2019 Office Automation Resolution

Friday, December 28, 2018 TimeTec 0 Comments



No, we’re not talking about robot workforce just yet. Yes, the robots are coming, complete with artificial intelligence, better looks and all, and perhaps we’ll have to deal with full blown robotic workforce by 2050, but for now, let us talk about achieving automation with the help of software solution in our everyday’s operation.

Come 2019, we can't be doing business like it’s 1999. Something has got to change and to better manage the workforce of this century, businesses have to think about time management, collaboration, transparency and efficiency all throughout.

If you are wondering which solutions an office should be looking to make an upgrade, you can start with these 3.

Employee Scheduling & Time Attendance
Majority of businesses are concerned about employees attendance clocking because it’s directly linked to payroll and productivity. No business owners would be okay with employees reporting to work at their own sweet time. Hence, rather than relying on manual clocking such as punch card system or Windows-based attendance system that can give you some idea of your operation, businesses are advised to cut their losses and automate time attendance and scheduling with cloud solution. Automation of attendance and scheduling through cloud will not only save business owners a lot of administration time in handling various schedules along the year, it also can provide a better overview of their entire workforce’s discipline, and the bottomline is, it can save the company’s operating cost in the long run. Cloud solution for attendance such as TimeTec TA by TimeTec provides a company with an up to date clocking data that is accurate and accessible at anytime, and it is linkable to payroll solution to ease salary preparation on every month end.  Give TimeTec TA a try and see whether it fits your operation’s requirements.


Leave Management
It’s time to put a stop to using paper forms to apply for leave; it’s so dated and wasteful. Go paperless with cloud leave management App such as TimeTec Leave by TimeTec. Let the system automate your employees leave entitlement accrual calculation at the beginning of the year with 100% accuracy based on your company’s leave policy and settings. TimeTec Leave taps on the power of smartphone to let the users apply for their leaves easily via the App and the approvals can be obtained instantaneously from the managers, and balance is tallied right away for an up to date leave balance at all times. A cloud system such as TimeTec Leave provides employees with data transparency and delivers efficiency to the entire operation and especially to HR because the workload has been reduced significantly and efficiently by the software.  Cloud leave solution like TimeTec Leave will leave room for HR to focus on other pressing matters at hand when all employee leave matters are being taken care by itself through a systematic and automated solution.


Access Security
Keys are here to stay but nowadays, keys come in various forms. There are key cards, key fobs, biometrics as keys, voice as keys and many more. The latest in the market is smart access security using IoT via smartphones. Apart from providing convenience whereby users do not need to carry any token as keys, it provides audit trail of all access activities happening at any particular IoT in the smartphone. i-TimeTec is an app that can connect to BLE-2 and  BLE-5, the Bluetooth Low Energy controller to provide access to doors, turnstiles and barrier gates. The BLE can be installed discreetly on access barriers and all access controls be done from the smartphone installed with i-TimeTec App. There are four unlocking methods offered via i-TimeTec include tap to open, voice, auto unlock and QR code reading. The use of i-TimeTec for access security is suitable for various types of modern offices.


Shift to automation one at a time and start 2019 Office Automation with on a few key areas to embrace the future.



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TimeTec Leave: Easy for HR, Easy for Managers, Easy for Employees!

Thursday, November 29, 2018 TimeTec 0 Comments



Leave Management is one part of HR activities that looks simple but yet crucial to any company, because it consumes a huge chunk of the HR Team's time month in and month out. Imagine when a company relies on a manual system to handle their employee leave. To apply for a leave, an employee has to rely on a physical form that requires a signature from his/her superior(s), assuming that he/she needs to get only one signature. If an employee answers to two or more superiors, this form has to basically travel far and wide in order to obtain those signatures before it can be submitted to HR for further process. Subsequently, what would the HR do? First HR will have to check the available balance of this particular employee before the final approval and upon that, HR will have to deduct the leave and update the balance for that employee accordingly. If the balance is insufficient, HR needs to return the form back to the employee for adjustments, and likewise obtain the signatures again. Furthermore, on each employee’s anniversary, HR Team will have to accrue the balance based on that employee’s years of service for a new balance value all while making sure that the balance of the other types of leave are correct. 

Based on most labour laws, often than not, each employee is entitled to a few different types of leave and depending on the employees’ years of service, leave such as annual, has to be accrued accordingly and accurately. For a company to gain employee engagement, it’s important for it to have a reliable Leave Management system that is not only accurate to a tee but also transparent in terms for both the management and the employee.

Why TimeTec Leave is the solution?

Because it’s modern, it’s cloud and it’s now! TimeTec Leave presents company with a system that takes care of all your leave policy/compliance, automate the leave system and balance for efficiency. Coupled with a dedicated App, TimeTec Leave solution offers HR, management and employee a tool for leave application, leave approval, leave calendar and also to verify for accurate leave balance at all times.

With TimeTec Leave, HR just needs to key in the settings once and all balance will be tallied automatically. Employees will have access to their leave data and balance, plus the process of leave application is simplified and approval can be obtained instantly via the App. Managers on the other hand, can approve applications easily from anywhere through the App.

In the world where staff mobility is inevitable and highly demanded, solution such as TimeTec Leave is required for a company to achieve better efficiency. TimeTec Leave is Easy for HR, Easy for Managers, and Easy for Employees!


