Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software

Benefits Of Cloud Computing? There Are So Many, Where Do We Start?

According to Webopedia, “Cloud computing is a type of computing that relies on sharing computing resources rather than having local servers or personal devices to handle applications”. For many businesses the traditional way of accessing information involves accessing applications downloaded on a physical computer or server in their building. In the world of cloud computing, businesses can access the same kinds of applications, but this time they do it through the internet.

When you update your LinkedIn status, you are essentially using cloud computing. Do you pay any of your your bills or access any app by phone? If so, you are in the cloud. Many small and large businesses rely on cloud computing to solve their business challenges. And, this type of technology has become a competitive advantage, for many smaller companies, who previously saw large corporations deploy cloud applications with a great deal of success.

But why are so many businesses now moving to the cloud? Simple, the benefits of the cloud helps improve cash flow and increases workforce efficiency. Here are some additional benefits:

Scalability
Smart CIO and IT Managers who have done their due diligence have embraced the cloud. Many of them are now encouraging their CEOs to deploy the cloud over on-premise solutions. For example, cloud computing allows you to scale up or down based on your needs. This unprecedented level of agility can give businesses using cloud computing a distinct advantage over their competitors.

Improve Cash-Flow
Business executives are not fond of tying up a lot of their capital in IT projects and they should not have to. With a cloud computing application like ATS TimeWork OnDemand, the pay-as-you-go, subscription-based model eases cash flow. And, the quick turn-around time of database set up, and deployment, is sure to make most naysayer business executive embrace the cloud computing.

Access 24/7, Anytime, Anywhere
With an Internet connection, regardless of where you are, you can access ATS TimeWork OnDemand. The beauty of cloud computing means, you are not restricted with which device you can use; whether it’s a Smartphone, tablet or workstation you can still access the cloud.

Any of the benefits mentioned is enough to convince many business executives to give cloud computing some serious consideration. And after talking to customers who are using ATS TimeWork OnDemand, we are pretty sure they will make that move.

You might also like:

Keep an open mind when deciding if the cloud is right for you

A leap of faith can help your business leverage the benefits of the cloud

Are HR leaders really embracing the cloud?

Keep current with ATS:

Follow ATS on Twitter
Join the conversation with ATS on LinkedIn
Follow ATS on Google Plus

Cloud Computing, Internet, LinkedIn, Smartphone, TimeWork OnDemand

Want To Challenge The Status Quo? Get A Millennial In Your Corner

July 7th, 2016 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Software-as-a-Service (saas) Workforce Management Software | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software | Web-Based Time and Attendance Software - (Comments Off)

There has been so much written about this generation of millennials with arguments about them being social media obsessed and range of other stereotypes . Regardless of whether your company welcomes them with open arms or not, they are not going away and so some companies would be wise to see the value in hiring them. After all, they are the future CEOs of industry and government. Here at ATS, we are fortunate to have leaders who wholeheartedly believes in the hiring of millennials and also encourages them give feedback to their superiors in order to enhance the organizational improvement in all areas of the business.

In a recent article, contributor to inc.com Ryan Jenkins, wrote an article titled “How Millennials Can Save Your Company From Irrelevance” One of his poignant statements in this article reads in part; “An organization left unchanged will conspire against the effectiveness and relevance of itself. The people, habits, or structure of an organization can get in the way of the growth of the organization if the status quo remains unchallenged.”

Society is filled who challenged the status quo and came out on top, despite the naysayers. Elon Musk for example, took the almighty car industry to task and succeeded in selling cars directly to consumers and, Steve Jobs ignored what the so called experts said could not be done and reintroduced the world to mobile computing in a way that it had not been done before with crowds lining up for many blocks to purchase an iPhone. Despite these examples and many others that include; cloud computing and a range of other disruptive technologies, the naysayers persist, in large part, because, doing it the way it has always being done, is the safest way, at least in their minds.

Want To Challenge The Status Quo? Get A Millennial In Your Corner

Another sentence from the article reads in part; “Who’s best positioned to challenge the status quo? The next generation of leaders…the Millennials.”

