A fully integrated approach to
global mobility management
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correspondence is managed electronically within a system that facilitates your company’s process
from beginning to end while providing multiple users with access to one global database.
Why?
LINK Enterprise – Supporting assignments,
start to finish
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Pr el im in ar y Pl an ni ngA best practices approach was taken when designing and creating LINK Enterprise. Since its first implementation with General Electric, LINK Enterprise has continually evolved to meet the needs of over 100 multinational organizations. During the development process, companies headquartered throughout the world, as well as our own outsourcing practice, were consulted to create a common set of data requirements needed to manage global mobility programs. As a result, we designed LINK Enterprise to support global mobility processes while following the lifecycle of the assignment.
Benefit What this means for you
Global LINK Enterprise incorporates user requirements from a range of truly global organizations. This means it addresses a full range of cultural and business-related challenges that exist today. It also reflects the latest trends in industry best practice. LINK Enterprise will provide your company with one global database to store and manage assignment information for your international workforce. Mature First released in 1999, with continuous improvement, global implementation and production
experience, LINK Enterprise is a mature system currently used to manage the mobility programs of over 100 multinational companies. Your company will not be a test subject for new, untried technology. Tax-savvy We have incorporated logic for tax calculations and processes into LINK Enterprise so that, from
authorization for services to post-assignment administration, the system tracks items such as tax equalizations, settlements, tax advances, and residency status. In addition, KPMG’s global network of firms provides you with a leading support team capable of answering tax, advisory, or technology-related questions regarding LINK Enterprise and current and future tax reporting regulations. No matter your question or concern, our international team of specialists will ensure that you receive the support you need.
Continuous updates
Adopting LINK Enterprise means that you not only receive the same quality product used by KPMG but that you are receiving the same technical support and updates provided to the firm. LINK Enterprise leverages KPMG’s worldwide network of firms to constantly provide you with up-to-date tax and legislative changes that may affect your mobile employee population both domestically and internationally.
Secure A comprehensive and flexible security model allows for easy set up of role and geography-based security. This means that you can be sure that only authorized users access the information they need to see to perform certain functions. This allows for segregation of duties between preparation and approval.
Scalable LINK Enterprise has an array of offerings that may be purchased individually or bundled together to create a system that is tailored to your needs. Unlike “out-of-the-box” systems, LINK Enterprise provides you the ability to license only the functionality you need.
Easy integration
Based on industry standard technologies, LINK Enterprise is compatible with a wide range of systems. Additionally, we have created interfaces with a broad range of payroll, human resource information systems (HRIS), and vendor systems including Oracle, SAP, ADP, and relocation applications. We have also integrated with internal employee portals and our own KPMG LINK Self-Service Portal to facilitate line manager and employee self-service. LINK Enterprise gives you access to the key information you need, when you need it, in a clear and consistent format. LINK Enterprise is not your typical global mobility management system. Unlike other systems that are designed using a predefined set of parameters, LINK Enterprise is a system designed for you that benefits your program through a number of key features outlined below.
Whether your global mobility program is in its infancy
or has been part of your business model for years, LINK
Enterprise provides the support, software, and knowledge
to further your business objectives, automate certain
program management tasks, and keep your stakeholders
up-to-date. LINK Enterprise is not just software that enables
easy management of information; LINK Enterprise is an
What?
LINK Enterprise – Key features
This year, three of the FORTUNE 10 companies will use LINK Enterprise to track their assignment populations. LINK Enterprise meets the most rigorous global mobility needs and offers a number of key advantages and capabilities. It does this with a modular approach—one that starts with a base system focused on demographics and includes other components focused on particular functionality, including cost projection, compensation management, compensation collection (actual pay), and self-service portal.
Output Cost estimates, & consistent policy management Function Financial modeling Output Home/Host compensation reports, global compensation collection Function Track actual costs Output Automated balance sheets & consistent policy management Function Policy management & exception tracking
Cost Projector
Design compensation packagesCompensation
Manager
Create/update balance sheets and one-time payment requests
Compensation
Collector
(Actual Pay)
Track assignee payments and assignment costs
Demographics
Track assignment & assignee data
Self-Service Portal
Interface with external system users
Output Standard reports/ ad hoc report writer Function: Tracks 300+ demographic data elements & dates
Advanced demographics and document storage
LINK Enterprise is designed to house large amounts of data related to your global mobility program, often is not managed in any other single company or vendor system. Data is organized and stored by both employee and assignment enabling you to create useful reports for different users such as HR, line management, or tax vendors. The application tracks over 300 standard data elements, categorized primarily as employee or assignment-related data.
