Salary packaging – When ‘think different’ actually works

GO Salary is set to disrupt the salary packaging industry. 

Tony Vitacca has been in the salary packaging industry for over 25 years. He has seen it all. He worked for a small salary packaging business which grew from five to 100 staff, worked for a large ASX listed provider, and finally, set up his own salary packaging business.

“It has been an amazing journey to watch how the salary packaging industry has changed,” Vitacca says. Over 20 years in one industry is most unusual these days. 

“When I started, there was literally no internet, no email, no mobiles. We wrote a lot of cheques,” he says. 

Now, the salary packaging industry is efficient and streamlined. Or is it?

“The one thing I learnt to focus on was customer service,” Vitacca says. 

“I was with Advantage Salary Packaging for over 10 years, and we had a great reputation for customer service. Our CEO, Anton Gaudry, was a great leader in that regard. Service was his passion.”

However, it also became clear to Vitacca that service has its structural limitations. 

“Once Advantage was sold, things changed, and I decided to move on,” he recalls.

Vitacca’s passion for service was really only as good as the people and the system that supported his efforts. 

“As much as the industry changed over 20 years, one constant has always existed,” he says. 

Nobody in the industry has an “open system”. 

“We really take internet banking for granted. It’s been with us for over 20 years. Yet, nobody in the salary packaging industry offers an ‘open’ or employee driven system,” Vitacca says. 

Until now.

“Service has its limitations because systems have their limitations,” Vitacca says. 

There is still a lot of manual handling / inputting in the salary packaging industry. 

“Whilst this was most evident in peak times, service constraints are becoming almost the norm,” he says.

When Vitacca decided in 2018 to establish his own salary packaging business, two things stood out. First, customer service. Second, to deliver on service, Vitacca knew he needed to deliver an “internet banking” solution for clients. 

“The solutions go hand in hand,” he says. 

“You can’t provide the best service when you still have manual processes. The banks have done online banking very well. Salary packaging has done nothing, until now.”

So, by thinking and acting differently, GO Salary was created. 

Vitacca says he is really proud of what they have been able to achieve. 

“Australia’s first, truly ‘open system’ salary packaging service. An NFP employee can get started online, add expenses and claims in real time, even make bank account changes themselves,” he says. 

Disruption may be an overused term, but in this instance, GO Salary is set to disrupt the industry. 

“We’ve done lots of demonstrations, and the common reaction is ‘wow’. That tells me we are on the right track,” Vitacca says.

Ben Markovic has joined Vitacca after some 10 years in the salary packaging industry. 

“My role is to bring new clients on board,” Markovic says. 

“It’s really exciting to see their eyes light up when they see how easy our system is. There is nothing like it elsewhere. Once people sign up at our website, gosalary.com.au, they are ready to go. That’s pretty amazing.” 

This article is sponsored by GO Salary.