Customer
Scandlines Denmark
Industry
Shipping company
Year
2025
Services
Salary
Scandlines Denmark
When two salary geeks find each other, even complex projects can land softly. It is the story of how Scandlines Danmark and KOLLAB jointly made the leap from a manual, phased-out setup to a modern LessorLøn cloud solution in the middle of a pay landscape that is certainly not standard.
Challenge: Scandlines Danmark had a manual and phased-out pay system, which was stable but heavy. It could no longer handle the complexity of shift, ship and seasonal wages, so they needed a modern cloud solution that could ensure accurate, scalable and reliable payroll management.
The challenge: A payroll engine room around the clock
Scandlines’ operation requires that pay hits the spot every time across shifts, ships and seasons. The older Lessor version was stable but manual and on the way out. Therefore, the course had to be reversed, but without giving up what already worked:
“We were actually quite satisfied with the old system – it was manual, but over the past 4-5 years we have given us a great deal of knowledge about payroll processing. When it was phased out, we basically wanted to stay in the Lessor family. The solution from KOLLAB was a natural choice,” explains Martin Warming, Payroll Manager at Scandlines Denmark.
Scandline's IT department screened the market. Several suppliers declined because of the shipping part; the complexity is anything but standard. In the end, the choice was between two directions and experience and operational reliability won here:
“Many said no because of shipping. Our setup is anything but standard. We chose a solution that could support the complexity and a team that could walk the path with us,” Martin elaborates.
The solution: LessorLøn Cloud
KOLLAB delivered a cloud solution that matches Scandlines’'s complexity. The key was the pairing between a dedicated payroll team with extensive experience and insight into Scandlines’, many different collective agreements and other agreements. In addition, a very special collaboration also arose between an experienced internal project manager and a specialized KOLLAB consultant: short feedback loops, honest conversations and quick decisions. It was not just a well-known implementation phase, where the supplier helps the customer, but rather a form of co-creation between two professionals:
“Our team and not least our project manager and their specialist found each other – ’two salary geeks’ who speak the same language. That was the key to the project succeeding,” Martin Warming continues.
Why LessorLøn Cloud made sense for Scandlines Denmark:
- Scalability: Handles seasonal fluctuations and replacement staffing.
- Security & compliance: Two-factor, logging and role-based access.
- Support: Better and faster access to support.
- Business calm: Retro calculation by e.g. changed agreements without too many manual processes.
The implementation: From plan to passage
The contract was slightly delayed in the autumn of 2024, and the goal was then clear: to get on the air before the high season. A short replacement in project management threatened the pace, but ownership was quickly re-established and efforts were significantly stepped up:
“We worked really hard in the spring. The goal was clear: We had to be in the air before the high season,” says Martin Warming about the intense collaboration that took place between the key people from Scandlines Denmark and KOLLAB.
To get safely into port, three levers were put into play as one coherent plan:
- Parallel operation in March–April to compare new/old pay system and first press ‘go’ when the deviations were at an acceptable level.
- Pragmatic startup with quick start-up followed by targeted post-regulation of setup and data.
- Close access to specialist about subsequent adjustments to e.g. e-Income fields and financial accounting. Adjustments that were quickly handled and checked.
Martin Warming elaborates: “We tested thoroughly, even with small adjustments. It was about not destroying what already worked.”
How standard is rarely standard
70+ working time agreements, many collective agreements and local agreements, advance/back pay, civil servants and seafarers provide many ramifications and great complexity.
Salary species that refer crosswise can quickly become a bit of a ‘patchwork’. Therefore, it requires both an overview and deep professionalism, and an implementation where upstream data is part of the plan.
“It's a bit of a patchwork, but thanks to an experienced payroll team, it's still manageable, just as we've had direct access to one of KOLLAB's payroll specialists, who has been competent and skilled at ‘reading’ our setup,” sounds praising from Martin Warming.
Upstream means that:
- Proper setup in HR master data and shift schedule is essential for a correct end product.
- When employees switch between hourly/part-time/full-time, categories and rates must be tightly controlled to ensure accurate calculation.
Less friction, more steering and a 2026 in flow
After go-live and a successful high season, the team sees less friction and more control in everyday life, while the gaze is on a fresh starting year with consistent use of standard functions and a lower risk profile. What already works:
- Retro calculation: When collective agreements land retroactively, the system recalculates the affected periods without the previous many manual calculations.
- Security & governance: Two-factor, clear logging and role-based access: a clear management priority.
- CPR lookup & NemKonto: Less sensitive data handling and fewer error options.
“The new system is more transparent. We can control who can do what, and top management values that,” explains Martin Warming towards the end. So what will be the next steps?
- We put the old workflows behind us and use the standard where it makes sense.
- We adapt purposefully where it creates business value.
- We maintain test discipline and focus on upstream data so that operations remain stable and calm, even when the high season knocks.
In conclusion, Martin Warming tries to look into the crystal ball of the future: “Standard where it can carry and targeted customizations where it provides value. Then come the winnings: time, fewer mistakes and more control,” he concludes.