Visit www.timetecleave.com for more information. 


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TIMETEC TA SOLVES 7 MAJOR PAIN POINTS OF RETAIL BUSINESSES

Wednesday, October 31, 2018 TimeTec 13 Comments




Running a retail business is no walk in the park, no matter the scale of your operations. If you are a manager or owner in the retail industry, you know best that the challenges comes from every corner. Understanding customers, markets and competitors, running daily operations, generating revenue and growth, dealing with employees, managing supply chains, business partners, and the list goes on. Moreover, the steady growth of e-commerce in recent years has brought profound changes and given rise to new rules of the game.

Therefore, in order to successfully compete and thrive in this changing landscape, even the more established brick-and-mortar retailers are now busy with reinventing their businesses and improving their products, services and productivity. Along the process, they will also have to take a closer look at the staff, since these are the backbone of every store’s operations, as well as a significant operating cost. However, given that retail staff can be dispersed across many stores and wide geographical areas, there is a certain complexity to that. 

Picture this, when an Area supervisor needs to ensure that all stores are opening on time, they will probably need staff attendance data from the stores that they are unable to physically inspect. It does not stop there, others such as HR or Store managers also have use for and will need to access such information. To address this kind of requirements, one option that retailers can consider is TimeTec TA, our cloud-based time attendance management solution. 

Let’s explore some issues you could be facing in selecting the right attendance management tool and what TimeTec TA can do in each case:



Pain Points for Attendance Management in Retail and the Solutions Offered by TimeTec TA.



1. Multiple Store Locations 

Data is dispersed, potentially delayed or lost
As pointed out earlier, having multiple stores all over, possibly even across different countries and time zones, makes it difficult for a company to keep track of attendance. Payroll is also usually processed at headquarters or in a shared service centre, so to get things done on time, with minimum errors, it is crucial to collect and manage attendance data on a centralized system. 

TimeTec TA offers Data Centralization
TimeTec TA enables this, by storing data from all your separate offices and outlets on a cloud server, where it is accessible from anywhere, at all times. You receive the information in real-time and will rely less on key employees having to manually prepare reports and sending them over. What’s more, this is achieved without you installing hardware or software and neither do you need to worry about backups.   


2. Clocking Methods for Attendance 

Excuses for not Clocking, No record for Mobile Staff 
In any retail business, there are many roles, back office staff, procurement, marketing and events, logistics, merchandisers, sales or operations team, area supervisors, store assistants and etc. Some of them are not based in a fixed office, at least not all of the time. If you require all employees to clock in for work without fail, including the mobile staff, you need to provide suitable clocking channels to accommodate their work nature.

TimeTec TA provides Versatile Attendance Clocking 
With TimeTec TA, employees can clock using 5 clocking options, namely biometrics, web clocking through a PC, and 4 clocking options through a smartphone; Beacon, NFC tag, GPS and Wifi. There will be no excuses for not reporting in, even while on the go. To monitor movement of your mobile staff, give them the option of clocking with GPS from their own phone, no other device required. 




3. Complications from Work Schedules

Need to Balance HQ and Store’s Scheduling Requirements
For retail companies, scheduling can be quite complicated, unpredictable and subject to last minute changes, due to a host of factors such as constant turnover, higher proportion of part-time staff, shift swaps, flexible off days and seasonal demands. Delegation is another tricky element. Store managers should rightly participate in setting work schedules/rosters since they oversee daily operations but the supervisors back in HQ must not overlook this as they have to answer for the staff cost and performance. If not managed well, many things can go wrong: miscommunications, store opening late, understaffing and excess overtime cost, just to name a few.

Create Varied Work Schedules that fits HQ Requirements with TimeTec
Therefore, you need a flexible system like TimeTec TA that takes care of all the different scheduling requirements. You can create weekly, daily or flexi schedules suitable for various groups of staff and allow Store managers to manage weekly rosters for their team. On the other hand, supervisors at HQ can ensure work is proceeding according to plan, schedules are applied uniformly throughout the branches, compliance with labour laws, staffing sufficiently meets crunch time demand, arrange staff transfers and approve any changes Store managers puts in. For better monitoring, there are also functions for overtime approval and notifications of tardiness and absence.


   

4. Data is Not Available for All

Data is limited, one sided and possibly inaccurate
Sometimes, attendance data loses value if it is not timely and does not reach the right people. While HR department or payroll will have a copy, how about all the various HOD, Store managers and even staff themselves? By keeping information flowing one way only, with no checking or confirmation from outlet supervisors or employees, there is no guarantee that it is accurate and could be fully relied on for payroll purposes. If there are any issues, the people-in-charge may not notice in time, to take appropriate action.

Data Transparency in TimeTec
TimeTec TA is a multi-user system, where every employee is given access and can login to view data in the system. This means users can check their own data accuracy and provide feedback, to ensure transparency and promote better engagement. Furthermore, the system is controlled by access levels, so you can assign Admins that will be permitted to view information for their own teams.


5. Staff Registrations

Registering Staff Separately for Different Outlets 
Using a time attendance system that requires you to register staff separately in branches and in other places may not be a big deal, but it could be inconvenient if you always have to transfer staff around. If the user data can’t be synced, you have to repeat the registration at each new place or otherwise miss out capturing their attendance.

