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There is a difference between buying a product or service that meets your needs and one that exceeds expectations.

As consumers, we witness the difference every day but don’t always think our way through the consequences. Some of them are easy. Since that private label, grocery brand of tomato sauce really tastes the same as the name brand, the perfect substitute theory springs to life and you save 42 cents on that spaghetti sauce you are about to make for dinner.

However, when it comes to services, the decision isn’t always so simple. You see it in your own business today. Are you just as good as your competitors? Isn’t a paycheck still a paycheck, whether ADP processed it or you, and for a lower price?

Therein lies the difference between your view of the world and your customers’. More now than ever, your customers are looking for value and may be willing to pay more to get more. But in the end, they defer to you for expertise in human resource practices and transactions. What they really want is better service than they have today AND at a better price.

Did Southwest invent the airline? No, but they surely reinvented it. They provide air travel for less money, so you and your bags get there on time. They hired a NASCAR pit crew to turn planes and some nice folks who are customer-focused and enjoy their jobs and, voila!

Let’s assume you follow that logic and decide to reinvent your HR services business. You made the mental leap to catch up with the world and go global, but now it is time to investigate your options and ultimately choose the right provider.

Trust us – this is not a purchase you make on Kayak. You are inserting a third party into the guts of your company to improve client delivery while reducing costs and focusing on your core competencies. Do you want a vendor or a collaborative business partner who is an expert in your field?

Just entertain us for a moment and fast forward to April 2011. You realize your taxes are due and consider the following options:

  • Turbo Tax just sent you the 239th email about their last-minute specials and you jump online and put what you know into the tax blender and see if margarita money comes out.
  • H&R Block is open late with an army of part-time “certified” tax experts so you trudge on over to the strip mall and deposit your stack of receipts and W-2 and hope the kid finds you a refund.

You know a former CFO and CPA who used to run an HR services company who still does payroll for his clients and knows his or her way around the entire block.

There are vendors who can adequately perform services for you, and then there are experts who know your business and can help you build it. Sure, they all report that they can do it better, faster and cheaper. But are your taxes or key customer delivery the place you want to learn that lesson?

Given the risk involved in changing your business model you want the expert, not a vendor.

There are vendors who will market to you the Staples mentality of “we got that”, and then there are those who have resident experience and expertise in the business on a daily basis. There are several offshore vendors who will gladly enter your payroll hours into the system, measure how efficiently they do so and send you enough Excel reports touting their conquests to put you in a coma and enable that mailbox warning again.

Instead, there is a collaborative partner whose associates have years of real world experience in the entire process of payroll, from time entry to tax payments. The owners are operators with over 100 years in your business. They process payroll, not transactions.

So when that employee comes in from one of your clients with 40 hours of hourly and another 40 of salary on the pay sheet due to a promotion, will the payroll get run correctly the first time? Will a data entry person know that their pay group is one week in arrears and where to look?

This is where the rubber meets the road and why CogNet is a different group altogether. We are not a vendor and never want to be one. We offer a collaborative relationship, where collective decisions are made to improve the business in all facets. It is your business and these are your processes; we are here to help – not dictate.

Our troops have spent years on both sides of the world in the guts and boardrooms of the HR services industry and understand your business – from technology decisions of the past and future to how to maximize your existing CRM.

Our teams are experts, certified in your processes as defined by you, and who have the existing domain expertise to easily meet your requirements. Our turnover is half of the BPO industry and our people know their stuff, and that equates to consistent delivery to your clients at a materially lower cost of process.

Contact CogNet today and see how we can build your business together. We offer business process outsourcing, finance and accounting and technology support to our stakeholders to drive shareholder and customer value. We are not a vendor – we are a an experience.