The system enables users to create user-defined screens, thereby building the demographic information out as needed. The user can add or select the type of data field enabling the user to use the user-defined information in other parts of the system. Moreover, these fields are available to users to create custom reports in the system’s ad hoc report writer. All user-defined screens and fields have the same role-based security applied as other screens. Only those users who need to access information are able to do so.
LINK Enterprise’s efile cabinet stores employee, assignment, and program-level documents. LINK Enterprise makes the document available within the assignment context, allowing for attachments directly to specific document records and automatic document status updates based on issue and expiration date values.
Built-in workflow and case management
Workflow and task management are integral components of LINK Enterprise. Workflow begins upon login to the system via a user-configured dashboard. Once defined, a set of assignments is always available to the user as well as to management. For instance, a manager or team coordinator who initiates the request for a new assignment will view the request and can track progress upon login. A processor (the global mobility employee receiving the request) will see the request on his or her dashboard and begin action. In addition, team coordinators have the ability to review the workload of their direct reports providing management with real-time status updates.
LINK Enterprise has a robust, flexible checklist to help clients replicate and enforce their mobility processes within the system. System checklists are specific to each assignment phase, policy, and location. Items are ordered in such a way as to provide structure, adhering to your process. Any item may be marked as mandatory prior to an assignment phase change. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) can be built into each item to ensure that your deliverables to all stakeholders are met. These SLAs are readily available in our standard checklist report. Similarly, for nonchecklist item case management, our task list will track the complete case history for each item, allow managers to allocate tasks appropriately, and allow reminders to be set for each item. The result is a more intuitive management system allowing for better task management and quality assignee population service.
In addition to managing the assignment process, a key feature of LINK Enterprise is the ability to create and maintain nonrecurring task items outside of the defined assignment process. Assignment managers can assign tasks to other users, track status, share task history, and quickly generate reports and forms needed throughout the assignment process. This allows for increased functionality of the assignment task feature, including the creation of task items based on country or company.
Tax services
LINK Enterprise allows for the management of complex tax information. Based on policy and other client-configured thresholds such as foreign tax credit (FTC) carryover amounts, LINK Enterprise can automate the generation of your authorization list, track FTC amounts and other relevant tax services.
LINK Enterprise’s tax service offerings also extend to the tax equalization results. Within LINK Enterprise, users track the status of tax equalizations along with balances due to and from the company. In addition, tax equalization alerts will help facilitate timely collection of outstanding balances owed to the company by an assignee. In short, the tax services featured within LINK Enterprise will provide you with stronger control over your authorized population.
role-based functionality
LINK Enterprise provides global team members with integrated access to real-time information needed to effectively manage assignment programs using one central database. Security is role-based which allows for functional and geographical consideration of company, division and country levels. Furthermore, LINK Enterprise is designed as a comprehensive system of checks and balances to provide necessary data integrity and segregation of duties. Split payroll, multiple currencies, multiple compensation package arrangements, third-party data providers, elaborate policy exceptions, and total cost tracking are some of the features available in the application. robust, easy-to-use reporting
LINK Enterprise incorporates a powerful drag-and-drop ad hoc report writer, which allows you to report and perform sophisticated queries on the data within the system. In addition, the system generates numerous management reports that provide a variety of useful statistics regarding your assignee population.
The newest version of LINK Enterprise allows for increased automation of reports coupled with a robust ad hoc reporting system with the ability to e-mail reports to specified recipients on a scheduled basis. The report
recipients, defined by the system administrator, may include one individual or an entire business function and may be tailored to meet the needs of your current business structure.
CoST ProJECTor
Policy and compensation package management
LINK Enterprise can be easily configured to accommodate diverse global mobility policies. Importantly, there is no limit to the number of policies that can be configured within the system. Allowances associated with these policies are based on your company’s business rules, as well as calculations of international pay items for compensation, tax, and cost estimates. LINK Enterprise categorizes allowances as “Mandatory” or “Recommended” based on configured policy defaults, but also permits deviation from policy when necessary. This promotes consistent, but flexible, application of policy globally by your team. When deviation from policy does occur, sophisticated exception tracking and reporting help to quantify the costs of exceptions, which helps you better monitor policy application, review trends, and determine whether policy changes are in order.