One Time Staff Registration
This is not a problem in our cloud-based solution. Only one time registration is required and the employee can be moved and synced to any branches easily, accurately and effectively.


6. Unable to See Real time Workforce Situation

Limited Reports, Waiting time, Lacking for some Branches
Ultimately, the main purposes for implementing any attendance software still lies in the need of management to have a clearer picture of what is going on in the workforce and also to have reliable data for payroll computation. Without a proper tool, it is difficult to get answers you need. For instance, our example earlier regarding Area supervisors that are tasked to ensure stores are following business operating hours. All the time. It requires comprehensive data and reports and may be hindered if supervisors do not have access to generate reports on their own, there is only information on some branches but not others, waiting time, errors and etc. 

Information and Report are Always Up To Date & Available
TimeTec gives you the ability to view the overall workforce situation at any time, whether through Web or the Mobile app. Information is updated immediately and authorized Admins will be provided access. With this, they can now see the number of staff actually available on the shop floor, every single day, for every branch. The data is free from manipulation, and various reports can be generated according to needs, all the way to export for payroll.



7. Manage Leave Applications & Approvals

Manual System, Time Consuming, Outdated Records, Limited Access
On the opposite side of attendance, there is leave, which is an essential aspect of workforce management. When it comes to leave management, some may choose to stick with a manual approach. In that case, it means many hours of administrative work, to compile and process leave application from all outlets, leaving you with potentially outdated or inaccurate records. Not only that, manual forms can be misplaced and delay in submission will affect the employees leave plans. At the end of the day, only HR keeps the current details on everyone’s leave balance, so all enquiries must go there.

Amazing Leave Management
TimeTec TA provides ways for your staff to plan for holidays and leave with the inclusion of TimeTec Leave under one platform. Through the automated system, all leave applications and approval is managed through the Web or Mobile App. HR will have less to handle, yet they can monitor the process straight from the HQ. Additionally, latest information can be shared, managers can use it for planning work allocation and employees can view their own records at any time. 



Lastly, if you wish to experience for yourself how TimeTec TA can help you, get a free trial today at https://www.timetecta.com/free_trial or contact us at info@timeteccloud.com for consultation.



13 comments:

Modern Companies Need to Switch to Cloud-Based Guard Monitoring & This is Why!

Monday, September 24, 2018 TimeTec 0 Comments




In your mind everything is in its place. In terms of security, you have engaged with a decent security company to ensure a high level of security for your premise. The guards wear proper uniform complete with hats, walkie-talkie, baton and all; they look legit. So, what could be wrong? What should you know before engaging a guard service from a security company? Plenty, to be honest. Proper uniform, while necessary, cannot promise you a high level of security that you desire, only a good system could.

Facts about Conventional Guard System 
Lack Transparency - Conventional guard system usually involves manual data collection, which means that the data can be tempered with, to present a much desired report to the boss and the client. Hence, you might receive a doctored report instead of the honest one just so you are satisfied with the report and pay the company accordingly.

Delayed Reports/Data - Conventional security guard equipments do not have the capability to emit the data to the control room on the spot. Hence, you can only get the data or information at the end of a shift. This is not enough when the real-time data is readily provided by some other services, and accessible from anywhere through browsers.

Lack Value - Data remains as data and it’s not as useful unless it can be interpreted into reports that can be used to keep the customers safe and the assets protected.

Complication Reduces Effectiveness - Most conventional software for patrolling system is complicated to use,  difficult to set up or unable to respond to commands properly; and the guards on duty can’t be expected to handle all that on top of providing patrol services.

Expensive - Hardware is expensive and investing money on unnecessary hardware would only cost you money but it doesn’t equate effectiveness.

RECOMMENDATIONS
To get more value for the service, customers must be well aware of the technology trend in the market and tap on that to bring advantages to your establishment. Choose a system that can provide real-time data, not hardware-heavy,  free from data manipulation, provide instant reports, offer simple operation yet effective outcome and most of all, the system must be affordable and scalable to the business’s requirements.


1. Tap on BYOD/simple IoT, i.e. Smartphone; App is free and easy. 
2. Checkpoint hardware is simple, inexpensive, easy to install and easy to configure.
3. Can be scaled according to business’s requirements, up or down without having dire cost implications.
4. Report of incidents can be submitted instantly; complete with video, photo attachment for fast review and remedy.
5. Reports can be generated at any time, via any web browsers.
6.  Data integrity is intact with no possible data manipulation.
7. Support and maintenance is taken care by the supplier.
8. The service is affordable. 


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Employers! Consider These 5 Things That Employees Appreciate

Wednesday, September 05, 2018 TimeTec 0 Comments



Who doesn’t welcome a big fat bonus and a considerable increase or any hike in salary? But at work, those two things don’t come every so often and most definitely you’ll have to earn it. However, it’s a known fact that employees spend most of their time at the office, or for the office, and because of that, employers need to be mindful of the employees' welfare and well-being. Modern employers need to listen and respond to their employees because these are the people who are moving their businesses towards the set goals. In the Silicon Valley, for example, most things like food, lodging, medical care and etc are given free, an effort to retain valuable employees. Retention programmes have also become a strategy for the human resource department in companies worldwide to keep their valuable staff intact in order for development programs to proceed smoothly without any interruptions. However, apart from a good office, salary increment and bonus; what else could an employer do to retain their employees? While organizing a company trip overseas is awesome, a company can instead do the little things that employees appreciate. TimeTec presents how a company can deliver these without breaking the bank. Additional Annual Leave When you cannot afford to spend more on salaries or bonuses, you can compensate it with valuable time. How? By adding some annual leave into the mix. Show your appreciation to the long-serving staffs with an additional day or two to their total annual leave. This could be accomplished by tweaking your company leave policy and specifying the duration of service that is applicable. In addition, a company can also be creative and provide a different kind of leave to serve a deserving group of staffs such as Menses Leave for women employees, or that employees are allowed to replace overtime with a day of leave. Time is as good as money and it is certainly something that employees appreciate more than money.


Leeway in Time Attendance Employees are not robots, they have errands to do, family to take care of, elderly to pay attention to. While being on time is good for business, but occasionally it still poses a challenge to some employees. Having said that, a company can give a bit of leeway in time attendance like a grace period before an employee’s attendance is recorded as late. For example, your company’s official time is 9am to 5pm. If you have a grace period of 15 minutes, for instance, employees who arrive at 9:12 will not be considered late. Yes, employees should know how to manage their time, but a little consideration on time policy from the company is actually a win-win for everybody. When a company understands, employees would, therefore, appreciate and engage.




Work Location Flexibility
As an employer, would you worry about not seeing your employees at the office? Well, don’t. Modern workforce values flexibility and if a company can allow them to work from home or every now and then, they will surely appreciate the gesture. Working from home doesn’t mean everything will go unsupervised and haywire. We are talking about mature employees that can get the job done on time with the quality expected from them. Hence, work location doesn’t really matter. Nonetheless, the company needs an effective tool to control this arrangement such as having a GPS attendance for those particular employees or at least a mobile attendance tool for timekeeping.



Breathing Room
Employees do not appreciate micromanagement. Who would like to have their superior breathing on their necks at all times? Employees appreciate the employer who trusts, and they will be committed and engaged to the company if they know that they have the trust of the management. However, the company also cannot let loose on everything because a ship needs to be steered to the destination. Again, a company needs a tool to monitor the employees’ ongoings but not to intrude in their everyday matter too much. Sometimes, managers have the feeling that a particular employee has taken too many breaks, instead of assuming, get the information sorted out to support the claim and don’t make a mistake by confronting the employee with false information. It’s wise to have a monitoring system so that the employer doesn’t have to be nagging for information. One thing for sure, employees do not appreciate being blamed for no apparent reason.


Invest in Good Tools
Don’t be skimpy, invest in good tools for employees to work efficiently. You can’t expect a nice looking advertisement without having good software for your designers to work on. You can’t expect a great piece without employing a good writer. Computers need to be replaced after sometimes, so your employees shouldn’t have to wait forever to load certain things. A decent Internet connectivity must be available for the work to be fast and efficient. Because it’s frustrating when a job can’t be accomplished in time as there are not enough available tools to get it done. An employer shouldn’t expect an employee to go to the office to clock their attendance at 9:00 am when the meeting appointment is set at 9:30 am at a customer’s office. As such, a mobile attendance tool is necessary for dealing with the mobile workforce. In addition, investment in cloud leave management tool is a great way to reduce the workload of HR personnel in handling the intricate leave details and at the same time, provides transparency to the employees. 



Time progresses and changes observed. Workforce behavior is changing with time and employers need to keep up and catch up. These little things that a company does could no doubt amount to a long-term commitment from your employees.




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A Guide to Choosing Time Attendance System of the 21st Century

Tuesday, July 31, 2018 TimeTec 0 Comments




Human Resource is one of the many integral parts of Enterprise Resource Planning of an organization, and Time Attendance is an important part of Human Resource. Choosing the right Time and Attendance solution can benefit an organization not only in terms of cost but it also can present the workforce with better working experience, which in turn is able to produce better workforce engagement and collaboration. Managing workforce in the 21st century presents a different sets of challenges to the managers. Today’s employees are more mobile than ever and they are connected like never before, making work location no longer a vital element in the mix. Staff discipline is not only defined by 9-5 period, rather many companies have started to recognize the need for time flexibility. And in the world that moves fast, instant access to data is definitely second to none. So how do organizations react to the change in the workforce dynamic? Time attendance indeed is an important system for a company to help manage its growing workforce day-in and day-out, all year long.

This article will present 20 important elements you should look out for when choosing a good time attendance system for your company. Do not take any of them for granted because when a company grows, its requirements follow, and investing in a system that cannot cope with future changes is a waste. Let’s look at the 20 points.

1. Clocking Versatility - The Time Attendance System of choice must be versatile and inclusive. This means that the system must allow users to clock-in according to their preferences so long as the data received is correct and accurate without any possibility of abuse. Having only one option for the staffs to choose from, for example, a biometrics fingerprint device or a card device installed at the office to clock in attendance is not entirely wrong but it would cause inconvenience to some employees that need to work elsewhere such as attending meeting at a client’s office in the morning, those who are traveling abroad or some staffs who are working from home. The time attendance system must cater to all employees at any given situations, because only then the data received would be inclusive and conclusive.

2. Realtime - The Time Attendance System you choose must be able to produce data in real time and accessible from anywhere at anytime because in this day and age, waiting makes people restless, and it is no longer tolerated. The system must not be fixed its access to a location, such as the office only and it has to be accessible by authorized personnel in the time of need. 

3. Affordable & Scalable - A good choice of Time Attendance System must be affordable, sustainable and scalable. Buying a software as a one-off purchase might sound amazing at the moment, but can the system stands the growing demand of the business and the company in years to come. Hence, whenever your company is considering purchasing or committing to a Time Attendance System, please make sure that it is not overly-priced, whereby your company can sustain it comfortably over a long period of time, and that you can scale the usage depending on your company’s demand without having to fork out a fortune to get more.

4. Schedule & Roster - The Time Attendance System that you choose must let managers set schedules and rosters as seamlessly as possible. It needs to be flexible and cater to the various requirements of a company and it can be set up in a short period time, and translated into each staff’s roster without any hassle. The schedule feature of the system also must be able to handle changes made to the schedule instantaneously and be reflected in the system almost immediately to guarantee smooth operation.

5. Job Cost - Job costing lets you track employee time by task, to ensure they are prioritizing their work and focusing on the right tasks. Some companies do not require this feature but as time progresses, more and more companies are looking into job cost feature in the effort to be cost effective.

6. Approval System - Overtime is costly and most companies would like to control and monitor the overtime taken by the employees in their effort to manage operation cost. This is where the approval system comes in handy. The overtime request can come before or after the fact, and with this approval system available in the solution, it’ll make it easier for a company to trace and control overtime.

7. Integrability - In choosing a Time Attendance System, it is important to note on its integrability. The fact is, each company usually has invested in various solutions beforehand, and changing of one solution must not demand a change in another. Hence, it is important that the system be able to integrate the likes of payroll, employee leave, accounting, or HR software to ensure accuracy between programs and save on time and labor in the payroll department.

8. Effective User Management - A Time Attendance System handles employees, and therefore it makes User Management module a huge part of the system. In choosing a good system, the User Management module must be practical, and comprehensive. Keying employee data one by one is not acceptable; addition, transfer & deletion have to be easily done, and the system must have sufficient fields to contain employee details for the company. 

9. Multi-Access - Access rights are different from one role to another. From super admin to admin to user to billing admin, all have different access to information in the system. In short, a great choice of Time Attendance system must be equipped with access controls limit on what information certain roles can view and access to.

10. Multi-Company - This feature is a must-have if your organization has multi-branch and multi-company. The Time Attendance System of choice must have organization chart structure to determine the position of the companies/branches or staff under those entities.

11. Mobile App - Choosing a Time Attendance System that does not have its App is rather risky in this modern age. Staff mobility is growing and mobile App is a tool for staff to report their whereabouts with convenience. It is  especially important if you have people working out of the office, abroad, working from home, working at different sites and mobile all day.

12. Cloud-Based - Do not get turn off by the term cloud-based thinking that it would be costly. There are plenty cloud-based system out there that are affordable and have great features. The reason cloud-based should be a preferred choice because apart from providing accessibility to data at all times,  its backup capabilities ensure data does not get lost, and data cannot be manipulated by unauthorised individuals. On top, maintenance and support are at the lowest when cloud-based solution is concerned.

13. Compliance - There are two types of compliance a Time Attendance System has to meet, one is labor law compliance and another is data protection act compliance. Identify all the compliance you need to adhere to and make sure that the system of choice has a mechanism to comply.

14. Data Analysis - Data is information in raw or unorganized form that refer to, or represent, conditions, ideas, or objects. Data alone cannot do your company any good with analysing it and finding solutions to your organization’s problematic areas. As such, a good Time Attendance System must have performance and productivity tracking mechanism that could help your business identifies problems and areas to improve.

15. Calculation - A good Time Attendance System can automate the process and the calculations based on the given formula and rules. The rounding rules of times has to be available to ensure consistent recording of time. These rules let you round to the nearest time grouping, such as five minutes, or to the beginning or end of a shift, such as when someone clocks in early. And the rules are determined by the company. At the end of the month or the payroll cycle, every data and calculation has to be churned correctly for easier and hassle-free integration.

16. Notification - This is an important feature for a good Time Attendance System. These alerts work to notify managers when employees miss a clock-in or clock-out or are absent, late or approaching overtime, so remedial actions can be taken immediately to nip the problems in the bud.

17. Report - Report is a requisite in Time Attendance System of choice. A system that can provide a variety of useful reports should be your preference. Reports that include an overview of hours worked, time-off requests and other stats help you monitor your staff and identify labor shortages or excesses to improve your scheduling.

18. Data Transparency - Conventional Time Attendance System gives the advantages to the employer and the employees are in no position to check or audit their own data. However, a good Time Attendance System of the future has to be able to give this advantage to employees in one way or another, and make necessary edit or changes whenever required.

19. Monitoring Tool - Every employee has a different work rate and a different portfolio to attend to. Thus, a good Time Attendance System has to be able to provide monitoring tools that can be used to identify the performance of your employees. You should be allowed to monitor on certain areas and be notified accordingly for possible remedial actions. Areas to monitor should be  on the employees’ clock-in time, short work hours and etc.

20. Support - In any system, good technical support and service is a MUST. Opt for Time Attendance System that offers you support around the clock, with ample of guides and information available online so you’ll be able to get help at any time.

Managing workforce in the 21st century is challenging due to the changing elements in the workforce itself such as the growing need of mobility at work, the need to be flexible in work time and location for some talents, incorporation of work life balance for the millennials, the need to be transparent, and etc. Therefore, this modern era requires more than just a basic Time Attendance System that can clocks time in and time out. The quest for the 21st century Time Attendance System is a system that not only will save you money, but also a system that could improve your workforce efficiency and productivity effortlessly. 


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It’s Time to Amp Up TimeTec Brand Experience through Awesome Service

Wednesday, July 18, 2018 TimeTec 0 Comments



The key to a successful cloud business has a direct correlation as to how the customers feel when they are using the product; the entire journey from signing up to trying each and every feature offered, to communication with the brand’s team, to the billing stage, to the after-sales service, the entire ecosystem of the brand and so on.

Imagine after searching the Internet for a decent steakhouse in town, a customer decided to give it a go, to actually drive to that restaurant, to have an amazing dinner. Everything looks tantalizing in the website with that sharp picture of a juicy, perfectly charred and glossy steak, and the fancy interior of a restaurant that sets one’s expectation up high.

But the question is, could that steakhouse deliver those expectations and leave the customers feeling satisfied, and wanting to leave that much-needed glowing review online to entice more potential customers? The answer, of course, starts with the service the customer receives at the entrance of the restaurant...

Cultivating Service Culture in Subscription Business

The concept of service remains a challenge for the majority of subscription companies in this century. What have an IT company got to do with providing services like a steakhouse? As the race between software providers begin, as to who could churn the best and most features to the subscribers, one area that needs a second hard look is whether have we delivered those feature to our customers to the best of our abilities? Not only function wise but also to reach the level of easy-to-use experience. Have we provided enough service for our customers that are using our solutions? Or we just let them figure it out on their own because apparently, we have provided those important features? Quoting Einstein,  “Any fool can complicate things; it takes a genius to simplify them.”, and the struggle is real for many cloud developers to deliver this part of the deal, the service.

Take for example TimeTec TA as a cloud attendance system; it is a cloud-based software on a subscription basis that empowers any company in any industry to easily collect its workforce attendance data, automates an array of schedules and rosters, calculates the time data accurately and applies the data to impact the business. What the software offers does sound amazing and it could potentially provide a very useful tool for a range of businesses across various industries. But, have we managed to deliver the clients’ objectives effortlessly and effectively? 

Collaboration between the marketing team and the research & development team have successfully produced shortcuts, guides, wizards, tips, videos, support system and many more to assist our newly minted customers in navigating through the solution. On scheduling, for example, Nattalina Zainal, our Senior Marketing Manager commented, “It took the team months to deliver the wizard to simplify the complicated scheduling for time attendance because the fact is, not one schedule and roster fits all (companies) but all companies need to automate their scheduling via the solution easily. People these days are jittery and system complication can only persuade them to quit on us totally. In the end, we managed to deliver the wizard and the guides, but moving along, everything needs a revisit, a touch up on cosmetics with customer satisfaction at the center of the discussion.”

With subscription business, development and improvement is a never-ending process and it’s important now than never that we incorporate customer service delivery along the way.

With Wizard, all customers have to do is to answer all questions provided, and everything will be set accordingly. However, we as a developer must ensure to not leave anything behind in our effort to deliver excellent services to our clients.


The guides are available throughout TimeTec solutions with one objective: to make the brand experience a breezy one. 

There is no telling how far have we successfully made our clients feel like they fancy our solution or do they actually struggle along the way in silence in the hope that at the end of the day, everything will fall into places?  Of course, there are some compliments and complaints along the way but the definite answer to cement our certainty is still a blur at this moment.

When in Doubt, Return & Listen to the Data 

Data is an invaluable asset in subscription business and this is where the gold mine is. It presents the opportunity to get to know our clients better in order to deliver the best services, providing them with more values of their investment. The simplest way of analyzing customer satisfaction would be on the conversion/renewal rate vs termination rate. The conversion rate/renewal rate provides us a gleam of hope indicating that we do deliver what the customers want to a certain extent, but it is in no way a license for us to be complacent and stop improving ourselves. And termination rate presents us with lost opportunities, reminding us that if we do not deliver what the customers want, the customers won't tolerate the brand.

https://www.timetecleave.com/setup_guide_started
But those apparent results are not the only data indicative of what’s been happening around our solutions. Big efforts are needed to dig deep into the data of the whole solutions to find the clues as to what customers are leaving behind or not. From the handful of features that we proudly offer, which ones are being used and which ones are being left untouched? Is the App being utilized to its full abilities or the countless hours put on its development time generates only 5% of usage amongst the client pool? If indeed the number is too low, how would we boost the usage of the amazing App?


Conventionally, businesses turned to Customer Survey to obtain the feedback from the people who are using the products; these days the data speaks louder than words because the data IS the truth. And we need to intently listen to the data in order to deliver even better services to our worldwide customers, trust me it's not an easy task.

Engage with Customers for A Successful Cloud Journey

Once that customer arrives at that fancy steakhouse, has he/she been greeted properly? Shown the table? Presented with the menu? Read the specials? Served with warm buns and perfectly temperature water at the table while he/she gazed through the menu? Orders are taken properly? The kitchen crew is ready and performing? and etc. While the challenge of running a restaurant is immediate and direct, the challenge of providing service in subscription business is amplified when the delivery of these services is mostly virtual and in silence. While the product and research and development teams are cracking their heads thinking of ways to deliver simplicity and great services throughout the solutions and their Apps, it doesn’t mean that we don’t have or cannot do anything outside of the system.

As a brand, it’s imperative that we reach out to our customers and offer our assistance in person. It’s rather ironic for an online subscription business to physically reach out to their customers but the reality demands. This is where Customer Success Team plays its pivotal role in the whole brand experience journey. From the get-go, the team must tailor the engagement based on multiple elements. The engagement needs to be beneficial to the receiving end rather than superficial. Engagement just for the sake of engagement is off-putting and customers are smart enough to distinguish. As such, Customer Success Team needs to connect based on the customers’ appropriate experience, be smart enough to manage customer’s expectations, know how to set joint accountability from the starting point, deliver successful milestones along the way and quick to fill in the gap in between to make customers feel serviced and happy.



TimeTec is a brand committed to stay and prosper in this subscription economy realm for the foreseeable future. In that respect, as a team, we pledge to deliver what it takes to grow, renew and retain our customers. Your feedback about our solutions, good and bad, is invaluable to us to achieve our goals. Email me at ana@timeteccloud.com for TimeTec cloud-related subjects.   



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8 Tips to Start Selling TimeTec Solutions

Monday, July 02, 2018 TimeTec 0 Comments


TimeTec Cloud offers an array of cloud-based solutions
Are you new to our TimeTec Partner program and not sure of how to proceed?  In this article, we will introduce the resources we already prepared in order to help you gain customers and share some ideas on how you can start to secure your first sale. 

1. Get familiar with the solutions
The journey starts with a sound product knowledge so we invite you to attend TimeTec FREE Webinar sessions to better understand the solutions. You can also extend these Webinar sessions to your customers as part of their training. Certificates will be provided to all attendees, and exams are available to obtain training certification. The aim is to learn to set up an account, enjoy the user experience and from there, pick up key selling points. You probably know all the benefits of cloud-based workforce or security management systems but we have our own advantages: 30 days free trial, multilingual availability, extensive features on the mobile app, 10 user license free for life (TimeTec TA & TimeTec Leave) and many more. We share useful learning resources directly within the application (under the Support section) and on our websites. Besides that, we are constantly releasing new features, so do check our monthly Newsletter updates.

2. Take Advantage of Marketing Materials
Now that you have attended training and have access to the account, you can start marketing TimeTec to your customers. Explore your TimeTec Dealer or Distributor Account (View as Dealer) and on your dashboard, you will find the link to the Marketing Central. Here, we place all the marketing resources you need to close more sales, faster. You can download presentation slides for your sales pitch, samples of proposal and support agreement, sample reports, new features and etc. 
Login to Dealer/Distributor Account > My Account > View as Dealer > Marketing Materials

Choose a solution to view available marketing materials. 
a. TimeTec TA
b. TimeTec Patrol
c. TimeTec Leave
d. i-Neighbour


3. Prepare for Demo
Prepare for a demo using your own account or you can also use our Live Site Demo should you lack the time to set up yours. If you wish to personalize the settings, do not forget that in your Dealer Account, you are able to directly add customers to create a trial account for them. Make sure to download TimeTec Mobile Apps to simulate the full experience. We also recommend using a screen-mirroring software, for instance, the Reflector 3, a useful tool on Mac, Windows and Android devices to help your team demonstrate the interactive features and different roles (e.g. normal staff and admin for TimeTec TA) to your potential customers. If you are stuck anywhere in the process, reach out to us via LiveChat, Skype, email or phone, the TimeTec support team is always available.

4. Leverage on Existing Customer and Partner Relationships
If you are a FingerTec reseller, HR system provider or a security products vendor, you probably already have a sizeable database of existing customers and a good understanding of their requirements. You can tap on these prospects and contact them with offers for a free trial if you believe it will suit their company. Send an email to them introducing the solutions, together with a copy of the brochure.  It is likely many users of FingerTec devices will have the interest to learn more, since they are familiar with the company’s products and services, and their existing devices can easily be connected to the system. Get in touch with business partners and share your new business plans and service line up with them. Ask for a referral and they may send leads and inquiries your way if they come across prospective customers with matching requirements.

5. Apply a Marketing Strategy
Spoilt with various marketing channel choices, the ‘old school’ way of direct mail tends to be overlooked and ignored. Don’t. Direct Mail marketing strategy should be one of your main marketing strategies because when there are less traffic and competition, your message gets noticed. The audience becomes more receptive to receive tangible and personalized materials that are targeted specifically to them. On TimeTec TA’s Marketing Materials page, we provide a guide on how to prepare for an effective Direct Mail strategy and relevant resources/contents for resellers to use as a reference during sales and marketing pitches.

Other useful marketing platforms include social media and networking ones, be it Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or others. If you have an online presence, why not go there to shine the spotlight on TimeTec solutions. Follow or connect with our accounts as we often use these to engage with customers. 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/fingertec/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/FingerTec
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/fingertecworldwide

6. Auto-Matching and Referrals
It takes time to generate leads so if you do not have a target to start with, let us know that you are ready to take off and need a referral. We receive worldwide inquiries and we may require your assistance to follow up with some of the leads. We also have an Auto-matchmaking platform designed to connect you with the prospective customers in your region. You can contact our Sales team by email at info@timeteccloud.com for any discussion and communication.

7. Keep up with our Latest Offers and Promotions
Periodically, we try to offer a variety of packages and promotions to suit different customer needs and some of these are for a limited time only. It usually goes out to resellers via email so do take some time and have a look at our communications to you. To ensure you won’t miss out on attractive bargains, we are also working on creating an ‘Ongoing Promotion’ page (coming soon) that you can visit directly from your Dealer Account.

One of the best long-standing deals we have is the TimeTec Suite Package, where clients that subscribe to either TimeTec TA or TimeTec Leave is entitled to enjoy the second solution at a 50% discount. For Malaysian end users, we will be offering a TimeTec Value Package; for RM300 fee, we take care of the full account setup and provide a training session (on-site or webinar) so they can start using immediately. Many other exciting packages and promotions are in the works and we will send updates to you as soon as we finalize them. 

8. Close the Deal 
Along the way, if you need assistance to meet your client’s requirements or there are customization requests, inform us so that we can discuss this with our development team. We aim to continuously improve the solutions and provide a better user experience so all your feedback will be highly appreciated.   



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Warm Up To Technology for A More Effective Workplace

Friday, June 22, 2018 TimeTec 0 Comments



Many SMEs shy away from the latest available technologies because most of them are comfortable in doing business the conventional way; not keen on spending more money on software and tools, believing that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. After spending many years in this business, I learned that it wasn’t easy for customers to switch from one solution to another, let alone wanting to do it voluntarily. Most were reluctant to pick up on new things, holding on to the motto that familiar is always better, when more often than not, it proved otherwise. When FingerTec decided to change the bundled software from the ‘primitive’ FoxPro TCMS V2 to the more advanced TCMS V3, it was a struggle for us to persuade our customers to switch over. The process took us over a year and still, many hoped that the previous system remains. In fact, if SMEs are confident enough to deploy technological advancement in their daily processes, it would bring about a lot of advantages to their business operation for various obvious reasons.

I lived through the 90s and the early 2000s when telephone lines and facsimile were the two major communication tools in the office and companies spent a huge sum of money paying the bills. Communications with clients were limited to conversations over the phone or face-to-face meetings which proved to be even more costly if the distance between you and the potential customers is great because it adds other costs into the equation such as hotel expenses, meeting rooms, meals, and etc. Let’s face it, the recent technology does not only improves communication, it does so much to improve business’s operations for SMEs and more. Instead of being indifferent and having a nonchalant attitude towards technology, SMEs need to warm up to technology in order to carve a better future. How so? With so many readily available communication tools in the market, technology has changed communication in a big and inexpensive way possible. When in the 90s and early 2000s, the cost of one very short SMS was close to USD0.10, nowadays you can communicate for hours without having to take the cost into consideration. Physical presence is not required anymore when the team can be connected via the likes of WhatsApp, Skype, Quip; making it possible for businesses to be effective, and be able to break that barrier of conducting a ‘formal meeting’ because what’s more important for the SMEs is to get things done quickly and correctly, rather than the formality of things. Technology can also assist SMEs in keeping things organized, sharing resources and assigning responsibility in a more systematic way by deploying project management software for example or simply utilizing Google Drive for easy collaboration and sharing of resources in real-time and increasing productivity in a major way. On the other hand, deployment of Software as a Service, SaaS like TimeTec TA for Employee Attendance Management or TimeTec Leave for Employee Leave Management simplifies and makes an operation more effective. SaaS usually is designed to promote automation and by having these tools in the workplace, the operation cost can be reduced significantly thus saving more costly and important resources for the company. In terms of the workers, they can likewise be tasked with different and more difficult tasks which can’t be accomplished via automation. On top of that, automation provides more accurate results and contains audit trail for easy tracking of information whenever the business requires. In short, SaaS tools do not only reduce the overall operation costs, it also provides efficiency that many SMEs are in dire need of.

Advancement in security technology is another breakthrough that provides advantages to the workplace with the adoption of smart card and biometrics for access security. The biometrics technology only allows authorised personnel to enter restricted areas by having their credentials verified, and all the verifications come with accurate records that are kept in the system for the longest time. Apart from access control, biometrics has penetrated other areas as well as PC access, time clocking and many more. And when the transaction data can be stored in the cloud, the tampering of the data is not possible, providing businesses with comfort over its security issues.

Another good thing that technology brings is its customizing option. Let’s face it, not one commercialized solution is designed to fit any company like a glove, but with a little tweak here and there, companies can further exploit the technology to better serve their businesses. With the right cost and development time, customization option could benefit SMEs tremendously. The availability of technology presented to us in this time and age has enabled remote working, teleconferencing and co-working space which has completely reshaped the workplace. Everything is literally at the tip of your fingers with the availability of mobile and cloud technology. Who would have thought that now I could communicate with my client in India or Germany or Lebanon without having to spend a bomb on phone bills? On top of WhatsApp, occasionally we do ‘face-to-face’ Skype video conferencing as well as share resources online accessible across the world by our customers.

All in all, the impact of technology in the workplace is amazing and rewarding, and it changed the conventional way workplaces used to run. Businesses cannot shy away from or ignore technology, the leaders need to keep up and warm up to it in an efficient manner. Implementation of new technological solutions such as TimeTec and FingerTec biometrics can ensure optimal profitability and productivity at their workplace, hands down.


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