Replace the read-only Sage People licence anti-pattern with a proper employee data archive — HMRC inspection ready, GDPR DSAR compliant, statutory retention enforced, at a fraction of the cost.
Every Sage People customer migrating to Oracle Fusion hits the same question: what happens to ex-employee data, HMRC retention, GDPR DSAR? The wrong answer is 'keep a read-only Sage People licence forever'. The right answer is a purpose-built archive.
UK employers face multiple overlapping retention regimes on employee data. HMRC payroll records require minimum 4 years retention (current tax year + 3 previous) under PAYE Regulations 2003, with employer best practice retention of 6 years. Pension records under TPR guidance often need indefinite retention until benefits are fully discharged. Discrimination claim windows under Limitation Act 1980 are 6 years. Statutory leave evidence (SSP, SMP, SPP) carries its own 3-year minimum. ICO guidance under UK GDPR layers on a proportionality test. All of these apply after the worker has left and well past the point where active Sage People access is needed.
The default response — keep a 'read-only' Sage People licence running indefinitely — is the most expensive way to satisfy these obligations. Read-only licences typically retain 30-50% of active per-worker per-month cost; for a 2,500-worker employer with 7 years of history retained, the running cost is £270,000-£540,000 per year, with no business value beyond the legal obligation. Worse, the read-only licence doesn't actually deliver a good DSAR workflow, doesn't have a dedicated HMRC inspector tier, and doesn't enforce retention-end erasure properly. It's expensive and inadequate at the same time.
Syntra's Sage People employee data archive replaces the read-only-licence anti-pattern with a purpose-built archive: hash-signed Parquet storage partitioned by year and business unit, retention schedule enforced per record domain, DSAR portal with 30-day turnaround, HMRC inspector access tier, GDPR right-to-erasure handling with defensible decision trail. Typical annual cost £18,000-£48,000 — 75-95% saving versus the read-only licence path.
Six employee data domains preserved with original effective-dating, audit trail, and statutory compliance integrity.
Name (current + history), addresses (current + history), NI number, date of birth, citizenship, work eligibility documents. Full Worker__c master + history.
Every Employment_Record__c row: position, manager, location, business unit, grade, FTE, employment terms. Effective-dated chain preserved without gaps.
Salary, bonus, allowances effective-dated. Annual cost reconciled. P11D-relevant benefits-in-kind preserved with original evidence.
P60 year-end summaries, P11D forms, P45 leaver documents, payslip history where stored. HMRC-acceptable formats.
Full leave history including UK statutory leave (SSP, SMP, SPP, SAP, ShPP) with employer payment evidence and HMRC submission trail.
Performance review history with ratings, goals, competencies, manager comments, employee self-reviews, sign-off trail. Audit-defensible.
From archive design to first production DSAR response and HMRC inspector readiness. Runs in parallel with the last weeks of Sage People to Fusion migration.
Archive schema design, Parquet partition strategy by year/business-unit, retention schedule per record domain configured. ICO retention rationale documented per domain.
Full-volume one-time extract from Sage People (separate stream from Fusion-target ETL). Data integrity validation, hash-signing for tamper-evidence. Schema-preserved Parquet write.
DSAR portal hosted at documented URL (typically dsar.yourcompany.com). Corporate IdP SSO for HR access. Email-magic-link auth for ex-employees. Identity verification workflow.
Auditor role tier configured with pre-built compliance extracts (annual payroll register, P11D summary, headcount snapshots). HMRC inspector tier with time-boxed access and statutory layouts.
HR ops UAT on standard ex-employee lookups. Sample auditor walkthrough. DSAR portal end-to-end test with synthetic identity. HMRC inspector tier validation. Runbook hand-off.
Read-only Sage People licence finally retires. Archive takes over as system of record for historical employee data. Ongoing cost drops to archive subscription only.
Six controls that make the archive defensible under ICO inspection, HMRC audit, internal audit, and tribunal evidence discovery.
Every archive file hash-signed at write. Tamper detection on read. Audit chain proves no post-archive modification. Cryptographic integrity for tribunal evidence.
Per-domain retention rules enforced automatically. Review-and-erasure workflow at retention end. ICO-defensible retention rationale logged per domain.
Email-magic-link auth, identity verification, 30-day response target, response content hash logged, redaction decisions captured. ICO inspection-ready DSAR trail.
Every erasure request logged with refusal/acceptance basis. Retention period rationale captured. Post-retention erasure events themselves logged.
Salary, NI number, bank account, date of birth, medical flags masked by default. Unmask requires explicit role permission AND query-time business justification.
Every archive query logged with user, timestamp, query text, rows returned, sensitive fields accessed. Streamed to corporate SIEM (Splunk, Datadog, Sentinel).
Sage People employee data archive is the dedicated retention store for employee master data — particularly ex-employee records — that must remain legally accessible after the live Sage People org is decommissioned. UK employers face multiple statutory retention obligations on employee data: HMRC payroll records (typically 6 years per Statutory Instrument requirements), pension records (often indefinite under TPR guidance), discrimination claim window (6 years under Limitation Act 1980), tribunal evidence preservation, and ICO retention schedules under UK GDPR. Without a dedicated employee data archive, the only way to satisfy these obligations after Sage People decommission is to maintain a 'read-only' Sage People licence indefinitely — a six-figure annual cost with no business value. Syntra's Sage People employee data archive replaces that licence with a proper archive at a fraction of the cost.
