Member Article

SME HR software product doubles customer base in 12 months

CascadeGo – the HR software solution for organisations with 1-150 employees – has doubled its client base over the past 12 months. These impressive figures come only 18 months since the product was introduced to the Cascade suite.

Leeds-based Cascade HR – under the IRIS Software Group – acquired award-winning technology firm Octopus HR back in April 2016, for an undisclosed sum. With Octopus having led the industry’s ‘micro to SME business’ segment for the previous 12 years, the move meant IRIS could then offer an integrated HR and payroll product for the first six months of ownership, and the team had a dedicated presence at the HR Software Show for the first time this summer. 110 demonstrations were delivered over the two days, which has gone a long way to fuelling a healthy pipeline for the brand.

A packed product roadmap has also helped maintain fresh market interest. A new rota tool has strengthened the functionality offered to sectors including retail, care, distribution and health, for example. And a number of HR templates from Britain’s leading impartial authority on workplace relationships – ACAS – are also now available for CascadeGo customers to use for free. With the documents arranged in three easy-to-access sections, HR teams now have professional guidance to help with the entire employee lifecycle.

“The very purpose of CascadeGo is to strip the pain out of HR,” explains product director Paul Sparkes. “We’re giving small businesses the tools to manage employees – and their data – quickly, efficiently and effectively, even if their in-house resource is in short supply.

“And, if/when a client wants to migrate to a system suitable for a larger organisation – or one with more complex HR requirements – they can then move on to our Cascade product. There certainly seems to be an appetite for this type of solution.”

With a wide range of customers in sectors ranging from IT to retail, CascadeGo has been performing particularly well within the finance, marketing and creative services industries over the past 12 months.

“We have a busy few months coming up for the brand too,” continues Paul Sparkes. “We’re exhibiting at the CIPD’s Annual Conference & Exhibition in Manchester (8-9 November), The British Business Show in London (16-17 November), and we’re sponsoring two Business Cloud events focusing on leadership and future-proofing organisations through tech. We look forward to seeing what further opportunities arise as a result.”

The product is just one cloud-based solution within IRIS Human Capital Management’s HR and payroll software suite. IRIS HCM has 80,000 clients in total and the wider IRIS Software Group – of which CascadeGo is a part – powers the payroll function for 14% of the UK’s companies.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Katie Mallinson .