SunFish DataOn Philippines Inc.

The HR software demands of organizations in South East Asia, especially the Philippines, are colored by unique requirements. Beyond a tight set of controls over their staff, they expect customizable products that meet quality and legal requirements—all at a reasonable price point. While some companies limit their focus to HR administration—employee records, scheduling, timekeeping, and payroll—others opt for a full suite of HR software comprising training management, performance management, talent management, E-learning, and recruitment. Mobility is another proliferating trend in HR. Satisfying all these requisites is SunFish DataOn Philippines, Inc., a subsidiary of DataOn, an IT and services provider. DataOn, founded in 1999, delivers HR performance, manageability, and security to customers. Since 1999, the company has been enhancing the SunFish HR software, a human resource capital management system (HCM). Following the solution’s success, SunFish DataOn Philippines was founded in 2018 to offer SunFish HR to the Philippine market. Propelled by a dedicated and certified Philippine staff, the software has disrupted the country’s HR market. SunFish provides sales, implementation, and support for their fast-growing SunFish HRIS SaaS client base in the Philippines.

“SunFish HR is designed from the ground up and configured for the Philippine market, managing more than one million active employees in ASEAN,” says Sri Coles, the CEO of SunFish. The software is being continually refined to meet local needs and legislative requirements. In addition, the company’s service team can assist with analyzing the needs and recommending either changes to process or customization of the software to accommodate the specific customer requirements. Regardless of size or complexity, SunFish HR caters to industries such as finance, manufacturing, BPO, transportation, and more. “We have more than 1000 clients, predominantly in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and the rest of Southeast Asia and some Middle East countries,” states Sri.

The software effectively addresses human resource management (HRM) challenges such as inefficient core HR processes, inefficient reporting processes, overworked HR department, HR data security, integration with other systems, certifications, compliance, worker productivity and employee satisfaction, and more. Firstly, to enhance the efficiency of core HR processes, SunFish HR provides a centralized database for efficient decision-making based on accurate and timely information. The Sunfish HR Workflow automates processes such as leave requests, expense claims requests, employee record update requests, and more for rapid action. By standardizing processes related to employee information, SunFish HR reduces HR paperwork and provides the visibility necessary to effectively recruit and onboard new hires.

Moreover, SunFish HR offers efficient reporting processes, customizable dashboard trackers, alerts, graphical analyses, and much more to inform companies about their operational performance. The SunFish HR reports allows companies to strategize and minimize the risk of the high costs of attrition, poor hiring, sub-optimal compensation, ineffective training, and more. The reporting process yields real-time visibility and cross-functional sharing of data facilitating the company’s ability to investigate problems and improve. SunFish HR reporting also tracks the time taken for employee request approval, identifying bottlenecks, and modifying workflows, if necessary. With 25 years of human capital management experience, Sri insightfully states, “There are three key factors to delivering superior HR processes: workflow, automation, and reporting. We are experts in these areas.”

The decentralization of HR administration via SunFish Employee Self Service and the GreatDay mobile app also frees up the overworked HR department and HR managers’ time to focus on critical tasks and improve employee engagement.

There are three key factors to delivering superior HR processes: workflow, automation, and reporting. We are experts in these domains

SunFish HR enables employees and managers to track, update, and accurately act on information in real time right from the software. With a web and mobile phone interface, SunFish HR’s GreatDay HR app for mobile phones, enables employees to record attendance, make and approve leave requests, view their schedule, chat with their colleagues, and more. These features also increase employee productivity and satisfaction.

A key differentiator of SunFish is their focus on data security and related issues. The company undertakes encryption for user authentication, the security of data in transit, and SunFish HR passwords, using SSL and one-way hash, respectively. SunFish HR also utilizes password complexity configurations and blocks suspicious users. In fact, the SunFish HR databases are fully encrypted based on individualized customer keys. These are either set by an automated process or by customers themselves to prevent the accidental disclosure of PID (personally identifiable information), privacy addressed information, salary information, and more. SunFish HR hosting includes a DRC (Disaster Recovery Center) with servers at another data center having copies of everything. “SunFish customers now use more than one data center concurrently, so if one goes down, they do not even notice,” says Sri.

Beyond security, SunFish also ensures the availability and integrity of their customers’ data through their multiple Tier 3 data centers with fire detection and suppression. The data centers are all monitored 24/7 and require a minimum of dual-factor authentication (including biometric) for access. Background security checks are routinely undertaken for the organizations’ IT and Operations staff. Furthermore, for customers who wish to integrate their HR system with financial or other systems, SunFish HR includes an integration framework that works regardless of hosting location. The API services provided can be configured to integrate with almost any kind of system.

Illustrating the benefits of SunFish is a Philippine client in the food industry with over 1000 employees. The client’s locally developed computerized payroll system had limitations in the areas of time, attendance, and scheduling. Moreover, it didn’t provide any analytics or enough reports to be of value to the company. SunFish HCM proved to be a very flexible and configurable scheduling system that was well-aligned to the client’s growing operations. They are now able to use SF built-in web-clock or the GreatDay HR app to record time and attendance at all their locations. The solution’s automation, analytics, and inbuilt reports enable the client’s HR and finance departments to manage costs and establish trends in employee tardiness, OT, leaves, and more. Besides, SunFish HCM did not need any customizations or any third-party software to help this client.

In terms of meeting international standards, SunFish DataOn Philippines holds certifications to the ISO 9001, ISO 27001 standards, that assure the quality of their operations, including administration, software development, hosting, support, and more. Costs are effectively kept reasonable by using local resources. The company also complies with Privacy laws like EU GDPR 2018 and Philippine Republic Act No. 10173. DataOn remains abreast with and complies with local regulations, including tax, reporting, and others in multiple ASEAN countries.

For the improvement of staff engagement and reduction of turnover, SunFish HR helps identify, motivate, and retain organizations’ highest achievers with tools such as Career Planning, Succession Planning, and more. The software offers timely and accurate compensation alongside an organized appraisal and reward system that ensures equal treatment of employees.

Treading confidently forward, the SunFish from features such as workflow management, analytics, access control, and smart user interface standards after any updates or customizations. With a continued focus on their domestic market, SunFish aims to expand into areas outside of Manila. SunFish ensures services at the peak of available technology, and as Sri asserts, SunFish HR as a powerful yet affordable HRIS truly is—“A win for all concerned!”