Many of today’s Millennials are ambitious, and they are also keen on having a job, but may not want to be tethered to a desk for eight hours every day, and frankly, with advancement of technology who would want to? They grew up in an era of social media so it should not come as a surprise that it’s their mode of communication with friends and colleagues. Of course, not all Millennials are perfect but, then neither are the very people who they will someday replace. Change is tough and it happens regardless of the roadblocks that appear to be in its way.

Keep current with ATS:

Follow ATS on Twitter
Join the conversation with ATS on LinkedIn
Follow ATS on Google Plus

Cloud Computing, iPhone, Millenialls

Ye Shall Practice And Embrace Lean Manufacturing

The term “Lean” is well known in manufacturing circles and has been adopted across various disciplines including; Lean Healthcare and Lean Accounting to name a couple. A brief description of lean principles in Wikipedia states in part;

“Lean manufacturing or lean production, often simply “lean”, is a systematic method for the elimination of waste (“Muda”) within a manufacturing system. Lean also takes into account waste created through overburden (“Muri”) and waste created through unevenness in work loads (“Mura”). Working from the perspective of the client who consumes a product or service, “value” is any action or process that a customer would be willing to pay for.

Essentially, lean is centered on making obvious what adds value by reducing everything else. Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS) (hence the term Toyotism is also prevalent) and identified as “lean” only in the 1990s. TPS is renowned for its focus on reduction of the original Toyota seven wastes to improve overall customer value, but there are varying perspectives on how this is best achieved. The steady growth of Toyota, from a small company to the world’s largest automaker, has focused attention on how it has achieved this success.”

Ye Shall Practice Lean Manufacturing

Today, several organizations have formal Continuous Improvement methods that leverage the “lean” process –but may leave others to chance or perhaps feel it’s not as important. ATS Cloud Workforce Management for Manufacturing was developed with lean thinking from its original inception and as such has many built-in capabilities to support your lean initiatives. “You can’t improve what you don’t track or measure.” This in and of itself is one of the tenets that have shaped the ATS Workforce Management for Manufacturing with a robust database, embedded with sophisticated user dashboards, and business analytics.

For example, users can extrapolate reports in real-time to measure payroll costs, through a set of forecasting tool and workflows–and compare key performance indicators (KPIs) against goals to clearly measure on-going improvements. Now, that’s taking the holistic approach to “Lean Manufacturing.”

To learn more about ATS Cloud Workforce Management for Lean Manufacturing go to our website and download a demonstration. And to reach us by phone, call: 866.294.2467.

Ye Shall Practice Lean Manufacturing

Analytics, Forecasting, Key Performance Indicators, Lean Manufacturing, Payroll, Toyota, Workforce Management

The Evolution and Benefits of Software As-A- Service

June 28th, 2016 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Hosted Time and Attendance Software | Software-as-a-Service (saas) Workforce Management Software | Web-Based Time and Attendance Software - (Comments Off)

The adoption of cloud software is increasing and is on pace to surpass all previous forecasts. In other words, it is here to stay — and is showing no signs of abating. According to Gartner prognosticators the software-as-a-service (SaaS), in which companies offer software that was designed to run in the cloud will grow about 20 percent by the end of 2016.

Today’s time and attendance decision makers, even the ones that were somewhat uncertain about the benefits of the cloud are giving it a second thought. Cloud software provides tremendous benefits to applications as basic as accounting systems to cutting-edge solutions like time and attendance.

As more businesses continue to shift to the cloud, they are also selecting a vendor that will ultimately help them streamline costs and, at the same time increase productivity. And while the cloud, offers businesses numerous benefits, one key opportunity for today’s executives, when using these cloud computing technology is having the power of choice with this emerging technology.

ATS Cloud Time and Attendance offers what every business wants: the ability to obtain information in real-time. And, with ATS Cloud Time and Attendance cloud pay-as-you-go model, that means a low initial investment is all that is required to get going, and that includes all the trimmings, like yearly updates, thus enabling customers to take advantage of innovations delivered with the upgrade.

The Evolution and Benefits of Software As-A- Service

In conclusion, the cloud has become a new engine for innovation, and competitiveness. Its ability to improve collaboration, communication and cost-cutting is providing an ever-expanding silver lining for operations across every business sector.

To learn more about ATS Software-As-A-Service (SaaS) solutions, go to our website. You can also download a demonstration or call: 866.294.2467.

Cloud, Gartner, Information Technology, Software-as-a-Service, Time and Attendance

What’s Fuelling The Growth In Today’s Manufacturing?

