal was feasible, worth the investment, and even
profitable. A well-designed and thoroughly implemented gap analysis can show a company just
how effective it can be and whether their beginning goals are possible or perhaps need
reinvestigated.