Cost projections for financial modeling
Our market-leading KPMG LINK Cost Projector software is an integrated component of the LINK Enterprise application, allowing you to prepare detailed and accurate projections for costs related to an international assignment. These projections can be used to compile comprehensive financial reports so your department can better monitor and report on the costs associated with your program. LINK Enterprise is engineered to automatically calculate a variety of allowances based on the assignment policy selected for an expatriate with minimal input by your users. It can also incorporate data imported into the system from you or third-party vendors, such as AIRINC, ORC, or Mercer (among others) for items such as foreign exchange rates, cost of living, housing, and relocation allowances.
LINK Enterprise’s cost projection engine incorporates extensive tax logic for 65 countries, which allows for a realistic estimation of tax costs, versus a simple marginal rate calculation. Tax logic is normally updated on a quarterly basis or when a major change occurs in a country’s tax law. LINK Enterprise generates detailed reports that provide a clear picture of how tax calculations were performed and how results were derived.
Assignment illustrations: Designed for assignees
Cost projections are also presented in the form of illustrations that provide a “what-if” financial summary intended for review by the assignee. Illustrations provide a simple, and understandable, financial view of the reimbursements an assignee can expect to be paid during the course of an assignment. For any given assignment opportunity, multiple illustrations can be prepared for the same employee or a group of employees. Illustrations are partitioned from the production area of the system so that they do not affect management reporting, yet use the very same policy and business rules to provide consistency and control over policy application.
CoMPENSATIoN MANAGEr
Compensation: Instruction and collection
Memorandum updates to home and/or host payrolls allow you to control what is updated to local earnings
statements indicating whether the amount should be updated on a gross or net basis. Shadow payroll(s) can also be accommodated by the system.
Regularly occurring payment instructions (such as the payment of a cost of living allowance or hypothetical tax deduction) are automatically calculated based on assignment policies, configured business rules, and/or third-party data imports into the system. These payment instructions can be electronically sent to home or host payrolls (via an interface or hard copy request) along with transactions paid by third parties. You are even able to select which payments will be recurring or one time only—by individual assignee.
LINK Enterprise applies your policy and business rules to recurring and one-time payroll or third party transactions before, during, and after the assignment.
retroactive payments
Dealing with retroactive payments is both a matter of process and calculation. LINK Enterprise assists in this process. This means that system users can make retroactive payments to employees to compensate for unforeseen changes and updated allowance amounts. Retroactive functionality only applies to employee payments and leverages both worksheets and transactions within the system. Retroactive payments can be made even in the inactive phase of the assignment, post repatriation.
CoMPENSATIoN CoLLECTor (ACTUAL PAY)
LINK Enterprise manages transactions made (recurring or one-time payments) by third-party vendors,
accounts payable, or payroll departments in either the home or host location from multiple sources and in multiple currencies. This feature allows for collection of total costs related to assignments and compensation reporting on a regular basis rather than just annually.
Accurate and timely global compensation reporting provides a better mechanism for calculating and remitting payroll taxes on a current basis and improves tax compliance.
SELF-SErVICE PorTAL
An employee-centered interface for LINK Enterprise
An increased reliance on global workforces, technology innovations and movement toward employee-centric mobility management has lead to the creation of LINK Enterprise’s latest major enhancement, the Self-Service Portal. The portal is a user-friendly interface allowing globally mobile employees to update their personal information and manage certain areas of their assignment such as submitting expenses, , retrieving or uploading assignment documents and see the status of key tasks in their assignment.
Transparent assignment management
LINK Enterprise’s Self-Service Portal provides a one-stop gateway to global mobility management that allows, communication directly from employer to employee in a secure environment configured to meet your specific needs. This helps ensure that employees only have access to information that is pertinent, meaningful and essential to creating a transparent and efficient communication model. With the Self-Service portal, companies have another means through which to enhance employee satisfaction; decreasing time spent on manual processes while increasing transparency within their global mobility programs.
By using the self-service portal, companies have another tool to increase employee satisfaction; decreasing time spent manual processes while increasing transparency within their global mobility programs.
how?
LINK Enterprise – Proven implementation
and support processes
KPMG is experienced in successful global system implementations where multiple departments and locations are involved. We have dedicated professionals who consult, develop, implement, and support each application, tool, and service we provide. Our dedicated team of over 100 people enables us to provide implementation and support in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. This experience and capability separates us from our competition. We are committed to working with you as one team in successfully completing your system implementation and continued production support post implementation.