Ask this question to executives in the manufacturing sector and you are bound to get several different answers, albeit there will be similarities in those answers. It’s no secret that the manufacturing industry has had to adapt and evolve to the rapid changes around them in order, to survive-while dealing with some naysayers who had left them for dead after one of this century’s worst financial crisis.

But who would know the inner workers of the manufacturing industry and its resilience and ability to adapt than anyone else? How about the President and Chief Executive Officer, Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation who penned a poignant article titled “Three Megatrends Transforming Manufacturing”. We tool the liberty of extrapolating some of paragraphs (in no particular order) which reads in part;

“We’re entering a new industrial age driven by digitalization, customization, and miniaturization that is transforming the nature of work in manufacturing. Since the turn of the millennium, the sector has evolved faster and more thoroughly than at any other time in history.”

The rise of the digital era has impacted all industries especially manufacturing. The article states that “The ability to collect and analyze large volumes of data in economic transactions has revolutionized customer care in the retail and finance sectors. In manufacturing, Big Data will accelerate the integration of IT, manufacturing and operational systems on the shop floor and lead to better forecasting and understanding of plant performance. Caterpillar is taking this a step farther, tracking the performance of its products in the field after purchase and offering maintenance and repair services based on real-time assessments.”

If you are still wondering whether the industry can adapt here is a final paragraph from the article; “Of course, manufacturers’ labor needs are changing as well: companies now rely on more automation and require fewer employees, and those they hire must demonstrate higher science, technological and math skills. Fortunately, the millennial generation—as large as the baby boomer generation—is more technologically sophisticated. And, as the manufacturing workforce has diversified over time, manufacturers are working to continually foster more inclusive environments.”

The title of this blog asked? “What’s Fuelling The Growth In Today’s Manufacturing”? The answer is simple-it’s the ability of the industry to adapt and evolve with the times. Many of today’s manufacturers face constant pressure to produce a top quality product on time, every time. And, the economic fluctuations, shortage of skilled labor and market governance, and adherence to workforce compliance mandates adds to the complexities that manufacturers face every day. To meet these challenges many of these manufacturing companies have adopted Workforce Management Solutions to help them keep pace with the digital era, streamline costs and improve productivity at all levels of their operations.

To download a free demonstration of ATS Workforce Management for Manufacturing, go to our website. And, to attend one of our monthly webinars, you can register online.

Big Data, Labor, Manufacturing, Shop Floor, Workforce Management Solutions

Do You Feel Trapped With Your Time And Attendance System?

Organizations face many challenges, including; retaining a competitive edge, managing employees and keeping them productive and motivated, keeping cost low and increasing customer satisfaction. And, with all this to manage, you are likely not thinking about the negative impact your current time and attendance is having on your business. Here are five ways, your time and attendance system may be having a negative impact on your business:

Your company is losing money
If your current time and attendance is paper-based, there is no doubt you are wasting money by having someone manually calculate employee time, vacations, statutory holidays and host of other things that could easily automated. If you are using some off the shelf or outdated time and attendance solution, you will, at some point, have to pay for new versions, annual maintenance and software bug fixes. Wouldn’t it be nice, if you could have a solution that did not include these ongoing costs?

Limited Choices
You believe that the current version you have works. In other words, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Sometimes, these words tend to be the last ones uttered before the system breaks down, or you come to the realization, that your system is not keeping pace with your business.

Lack of Integration
Let’s say you have a mid-size company with 500 employees, wouldn’t it be awesome to have a time and attendance solution that’s intuitive, and can integrate to your; financials and job costing, payroll, human resources information system (HRIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM)? Moreover, your company cannot take advantage of real-time analytic reporting if you are using an outdated time and attendance solution. A 21^st century cloud-based time and attendance solution connects to mobile devices and is available from anywhere, at anytime propels your business further and provides greater efficiency.

Upgrading will be a piece of cake or, so you think
Upgrading can sometimes cost the same as what you spent a few short years ago on a new time and attendance system. Also upgrading to a new solution will likely require stakeholders to ensure the business requirements are met. After all, your business requirements have likely changed from a few years ago when you first implemented the solution. In short order, that quick upgrade you were going to get, might end up lasting longer than you had planned for.

