Fast-Tracking an Acquisition Integration in the Dayforce Platform

Client Background

Atlas Copco is a multinational industrial company that manufactures products and systems for industrial applications and mobile power generation. Headquartered in Sweden, Atlas employs over 5,000 people in more than 100 locations across the US, with its local base in South Carolina

Atlas Copco began partnering with HRchitect for post-go-live support in 2024. Since then, HRchitect has supported Atlas Copco initiatives involving Workforce Management (WFM), Payroll, General Ledger (GL), Reporting, and integrations. Due to the fast-paced nature of Atlas Copco’s business, many projects are time-sensitive, requiring the HRchitect team to remain flexible and agile.

The Challenge

Atlas Copco had just finalized the acquisition of NTE, a US-based rental provider of fluid transfer and storage solutions. With the new year less than three months away, Atlas Copco wanted to ensure that NTE employees were brought under the Atlas umbrella and onboarded into the Dayforce platform.

Missing this deadline would cause complications, as employee data across two systems complicates scheduling, payroll, and accounting, and could create future difficulties with year-end reporting. Dayforce requires clients to go live at the start of the quarter to at least keep that information consistent on a quarterly basis, meaning Atlas Copco would have to wait until April 1 if they missed the January 1 go-live.

With such a tight timeframe, Atlas Copco knew they had to move quickly to ensure the former NTE employees could be treated as Atlas employees on January 1. Atlas Copco turned to HRchitect, alongside Dayforce Managed Services, to partner on the initiative. HRchitect’s long-term relationship with Atlas Copco has built significant trust, and the agile nature of the ongoing support work gave Atlas Copco confidence that HRchitect could complete the project by the new year.

Client Profile

• Multinational manufacturer of industrial products and systems.
• Based in Sweden, with US headquarters in South Carolina.
• Serve customers in over 180 countries, with over 5,000 employees in more than 100 locations across the US.

The Project

HRchitect partnered with Atlas Copco on the entire setup for NTE, including Workforce Management, Payroll, and GL. The HRchitect team worked closely with subject-matter experts from Atlas Copco, with a dedicated service-excellence executive from HRchitect coordinating support for the initiatives as well as ensuring alignment with Dayforce Managed Services. Alignment was achieved early by bringing all parties together to collaborate in what is a unique setup for an acquisition involving a consulting team, two companies involved in the acquisition, and Dayforce Managed Services.

With just under three months until the new year, the project was under a tight timeline. This was made more challenging by the NTE team being spread across various states. The HRchitect team had to ensure the new system accounted for those states’ regulations, ensuring Atlas Copco was set up to meet compliance requirements.

The relationship with Dayforce Managed Services was especially important because they run Atlas Copco’s US payroll. The HRchitect team took an agile approach as they worked tirelessly alongside Atlas Copco and Dayforce Managed Services to get the new company set up for January 1.

Key Benefits

• New year, new system: NTE employees were in Atlas Copco’s systems for a January 1 go-live in the Dayforce platform. This makes HR governance much simpler by keeping data in one system, which means less data conversion, less margin for error, and a clean cutover in the new year.
• Single source of truth: Payroll, GL, and WFM are centralized into a single system, providing a single source of truth for HR.
• Enhanced labor insights: Atlas Copco can now more accurately link costs to different types of work using Labor Metrics, enabling more precise salary and GL allocations.
• User training: The NTE payroll staff were trained on the new system, allowing them to be prepared and hit the ground running on processing with Dayforce Managed Services despite no previous Dayforce experience.

The Results

NTE’s employees were set up in Dayforce by January 1, ensuring they would be on one system for both the financial and calendar year. This makes payroll, tax, GL administration, and reporting much simpler by ensuring that information is accurate for the year and eliminating the need to import data between systems. HRchitect collaborated with Dayforce Managed Services to process the first two payrolls, helping ensure information flowed smoothly and former NTE employees were paid correctly.

Payroll, GL, and WFM also went live, allowing Atlas Copco to unify time and attendance and scheduling with the financial systems. Along with that, the project allowed Atlas Copco to implement Labor Metrics and optimize it for their needs, providing further insight into how labor hours are spent and enabling more effective budgeting.

“HRchitect has been an exceptional partner. Working with them is a game-changer for our team, especially in our highly complex organizational structure. Their expertise, responsiveness, and ability to translate often unclear requirements into clear, actionable solutions have significantly elevated our HR operations.”

           – Wayl Slim, Vice President, HR Services, Atlas Copco