Tag Archives: PayMaxx Inc.

About 3826 days ago Business Software

Killer Applications: Really Useful Engines

The Fourth Annual Inc. Web Awards: Killer Apps Killer Apps PrintingForLess.com SafeRent Coretech Holdings PayMaxx Saddletech.com If you’ve conversed with a preschooler anytime in the past 10 years, you’re familiar with Thomas the Tank Engine, a cartoon character that appears in Shining Time Station, a PBS program that mixes lessons in civility with arcane British train lore. In the world of Thomas, there is no higher compliment than to be called “a really useful engine.” The winners in our Killer Applications category of the 2002 Inc Web Awards are that and more. Engines, by definition, drive action, and the services described here are no exception. These Web-based functions have helped companies boost sales, eliminate downtime, manufacture custom products, streamline operations, and better serve their customers. Their technological bulk is all muscle, comprising robust databases, tracking systems, configuration tools, and proprietary algorithms. Capability matters. Technology matters. But audience matters, too. The companies that built these applications are intimately familiar with their customers’ needs and habits, and their sites reflect that understanding. When you come right down to it, that’s what it means to be really useful. The Fourth Annual Inc Web Awards Killer Apps Printing Money Rental Health Lab Retrievers Take My Payroll, Please Hoof and Math Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.

About 3826 days ago E-Commerce

Take My Payroll, Please

The Fourth Annual Inc Web Awards: Killer Apps Company: PayMaxx, in Franklin, Tenn. URL: www.paymaxx.com What we liked: This pioneer of Internet-based payroll systems is a potent reminder of how the Web can help streamline administrative tasks Here are PayMaxx’s detailed, step-by-step instructions for processing a company’s payroll on the Internet: 1. Fire up your browser and head to www.powerpayroll.com. 2. Upload your employees’ pay information onto the secure site. 3. Wait for PayMaxx to print your checks and deliver them the next day, or print your own checks from the site.

About 4221 days ago E-Commerce

Net Wages

Veterans PayMaxx (#383) has made the Inc 500 every year since 1998. That’s four times, and you’d better believe that CEO Farsheed Ferdowsi is keeping track. In fact, Ferdowsi keeps track of all sorts of data on charts that line the walls at his headquarters. “The business is one great big gigantic mathematical model,” says the erstwhile engineer. “We track every facet of our operations with measurements. If you’re not measuring anything, you’re not managing anything.” To wit: the chart on the wall outside Ferdowsi’s office shows revenue yield per transaction — the amount of money the company grosses each time it prints a paycheck. The graph is little more than a flat line in the early 1990s: revenues per transaction were stagnant for five years. To push the flat line on the graph into a nice upward curve, Ferdowsi introduced new services like tax filing and 401(k)-plan administration. His yield doubled. “This industry is highly competitive,” Ferdowsi explains. “If all you’re doing is printing checks and reports, there’s not much you can do in the way of enhancing your revenue per transaction.” The latest metric to obsess Ferdowsi is the growth of PayMaxx’s two-year-old Internet payroll-processing service: 400%, compared with 25% for the company as a whole. About 1,000 customers have signed on. “There’s no trace of doubt in my mind that the use of the Internet in submitting and processing payroll is the fastest growing trend in this industry,” he says. Rate of Pay Company Revenues Five-year growth Number of employees PayMaxx (#383) $9 million 754% 133 PayChex (#8 in 1982) $14 million 5,083% 300 PayChex (2000) $728 million 118% 6,237 Mighty Mouse It’s been 30 years since Tom Golisano founded PayChex (#8 in 1982), now the second-largest payroll company in the country, with $870 million in revenues. Yet Golisano says that even today, only 15% of small businesses avail themselves of payroll-processing services. “It’s a wide-open marketplace,” he says. To attract more small companies, Golisano has used the same strategy that PayMaxx’s Ferdowsi employs: adding ancillary services. “PayChex didn’t offer workers’ compensation insurance two years ago. Today we have 20,000 workers’ comp clients,” Golisano says. “If you don’t have a wide range of services to offer, you’re going to be at a real dis- advantage.” The Internet is where Golisano and Ferdowsi part company. Golisano does not prioritize the building of a robust presence online. PayChex clients can transmit their data by modem, but only a fraction do so. The company is beta testing a Web-based service now, but Golisano is skeptical. “People are sensitive to the security issues of sending data over the Internet, especially payroll,” he says. “Most of our clients — not all, but most — like to talk to a person, a professional service-giving person.” View the 2001 Inc 500 list. Veterans Been There, Grown That Brand Demands Net Wages Rising, Falling, Rising Star Wookiees of the World Unite! Sell Different Please e-mail your comments to editors@inc.com.