Customized System
If your current system is customized, it can create problems with upgrading or its ability adhere to bug fixes – more often than not, this can lead organizations to defer upgrades, sometimes indefinitely. Who wants to be stuck with a time and attendance system that is so heavily customized that it prevents a company from taking advantage of newer versions? With an ATS cloud-based time and attendance upgrades are built-in and takes place without interruption to your company’s business operations.

Deploying a best-in-class time and attendance solution based on today’s technology, enables businesses in various industries, to adhere to multi-jurisdictional and legal compliance differences at the local, provincial, federal and state level. ATS TimeWork OnDemand provides real-time visibility, streamlines payroll costs, increase workforce productivity and gives you access to multiple levels of consolidated reporting and enterprise-wide Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), all displayed in real time, on dashboards.

To learn more, go to our website and register for a free webinar, download brochures or a demonstration. You can also join the conversation through LinkedIn, Google+ or Twitter.

Cloud Based Time and Attendance, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), GooglePlus, Human Resources Information System (HRIS), Job Costing, LinkedIn, Payroll, Twitter

On-Demand Webcast: How Businesses Can Use Analytics To Achieve Profitability

Today, leveraging analytics is an absolute must for most industries and it has become more feasible as economic approaches have emerged to cultivate the velocity and variability of data, formerly too massive for traditional time and attendance database systems to process. ATS Software Engineers will give an overview of our workforce planning and analytics module built within ATS cloud-based time and attendance and address its challenges for today’s growing industries.

In this webinar you will learn how you can have a real-time view of your business and events as they occur. You will also learn how other companies are utilizing analytics to give them a competitive edge in shop floor data collection, financial data, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), up-to-the minute data metrics and more.

Webinar details: Friday, October 9, 2105 at 1:00pm Eastern. To register for this webinar go to our website. To reach us by phone call: 866.294.2467.

On-Demand Webcast: How Businesses Can Use Analytics To Achieve Profitability

Analytics, Attendance OnDemand, Cloud Based Time and Attendance, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Webinar, Workforce Planning

How ATS TimeWork Workforce Management Solution Can Help Your Business Grow

The priority for every company is to grow. This means; grow sales, revenue, exports and, at the same time, optimize workforce productivity. The ultimate goal in all of this is to provide a solid return on investment to shareholders. Trying to accomplish all this requires investment in technology, innovation and updating product lines. It is therefore critical that today’s business have the right tools in place to eliminate inefficiencies. By getting rid of paper-timesheets and streamlining workflows across the business, you utilize resources in other areas and produce the capital necessary to re-invest and generate business growth.

How ATS TimeWork Workforce Management Solution Can Help Your Business Grow

ATS TimeWork Workforce Management Solution removes software road-blocks and offers companies a robust, yet easy-to-use, time and attendance system that will undoubtedly, increase business efficiency and reduce costs on all levels. Just imagine being able to extrapolate data whenever you need it, from any device, anywhere in the world? And that’s not all, using the latest cloud-computing technology, ATS TimeWork Workforce Management Solution enables you to collect, manage and process employee attendance more effectively. This is your chance to move beyond manual paper-based time sheets and old fashion clunky time clocks to an updated time and attendance system that will keep your shareholders at bay.

Whether your company is growing exponentially or refining business processes, it’s never too late to take control of your company’s profitability. The many features of ATS TimeWork Workforce Management Solution includes; benefit accruals, workforce planning, budgeting and forecasting, employee self-service, business analytics, ERP, HR and payroll data integration-accompanied by a role based executive dashboard that complements a plethora of time and attendance features.

Ultimately businesses need to ensure that they are always on a upwards trajectory of growth and part of ensuring this is by having the right workforce management solution in place.

To learn more about ATS TimeWork Workforce Management Solution go to our website. You can also download a demonstration or contact an account executive at 866.294.2467.

Benefit Accruals, Business Analytics, Employee Self Service, Time and Attendance, Workforce Planning

Are You Upgrading Your Time and Attendance Through Conventional Methods?

