Will employers and professionals sit up and take notice about Auto Enrolment?

For around a year and a half now, I've been talking to Accountants, Solicitors, HR professionals and Employers about Auto Enrolment.  To be frank, the response has been mixed.  Whilst some professionals and employers understand the nature of the new rules and the fact that they need to start preparing for them sooner rather than later, there have been others who have felt that they didn't need to take action at this stage.

Yesterday, someone kindly sent me a letter which is being sent to accountants, payroll providers and other professionals who have clients who employ.  The letter, which has been reproduced with the kind permission of  the pensions regulator has been reproduced here.  I'm wondering whether now is the time that both Employers and professionals who work with employers will sit up and take notice.

Whilst there has been recent changes to time-scales and amendments and clarification on certain aspects of the new rules, one thing is clear....the plan to move forward with Auto Enrolment hasn't changed.  We're currently working with a number of employers to help them prepare for the changes, however is now the time for more employers to sit up, take notice, and prepare their businesses for the change?

My belief is that now is the time for employers to start to prepare.  Whilst the date they need to comply may be a few years in the future, planning and preparing for the new rules now provide the business with an opportunity to build a long term robust plan to ensure they are ready.  I believe that ignoring these rules until businesses need to comply mean that they are under undue time and cost pressure which could be reduced if they started to prepare now.