The full Worker__c master record plus every effective-dated child record that contributes to statutory or business-need retention. Headline domains: complete demographic record (name, addresses including history, NI number, date of birth, citizenship, work eligibility documents), full employment history (every Employment_Record__c row with position, manager, location, employment terms across the worker's tenure), full compensation history (every Salary__c, Bonus__c, Allowance__c row with effective dates), full leave history including UK statutory leave (SSP, SMP, SPP) records, performance review history, learning and training records, payroll-relevant identifiers and historical payslips, P11D / P60 / P45 documents where stored, signed contracts and amendments. The Sage People employee data archive preserves all of these with original temporal correctness and audit-grade integrity.
Multiple overlapping retention regimes apply. HMRC payroll: current tax year + 3 previous years minimum (PAYE Regulations 2003), with employer best-practice retention of 6 years total. Pension records: indefinite or 'as long as records may be needed' (TPR guidance) — practically meaning until the ex-employee's pension benefits are fully discharged, which can be 40+ years post-employment. Discrimination claim window: 6 years (Limitation Act 1980). Statutory leave records: 3 years minimum (Statutory Sick Pay Regulations and equivalent). ICO retention guidance: 'no longer than necessary' for the purpose. Right-to-erasure exemptions under UK GDPR Article 17 apply during statutory retention. Syntra's Sage People employee data archive enforces a retention schedule per record domain, with automated review and conditional erasure at retention end.
UK GDPR Article 17 right to erasure has multiple exemptions including legal obligation (HMRC), pension regulation (TPR), and legitimate interest (tribunal claim window). For most HR data during the statutory retention period, erasure requests can be lawfully declined provided the data subject is informed of the legal basis. Syntra's Sage People employee data archive logs every erasure request with the legal basis for refusal or acceptance, the retention period that applies, and the planned erasure date when the retention period expires. This produces a defensible decision trail for ICO inspection. After retention period expires, the archive supports targeted erasure: a specific worker and all related records can be erased with signed authorisation, and the erasure event itself is logged per ICO guidance ('audit trail of the erasure').
Yes, via a dedicated Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) portal hosted as part of the Sage People employee data archive. Ex-employees authenticate via email-verified magic link sent to the email address held in their archived Worker__c record (with optional step-up identity verification for high-risk requests). Once authenticated, the system runs a pre-built data subject query that collects every record about the requester across every archived object. Output is packaged as a PDF (human-readable, redaction-review-friendly) plus optional structured CSV/JSON download for technical users. The 30-day GDPR DSAR response target is met by default; complex cases follow the documented escalation workflow. Every DSAR request and response is logged with identity verification trail, response content hash, and redaction decisions — ICO inspection-ready evidence.
Sage People employee data archive includes a dedicated HMRC inspector access tier. Time-boxed inspector login (typical 90-day engagement window) with access to pre-built HMRC-relevant extracts: annual payroll register per PAYE scheme, P11D summary per tax year, P60 year-end summaries per worker, P45 leaver documents, RTI submission history, statutory leave (SSP, SMP, SPP) records with employer payment evidence. All extracts are in HMRC-acceptable layouts (CSV with standard column structure, XML where applicable). Every inspector query is logged with timestamp, inspector identity, query text, rows returned, and sensitive-field access — creating an audit-of-the-inspection trail. Access auto-revokes at end of engagement; extension requires explicit re-authorisation.
Significant cost saving. A read-only Sage People licence for archive access typically retains 30-50% of the per-worker per-month cost of an active licence — call it £9-£18 per worker per month for an employer who has migrated off active use but keeps the org running for archive. For a 2,500-worker employer with full Sage People history retained for 7 years, that's £270,000-£540,000 per year, indefinitely. Syntra's Sage People employee data archive subscription typically runs £18,000-£48,000 per year covering archive storage, DSAR portal hosting, audit access tier, HMRC inspector tier, and the legacy data access layer for HR ops. Cost saving of 75-95% versus the read-only-licence anti-pattern, with materially better DSAR, audit, and HMRC inspection workflows.
Four to seven weeks once the underlying data migration to Oracle Fusion is complete (or running in parallel with the last weeks of the migration). Weeks 1-2: archive schema design, partition strategy by year/business-unit, retention schedule per domain configured. Weeks 2-4: data extract from Sage People (full-volume one-time extract for archive purposes, separate from the Fusion-target ETL stream), data integrity validation, hash-signing for tamper-evidence. Weeks 3-5: legacy data access layer deployment, DSAR portal configuration with corporate IdP integration, audit access tier configured. Weeks 5-7: UAT with HR ops on standard ex-employee lookups, sample auditor walkthrough, DSAR portal end-to-end test with synthetic identity, HMRC inspector tier validation. Runbook hand-off to HR ops and IT.
Syntra's Sage People employee data archive delivers HMRC-ready retention, GDPR DSAR portal, audit access tier — at 75-95% lower cost than keeping a read-only Sage People licence running indefinitely.