January 13th, 2015 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Employee Time Tracking Software | Time and Attendance On-Demand | Web-Based Time and Attendance Software | Workforce Analytics - (Comments Off)

There was a time, not too long ago, when the only way to upgrade was your time and attendance software was, to wait for the arrival of a CD. That CD would then be placed into your computer hard drive and then and with fingers crossed, everyone hoped the correct files would be applied correctly. Then there was the link to an upgrade which the user also had to download and the same principle would apply in terms of praying all would go well with the upgrade.

In the last several years, cloud computing has disrupted the very notion that upgrading your time and attendance has be a slow and daunting process. In fact, some business executives who previously thought it was all hype are slowing opting for cloud-based solutions. And, while there are some, in the minority, who remain cautious about cloud-based solutions, there is no denying that cloud computing is here to stay.

Benefits of an ATS Cloud-Based Time and Attendance include:

Business value laced with affordability –ATS Cloud gives customers a complete, end-to-end cloud solution—to ensures mid and large businesses get the best value for their investment with ultimate speed and better economics than any one competitor or what the bevy of cloud competitors can match.

GeoFencing-Track attendance in real-time by finding the exact location from where the employee punched in/out. And, with Geofencing attendance tracking you have access to a plethora of data analytics and key metric to make on-the-spot decisions.

Easy-to-use- ATS Cloud is a best-breed application that helps growing industries. Users can access the software from any web browser, using any desktop, tablet, or smart-phone to view attendance, approve and track time-off requests 24×7 from around the globe.

Pay as you grow- Customers can tap into ATS Cloud-Based Time and Attendance and add the modules they want, with our pay-as-you-go subscription model.

Rapid deployment- With ATS Attendance On-Demand can be up and running in a matter of weeks not months or years. There is no server and software trouble shooting and the ongoing support rather than the conventional six to 12 months of an on premises solution.

ATS provides a comprehensive range of workforce management applications and to propel every aspect of your business into a productivity enterprise. With ATS Cloud Time and Attendance, your company will gain superior visibility to pinpoint inefficiencies.

And the best part, ATS Cloud provides the latest in efficient, reliable, data management for mission-critical on-line transaction processing applications, query-intensive data warehouses, and cloud applications. In short, ATS method of handling upgrades simpler, faster, and more predictable from start to finish.

To learn more, go to our website to gain access to a demonstration.

Are You Upgrading Your Time and Attendance Through Conventional Methods?

Cloud Computing, GeoFencing, Time and Attendance

How To Show Your Appreciation To Employees During The Holiday Season

Trying to keep employees engaged during the holiday season can be a challenge for many companies. During this time of the year employees are thinking of planned family visits and gift buying to name a few-and this is precisely when companies may notice a slight dip in productivity. If as an employer, you are aware of this slight dip each year, there are several there some things you can offer employees to keep them productive or at the very least engaged during that period. As an employer, how about bringing in a tray of cookies and some eggnog that employees can sample as their go about their day? It’s a small gesture that it likely to brighten your employees day.

Glassdoor, an online career community portal conducted a recent study titled “What Employees Want The Most This Holiday Season” and in conjunction with Forbes.com listed ten intrinsic items that employee said they would love to get from their employer during the season. They include:

Number 10: Commuter Subsidy-2%
Number 9: Holiday Party with an open bar-5%
Number 8:   Gym Membership-7%
Number 7:   Company Stock options- 9%
Number 6:   Option to telecommute for one year-13%
Number 5:   Grocery Giftcard-29%
Number 4:   Paid Time Off-36%
Number 3:   Raise in pay-60%
Number 2:   Cash bonus-73%
Number 1:   Cash

You can see the infographics on the Forbes website. Some industries including; retail, service and the hospitality are all open for business during the holiday season. Employees in these industries are likely very overwhelmed having to deal with an equally stressed out throng of shoppers- and, any one of the above mentioned gifts items would work wonders for them.

In closing, while some companies may not be able to employ some or all of these ideas, employers should keep in mind that they will experience a slight dip in productivity. When this happens, take an impromptu break, invite everyone for a cookie and eggnog and just ask them about their plans for the holidays.

Sometimes, it’s the little things that count. Happy Holidays!

Holidays, Hospitality, Retail

Ye Shall Practice And Embrace Lean Manufacturing

What’s Fuelling The Growth In Today’s Manufacturing?

How ATS TimeWork Workforce Management Solution Can Help Your Business Grow

How To Show Your Appreciation To Employees During The Holiday Season

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta