PHOENIX ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT

Decreases Labor Costs While Improving Workforce Time and Attendance Tracking

ExtendTime^TM on Cisco IP Phones Enables Tracking of Workforce Data

The Phoenix Elementary School District is improving operational efficiencies and decreasing labor costs by replacing traditional time clocks with Cisco IP phones with ExtendTime^TM software -developed for the Cisco IP Phone by Trident Internet Systems, Inc., works to significantly enhance worker efficiency across a range of industries.

Phoenix Elementary School District employees can "clock in" and "clock out" through any IP phone system regardless of where their workstation is located. Workers who do not have computer access -such as cafeteria workers, bus drivers, custodians and maintenance staff - are now able to utilize self service features such as employee message retrieval, viewing of scheduled work hours and accrued benefits such as vacation, sick and personal time.

By using ExtendTime^TM, the Phoenix Elementary School District is leveraging its existing voice over IP (VoIP) infrastructure to eliminate manual tracking of labor data without purchasing additional data collection hardware. The district has purchased a 1,600-user license and initially rolled ExtendTime^TM out to 400 employees using 200 Cisco 7900 IP Phones.

This technology is likely to save our school district thousands of dollars in labor costs associated with operational inefficiencies such as employee time theft, human error in manual time sheet calculations, and administrative time spent creating reports from raw data," said Paul Chase, director of systems operations, Phoenix Elementary School District. "Upgrading our existing Cisco IP Phones with the ExtendTime^TM system was an ideal means of reducing costs.

There is a growing trend to be more cost effective among school districts and colleges nationwide” said Edmund Roeder, Manager of Sales, ExtendTime^TM. "The simplest method of cutting costs is to look at operational inefficiencies, beginning with labor resources. By managing the workforce to become more productive, labor costs automatically decrease.

Copyright ® 2009 Trident Internet Systems. all rights reserved. ExtendTime^TM is a trademark of Trident Internet Systems, Inc. All other trademarks and services are the property of their respective owners. All data subject to change without notice.

ABILITY BEYOND DISABILITY

Health and Human Services Provider Replaces Manual Processes with a Cisco IP Phone-Based Time and Attendance System and makes Great Strides in Labor Management

Introduction
After years of dealing with inaccuracies and inefficiencies caused by manual workforce tracking, Ability Beyond Disability made a decision to transition to an automated labor management solution.  At the time, manual processes burdened many of the organization's staff members on a daily basis.  The staff had to manually calculate and enter large amounts of data to transfer information from employees' paper timesheets into an electronic payroll system.  This error-prone, labor-intensive process was costing the company time and money, while decreasing employee job satisfaction levels.

With the end goal of becoming fully automated, Ability Beyond Disability set out to find a labor management system that would allow better monitoring of and reporting on workforce activity.  Although the organization's integration goals were straightforward, it had some non-traditional requirements for managing workforce time and attendance, due to the nature of its business.

Ability Beyond Disability (formerly Datahr Rehabilitation Institute) provides health and human services for people with developmental and neurological disabilities.  The organization employs over 750 people and provides round-the-clock staffing at 30 Licensed Group Homes, as well as, regularly scheduled staff at 60 Supported Independent residences and many more employees support its community based work programs and activities.  Ability Beyond Disability maintains full office staff at their headquarters in Brookfield, Connecticut and at additional offices located in Mount Kisco, New York, providing one of the most extensive systems of support and services in the Northeast.

The goal of the organization is to enable individuals whose independent living skills are impaired by disability, illness, or injury achieve self-reliance at home, work, and in the community.  Ability Beyond Disability achieves this goal by providing comprehensive home, health, rehabilitation, transportation, and employment services.

Decision Factors and Initial Adoption
Running group homes, independent residences, day and work programs, and offices, Ability Beyond Disability faced complicated workforce scheduling and payroll processing issues, which often included reconciling varied time allocations and overtime payouts with its payroll system.  It was pleased to discover they could fully integrate their Cisco IP Phone system with the labor management solution.  Choosing the right software package meant meeting these goals with a single system.

The company made the decision to implement ExtendTime^TM, a web-based labor management solution by Trident, Inc. of Bethesda, MD.   Trident Internet is a leading provider of advanced time and workforce management solutions designed to help companies improve the tracking and utilization of labor resources.  Trident provides web-based, client-server and desktop time and labor management solutions that enable companies to better manage their payroll, human resources, and administrative costs with hosted SaaS and licensed versions of ExtendTime^TM.

ExtendTime^TM was developed for the Cisco and Avaya IP Phone by Trident, Inc. Trident is a technology and equipment provider that delivers a comprehensive range of communications access and content delivery products, services and solutions.  The company provides hosted and licensed software solutions to private and public organizations. It also providses connectivity solution wired and wireless to the enterprise.

With the ExtendTime^TM solution, Ability Beyond Disability eliminated manual tracking of labor data by leveraging the Cisco IP phone system they purchased.  In lieu of time clocks, employees can simply clock in and out via their Cisco IP telephone, regardless of whether they are onsite at a home or at their work area in the office.  Hand scanners provide clock in capabilities at the commercial offices.  For those employees that do not have Cisco phones, access to the system is extended to touch-tone telephones (standard or cellular) via a TelePunch feature.  The solution provided Ability Beyond Disability a flexible new way of capturing workforce time and attendance without purchasing additional data collection hardware by leveraging their investment in the Cisco IP telephony infrastructure. 

To integrate ExtendTime^TM with the company's payroll system, a two-way interface was created that pulls new hire data into ExtendTime^TM and time and attendance data directly into the payroll system.  According to Amy Brown, Controller for Ability Beyond Disability:  "The interface streamlines several functions of our business.  By eliminating the need for data entry it speeds up payroll processing and the accuracy is improved."  In addition to the payroll interface, the ExtendTime^TM solution enables staff to view schedules, receive messages, transfer work hours between departments, and view accrued benefits all from their Cisco IP phone.

Operational Benefits and ROI
ExtendTime^TM made it easy for Ability Beyond Disability to quickly reach their integration goals; however, the organization still faced significant challenges around managing workforce time and attendance.  Company supervisors were well aware of problems such as repeated lateness, employees fraudulently clocking in for coworkers (known as "buddy punching"), and coworkers unofficially covering shifts for one another.  But, prior to implementing the system, supervisors had no way to consistently prevent, prove, or correct these behaviors.

Now, with the ExtendTime^TM system, employees can no longer disguise lateness or fraudulently log hours.  Supervisors have clear insight into employee activity and can address questionable behaviors before they become widespread.  As Brown explains:  "We're able to monitor the workforce better to know who's clocking in late.  ExtendTime^TM has provided a method to hold staff more accountable for their work time."

Many supervisors are also taking advantage of the full scope of system features, including reporting, in order to improve their ability to effectively manage employees.  According to Brown:  "...Supervisors are enthusiastically learning to utilize the tools provided through ExtendTime^TM.  They can monitor their staff; they can see who's clocking in late.  They really use it."

By changing the way they manage workforce time and attendance, Ability Beyond Disability has drastically improved operational efficiencies, reduced payroll-processing hours and costs, and eliminated data entry errors.  Discontinuing manual labor management is a decision that they highly recommend to other companies facing similar challenges.  As a result of Ability Beyond Disability's transition to web-based automation, positive ripple effects continue to flow throughout the organization.

Copyright ® 2009 Trident Internet Systems. all rights reserved. ExtendTime^TM is a trademark of Trident Internet Systems, Inc. All other trademarks and services are the property of their respective owners. All data subject to change without notice.

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF CENTRAL TEXAS

Decreases Operational Costs with ExtendTime^TM Labor Management Solution

First National Bank of Central Texas is among a growing list of financial institutions that are decreasing labor costs and improving operational efficiency by using the ExtendTime^TM labor management solution on their Cisco IP Phones. ExtendTime^TM is a web-based labor management solution by Trident, Inc. a Cisco® certified partner.

Using ExtendTime^TM, First National Bank of Central Texas is able to leverage its Voice over IP (VoIP) infrastructure to eliminate manual tracking of labor data without purchasing additional data collection hardware. With ExtendTime^TM running on their Cisco IP Phones, employees can clock in and out; view schedules; receive messages; transfer work hours between departments and project codes; and view accrued benefits. This saves thousands of labor dollars in costs associated with operational inefficiencies such as employee time theft; human error in manual time sheet calculations; and administrative time spent creating reports from raw data.

“A growing number of financial institutions have embraced time and labor management technology in order to improve workforce productivity and operational costs," said Charles de Vilmorin, Director of Marketing, ExtendTime^TM. "By leveraging their existing VoIP infrastructure, companies can greatly enhance the return on their technology investments."

ExtendTime^TM provides a web-based, client-server and desktop time and labor management solutions that enable companies to better manage their payroll, human resources and administrative costs. By integrating time and workforce automation with Cisco 7940, 7960 and 7970 IP Phones, employees can clock in and out regardless of whether or not they use a computer at their work areas.

Copyright ® 2009 Trident Internet Systems. all rights reserved. ExtendTime^TM is a trademark of Trident Internet Systems, Inc. All other trademarks and services are the property of their respective owners. All data subject to change without notice.

Wheeler Machinery

Cutting costs and increasing accountability at all levels by interfacing ExtendTime^TM with Cisco IP Phone Systems

Wheeler Machinery is a Caterpillar Dealership company operating on a large campus with twelve satellite branches across several states.  Recently, the company decided to cut costs by replacing their out-sourced payroll system with an internal Payroll and Time Management operation. Cara Heller, a Financial Repording Manager at Wheeler Machinery for eight years, was appointed to lead a team in charge of addressing this problem.  The team included representatives from different departments within the company. Caterpillar had been suggesting the introduction of a system such as ExtendTime^TM to help them efficiently manage their employee time and attendance. As the company was already equipped with Cisco IP phones, the Cisco reseller presented ExtendTime^TM as a natural solution to their problem. The most important feature of this solution was that every person in the company could use the system directly from their phones. No other Time and Attendance system could offer this convenience and accessibility; it also provided an impartial record of employee attendance.  This universally accessible solution was very important to the company because of the geographical spread of its headquarters and satellite branches, some of which had only two to four employees. It also resulted in a more efficient supervisory revision power at all branches within a centralized system.

ExtendTime^TM, developed for Cisco IP phones (7940, 7941, 7960, 7961, and 7970).is a product of Trident, Inc. Trident is a communications technology and equipment provider that delivers a comprehensive range of communications access and content delivery products, services, and solutions.

Implementation and Changes

Upon Caterpillar’s recommendation, the team from Wheeler Machinery enquired about ExtendTime^TM and it was approved, implemented and was operational within 90 days.  The solution was presented as a mini-computer within the phone providing Wheeler the ability to perform many functions. Cara Heller asserted that: “The process was definitely satisfactory; we were geared up for a more difficult changeover because we were reaching to employees but it was quite easy and rolling it out to users was easier than we thought. It was well-accepted and there were no issues with the users.”

With a system like ExtendTime^TM, there are different kinds of parties involved such as HR, Payroll, Benefits and the employees. Each department had a different reaction to the new system. Departments with a history of employees keeping time had an easier time adjusting to the new system. In some departments there was an initial philosophical resistance to the concept of accountability. In the past, employee attendance was done manually but with the ease of installing a phone in each location, ExtendTime^TM was definitely an advantage from the company standpoint.  According to Cara Heller; “The Payroll, Human Resources, and the Management team saw the benefit from the very beginning. The Payroll Department had been very centralized.  In the past, employee attendance at the remote locations was done manually but ExtendTime^TM allowed the responsibility to be pushed down to lower levels. The supervisors are the ones approving time. A hierarchy of supervisory levels is established where people are in groups with their supervisors where their time is recorded and approved. The Payroll Department located in corporate headquarters has no way of knowing of the comings and goings of these employees.  A huge campus with 12 satellite locations makes it difficult to interact with everybody.” 

Clear Benefits and Advantages

After using ExtendTime^TM over a period of time, the major benefits of the system for a company like Wheeler machinery can be summarized as follows:

1- Accuracy: The system records the comings and goings of employees in real time; it also allows a break feature. The data is easily accessible by the supervisors and is very flexible in terms of who can access the information. The employees have access to their own information and can manage their own time. This is an important benefit to the company as it wants to minimize overtime.

2- Supervisor accountability: This is an important advantage that didn’t exist in the previous system. ExtendTime^TM allows exception tracking and variance reporting. It is very easy to locate problems with the data and detecting miss-punches is not a laborious process. Even though the company uses a completely different product for payroll processing, the interface is very easy to use and allows a very efficient payroll processing system. The interface with the payroll software Humanic was custom-built by the tech-implementation team for the company.

Wheeler Machinery is totally satisfied with ExtendTime^TM and has achieved their goal of cutting costs and improved efficiency by replacing their former Payroll and Attendance system with ExtendTime^TM.

Copyright ® 2009 Trident Internet Systems. all rights reserved. ExtendTime^TM is a trademark of Trident Internet Systems, Inc. All other trademarks and services are the property of their respective owners. All data subject to change without notice.