Many of our technology team members have worked directly in global mobility management or within KPMG’s international tax and international human resources services prior to joining the technology team. Furthermore, many members of the International Executive Services (IES) Technology team have been in this practice for over 15 years.
KPMG has performed over 100 implementations in both direct license and outsourcing arrangements, and will draw on our global implementation experience to bring your company the benefits of this experience. The IES Technology team follows an established methodology in the implementation process. With this proven methodology, we can have you up and running with LINK Enterprise in as quickly as four months.
Support and maintenance
Support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through our KPMG LINK Technology support center. Our support center professionals are trained to resolve support issues and will appropriately involve business analysts and development team members as necessary. Our goal is to resolve issues as quickly and efficiently as possible. Certain inquiries require higher-level support from a business analyst and/or developer. We typically have a junior and senior business analyst assigned to your implementation. When necessary, we bring in our team of global mobility advisors and other subject matter experts for assistance.
KPMG brings over 20 years of experience designing and implementing global mobility software. We have learned that our firm’s clients require some flexibility and growth in the applications they license to accommodate specific differences in policy and processes. That’s why once LINK Enterprise is implemented, we do not walk away; rather, we work with you and support your needs and ensure that the system is meeting its potential for you.
We continually enhance LINK Enterprise, based on feedback from current clients and from our user group. All product enhancements are driven by client need, with a focus on creating a stable product that can be easily configured, updated, and maintained by the client. Licensees of LINK Enterprise are invited to our annual KPMG LINK User Group Meeting where we encourage them to share how they use the application and what features they find most beneficial. As part of this group, you will share and learn best practices while gaining knowledge of all suggested or planned application enhancements. In addition, monthly calls are scheduled with you to make sure that your service needs are being met and keep you abreast of new enhancements and product features.
Compensation Collector � Track assignment payments and assignment costs � Track actual costs � Home/host compensation reports, global compensation collection Cost Projector � Design compensation packages � Financial modeling � Cost estimates � Consistent policy management
Flexible licensing options
As described above, LINK Enterprise provides a vast array of options to meet your specific business objectives and expatriate management criteria. At the heart of the system is our demographics-based tracking system. This allows you to track assignments and assignee data using over 300 demographic elements. Within this function, you will also find a strong reporting structure capable of running standard and ad hoc reports.
In addition to the base demographics system, you may license additional modules to aid with cost projection, compensation management, compensation collection, and employee communications via the Self-Service Portal. This allows you the ability to tailor LINK Enterprise to your current and future business needs.
*Demographics must be licensed Compensation
Manager � Create/update balance sheets and one-time payment requests � Policy management and exception tracking � Automated balance sheets and consistent policy management
Demographics*
� Track assignment and assignee data
� Track 300+ demographic elements
� Standard reports/ad hoc report writer
� Checklist and task management
Self-Service Portal � Allows employees or third-party vendors to enter information into LINK Enterprise � Creates a secure form of communication between program management and employees � Self management of allowances and expenses or reimbursements
Who?
LINK Enterprise – KPMG’s IES technology team
Not only do we invest heavily in
technology, we also have the global
resources to ensure that our mobility
solutions are implemented and
supported effectively.
Adrian Anderson
IES Technology Partner
Since KPMG International was founded over 100 years ago, member firms have been providing domestic and international assignee-related tax services. Thirty years ago, KPMG recognized the need for international assignment services to be integrated on a global basis and established our IES practice to help multinational clients manage their international assignment programs. The practice started with compliance and consulting services, and today has more than 2,400 fully dedicated IES professionals around the world.
At the heart of our IES practice is our leading-edge assignment management technology. One reason we are ahead of others in the marketplace is that we invest significant resources in the development and implementation of our technology tools. We have invested more than $50 million dollars over the past three years in advancing our IES technology. KPMG offers a full suite of technology tools that allow our firm’s clients to manage every assignment management function, from cost projections to compensation. Whether your company is just beginning to send employees on international assignments or already supports a large assignee population around the globe, KPMG has the right technology tools to meet your global mobility needs.
© 2013 KPMG LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and the U.S. member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. The KPMG name, logo and “cutting through complexity” are registered trademarks or trademarks of KPMG International. NDPPS 115100 Frederic Le Gall
Director T: 058 249 53 98 E: [email protected] kpmg.com