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Accelerate your Implementation and Get Value out of your ATS Workforce Management Investment

November 22nd, 2018 | Posted by ATS in ATS TimeWork OnDemand | Cloud Computing | Time and Attendance Canada | Time and Attendance Toronto - (Comments Off on Accelerate your Implementation and Get Value out of your ATS Workforce Management Investment)

Most companies know that technology alone does not drive world-class performance. To get the most business value from your ATS workforce management application implementation, your technology deployment should be conducted a set of guidelines and milestones to measure success. And, to get the best results, it’s important to ensure that your processes meet best practice standards before completing your ATS workforce management implementation. If not, your company could inadvertently, automate inefficient processes that leave you short of the streamlined business processes and cost optimization you were looking for when you decided to deploy the solution.

 Accelerate your Implementation and Get Value out of your ATS Workforce Management Investment

Here are a few reasons why companies across various industries, implement ATS workforce management:

Expertise and Best-Practice Processes: ATS implementation is based on the experience we have gained from years of numerous projects. We continually maintain the latest ATS TimeWorkOnDemand version for continuous improvement and long-term scalability.

Unrivalled Support: ATS team supports all phases of implementation including process benchmarking and gap analysis; the ATS deployment package, includes; configuration, deployment and integration; and post-deployment diagnostics.

Lower Total Cost of Ownership: With ATS Implementation, your workforce management solution can be less costly, less risky, and deliver faster time to benefit.

Bottom-line: Our team will work to ensure the implementation of your ATS workforce management solution is perfectly attuned to your technical infrastructure, as well as, configure the solution, to your specific business goals. The team will provide you with best practices in relation to data integration, data analytics and configuration building blocks to jumpstart your deployment. Our project methodology, reduces time to value, and helps you get the most out of your ATS workforce management investments.

To learn more about ATS Workforce Management Solution implementation methodology, or to attend one of our weekly webinars, go to our website. And, to speak to an account executive, call 866.294.2467.

Time And Attendance Requirements: The Ultimate Elephant In The Room

May 26th, 2015 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Business Software Automation | Cloud Time and Attendance | Employee Time Tracking Software - (Comments Off on Time And Attendance Requirements: The Ultimate Elephant In The Room)

A successful time and attendance implementation is at the heart of a good customer and vendor relationship yet, the opposite happen sometimes. Why? Because it is possible that one or both parties, ignored the “elephant in the room” which is; go over the business requirements and make sure both understand it and set expectations accordingly. And, when this happens, pointing fingers at each other simply exacerbates the situation.

Time And Attendance Requirements: The Ultimate Elephant In The Room

So, what causes these misunderstandings? There are many and some may include:

The Customer- Perhaps the customer felt that the vendor should understand their time and attendance requirements because said vendor have experience working with other companies in the same industry. It is also possible that the customer might omit some business requirements fearing the solution would cost more that their budget will allow.

The Vendor- Eager to make the sale and acquire a customer, the vendor might have their blinders on and, instead of asking the right questions to understand the business fundamentals-chooses to engage the customer knowing there could be roadblocks ahead.

The End-Result-Sooner or later, whether it’s prior to or during the implementation phase the actual requirements that we left out during prior discussions by one or both parties will rear its ugly head. How it’s handled, once revealed, will determine the success or lack thereof of your time and attendance implementation. It is also possible that some of the requirements were missed during lengthy phone conversations and/or e-mails. As long as both parties agree to work to resolve it, a possible sticky situation can turn into a positive for both the vendor and customer and could potentially lead to long and rewarding relationship.

AT ATS we use a time-tested and unique methodology to uncover true business requirements. And if we find out that there are areas that are pertinent to an organization, that were not discussed, during the software demonstration -which could jeopardize a successful deployment, we will discuss those with you. The ATS implementation team will also work with you, on your journey, from the planning and design stages to implementation to managing your time and attendance system going forward.

To learn more download a demonstration, brochures or contact us 1.866.294.2467.

Time And Attendance Requirements: The Ultimate Elephant In The Room

The reasons why some companies get a lower adoption rates with the users of their time and attendance solution versus other companies, has to do, with a several things including; internal planning, and providing users with a forum for effective feed-back. There are of course, a myriad of other reasons including, corporate cultural shift which are more difficult for a vendor to effect. Based on our experience, we have seen user adoption rates increase exponentially when management informs users of the intent of the time and attendance system and, ahead of deployment and ensures that users understand the rationale for the solution.

Based on our expertise, here are 5 tips to that you can use to increase system user adoption:

Implementation and training: Training is critical for user adoption. By and large, human beings do not like change. If you are going to introduce a new system, ensure they are properly trained on how to use it. Management should play a lead role by asking the employees what challenges (if any) they are having with punching in or out at the time clock. Your employees will appreciate it that you are taking the time with them during this transition.  For the first 2-3 months remind all departmental managers and supervisors alike about the importance of business process flows and how it is going to affect their area. Unfortunately, that’s one of the more critical areas where the training can often fall short, which in turn leads to lack of interest on the users part.

Ease of use: Make sure the system is easy to use. There is no perfect software-there has never been one nor will there ever be. During the rollout figure out what issues there are and resolve them before everyone is actively using the software. Experience has shown that some employees will use the tiny of kinks as an excuse not to use the new solution. This is especially true for companies who have never deployed an automated time and attendance solution in their organization.

Keep the lines of communication open before deployment date: hold a face to face meeting with your employees informing them in advance of the intent of the system. There is nothing worse than deploying a system without informing employees and allowing the gossip mill to flourish. For example, you might post a memorandum in the cafeteria or employee gathering place, stating the intent of the system, how it’s going to function and finish off by asking employees to approach their respective supervisors if they have questions. Most people don’t like change, so take the time to show users that the effort to change is going to be worthwhile. Once employees understand the benefits that the system is going to provide, they will embrace the change more readily.

Support from senior management is paramount: When users know that the leaders of the organization is onboard with the system they are more likely to use it. If the management team is negative towards the system, user adoption rates will drop.

Support main users and employees during the transition:  You will need to do a certain amount of hand-holding for the first few months of the system being in place. Because you are introducing change, you want to make it as seamless as possible. And, to achieve that objective the more hand-holding you do, the better the outcome.  User adoption is contingent upon not only providing support as the system goes live, but during the times when users are getting accustomed to the system.

If you take the time to plan and inform your team of what’s coming, you will increase your chances of user adoption with your time and attendance solution.

To learn more, go to our website. You can also download brochures and see a live demo.

5 Tips To Increase User Adoption Of Your Time And Attendance Software

Some companies will delay an implementation in the hope that the issues they are experiencing with their legacy system will magically disappear. Sometimes the psychology of change is too difficult to overcome-especially, since it is going to involve retraining users and having to adapt current business practices once the new system is in place. Once your company, have gone through the process of selecting a vendor, it only makes sense to continue go through the next phase of deploying your new system. That being said, we recognize that unforeseen circumstances can occur at any given time that will delay your plan.

If the delay, however, is simply an inability to overcome change, here is range of benefits your company could be missing out on, namely:

Efficiency:  Standardize and automate time collection processes so that your payroll practitioner does not have to chase production supervisors each week to verify employee arrivals and departure.

Real-Time Data:  Report on attendance with up-to-the-minute workforce analysis and gain insights into real-time metrics. Thus, you will streamline processes after analyzing the data to improve your company’s overall efficiencies.

Competitive Advantage:  There is a good chance your competitor is using a time and attendance to streamline payroll costs and in a global economy, it’s not enough to just keep pace- today’s companies need to stay ahead of their competitors. Using paper time cards will not help your business in a competitive landscape, but using of a 21st Century ATS time and attendance system will.

Cloud-Based deployment:  Using ATS TimeWork On-Demand allows you to access your time and attendance, anytime, anywhere. It also removes the burden of managing internal IT infrastructure such as servers and application updates. With the access to real-time accurate data, management can make informed  and on-the-spot decisions.

Business growth: Some of the important benefits of an ATS time and attendance system includes, increase in workforce productivity, decrease in costs associated with manual time entry, increased ability for forecasting and planning, erasing information silos through proper data integration and lower payroll costs.

As the pace of the economy continues to trend upwards, businesses are feeling the burden of inadequate software solutions that is not keeping pace with their evolving needs. And, as a result, these companies will resort to other means of collecting data, namely, manual time collection which can lead to double entry and payroll inaccuracies.

To learn more about ATS time and attendance solution go to our website.

Delaying Implementation Can Rob Your Company Of Some Key Benefits

In football parlance, throwing the football in the end zone in a last ditch effort to win a game is commonly referred to as a “Hail Mary” pass. At times, some NFL teams have had success with it, while many others, have simply fallen short. In the world of time and attendance, scrambling to replace an ailing software solution and using a tight deadline can lead to undesirable results and is tantamount to throwing a “Hail Mary”. If you have decided that your paper time sheet or antiquated solution needs replacing, and then take a methodical approach to its deployment. ATS time and attendance solution product offering and implementation methodology encompasses:

 Superior Cloud-Based Time and Attendance
ATS TimeWork On-Demand software offers superior workforce analytics for your organization. With ATS TimeWork On-Demand, your company will reap the benefits of a market-leading, time tracking and optimized solution, essential for driving business results.

 A Lower Payroll Cost and Quick Return on Investment
Our cloud-based time and attendance is offered through a dedicated, secure data center with resilience built in. Our solution is configured to an organization pay policies and other business requirements and gives you the freedom to scale as your business evolves. The predictable monthly billing allows you to access a plethora of workforce management software features including; business intelligence, time capture analytics, job costing, workforce planning, overtime equalization, vacation planning calendar, and HR capabilities from anywhere, at any time.

Scoping, Planning and Implementation
Say good-bye to the “Hail Mary” type of installation. With an ATS time and attendance solution we administer the preparation, setup, training and testing, which are the hallmarks of a successful time and attendance implementation. By scoping the project, our Implementation Specialist gets a better understanding of your business requirements. By planning and testing means this ensures the solution matches all of your work rule policies. Implementation means we have covered all the bases and now ready to deliver a world-class solution to your organization.

ATS Time and Attendance was designed to provide your company with best-of-class standard time tracking, combined with workflow management features, and in-depth process customization capabilities. The result is a wide ranging set of pre-configured software features covering the standard requirements of every industry, while, at the same time, being easily adaptable to your company’s specific deployment goals.

To learn more follow join our LinkedIn group, or go to our website to see a live product demonstration.

 Throwing A Hail Mary Pass Doesn’t Always Work

5 Key Elements for a Successful Implementation

April 1st, 2014 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Time and Attendance Software | TimeWork | Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on 5 Key Elements for a Successful Implementation)

Some time and attendance projects turn out to be more costly than foreseen because, they may take longer than anticipated or a company might opt for the cheapest solution-but end up paying more for things that were missed in the first place. There is also element of a company’s business requirements not being fulfilled. With this in mind, businesses should inform themselves of the factors contributing to successful employee time and attendance implementation.

While the list below is by no means exhaustive, it can serve as a benchmark for companies thinking about deploying an ATS time and attendance solution. An ATS project lead, will perform an analysis of your organization’s current and future business requirements and compare them to existing software capabilities of ATS workforce management solution.

Solution Benefits of an ATS Deployment:

Preparation
The purpose of this phase is to provide initial planning and preparation for implementation. This includes technical issues as well as project management topics and expected commitment from your organization in terms of time and resources.

Solution Roadmap
A preliminary workshop provides the opportunity to fine-tune the original project and related objectives. The result is the solution roadmap, which documents in detail the results gathered during the data gathering requirements phase.

Project Actuality
The goal in this phase is to configure the business requirements and test against the information gathered during the preparation kick-off meeting. The ATS implementation analyst will validate and update the time and attendance configuration while the company’s project lead updates the work instructions.

Deployment and Training
The activities during this phase will focus on providing the customer with the tools for going live on preparing both the software and the customer for going live. In addition, we will ensure that the customer project leader and department managers are sufficiently trained on the use of TimeWork On-Demand. Conclusion of the system analysis will encompass time and attendance system tests, adjust pay policies as required and ensure all remaining critical open issues are resolved.

Go-Live
This phase is when your organization goes live with the software and starts analyzing employee punches that are update from the time clock. Go live, can be a stressful time if the project is not properly managed. At this point of the project cycle, a strong knowledge of the system functionality and the ability to quickly react to the unexpected is critical. Shortly thereafter, a review and optimization conference is scheduled and conducted.

ATS implementation methodology brings many benefits to customers. It provides customers with a clear understanding of the scope, structure, and duration of implementing ATS TimeWork On-Demand at the outset of the project to eliminate surprises and overruns in time or budget. In addition, ATS will provide best-practice implementation services based on our years of experience.

To learn more, join one of our webinars in the month of April, May or June, and to download a demonstration of ATS Time and Attendance solution, go to our website.

5 Key Elements for a Successful Implementation

When planned properly, a well implemented time and attendance can yield significant benefits for all stakeholders. Using ATS project methodology, it can be applied to large and medium-sized implementations. Depending on the size of the project, flowchart diagrams will point you to tools and templates that can be used at different phases and will help guide the roles that are required to perform activities. They all help to increase the consistency, timeframes, quality and success of your company’s time and attendance system.

Depending on the project size and scope ATS uses different deployment methodolies. Here are 5 steps that will benefit any organization considering deploying ATS time and attendance system:

Planning-Your company’s project manager and that of the vendor should work together to form the implementation team, and plan the project based on a methodology, including the scope of the project and available resources. A kickoff meeting should include all stakeholders with the purposing of reviewing the project plan and communicate the company objectives for the project.

System Configuration- The ATS Implementation Analyst provides the knowledge to implementation team in the design and database configuration. This will include, work-rule policies, collective bargaining agreements (CBA), and setting up the time and attendance system.

Harmonization-This phase involves integrating ATS Time and Attendance and Business Analytical Applications with the customer’s information needs and addresses customization requirements.

Training- ATS implementation team trains the Project Manager, HR, Payroll and other functional users on the new employee time management system.

Go-Live Support- ATS implementation team supports the customer in the use of the new time and attendance system. The implementation team provides real time support.

While this is not a comprehensive list, it provides a benchmark of what our customers can expect when deploying a time and attendance solutions with ATS.

To download a comprehensive implementation methodology, go to our website or call us at 1(866) 294.2467.

 

 

While there is no doubt that implementation and support tops the list for many companies who experience woes with their software, proper configuration should top that list as well.

Here are the top 5 items to pay attention to ahead of your implementation:

Documentation – Make a list your business challenges for your new workforce management system, including: overtime, benefit accruals, attendance management and these should all tie into your company’s corporate business objectives.

Easy does it- If a large portion of your employees are in production, start there first and keep it simple. A rapid return on investment (ROI) will come from your web-based time and attendance when the implementation is done in meaningful phases.

Review the implementation plan-Do not be discouraged if the pay categories and premiums are not working in accordance with your company’s policy. This is the perfect time to review and keep tweaking. Take the long view and remember the solution is designed to last for a many years.

Track and measure – If you are coming from a paper-based environment track the amount of time it takes to capture and calculate employee data against your previous manual process. Next measure the impact the solution has on the productivity of your business -you will be pleasantly surprised at the benefits.

Prepare operational managers for adoption of the application– while “train the trainer” is a good way to cut costs, training should never be underestimated. In fact, training is as important as implementation and after sales support. The best way to make full use of training is to use it in small blocks. In that way, information will be retained, resulting in higher user adoption of the system.

To learn about ATS Time and Attendance Software, visit us our website. You can also view a demonstration, join us on LinkedIn or follow us on Twitter.

 

Time and Attendance Implementation Should Lead To a Reduction in Payroll Costs

December 12th, 2013 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Absence Management | Benefit Accruals | Hosted Time and Attendance Solution | Payroll | Time and Attendance On-Demand - (Comments Off on Time and Attendance Implementation Should Lead To a Reduction in Payroll Costs)

The implementation of your time and attendance solution is complete and you are still waiting to see a reduction in payroll costs. If the amount of paper work you are doing, prior to implementing this new system have not decreased, you might want to rethink your strategy. Perhaps more functional training might be required or you are not using the system to its full capacity. Whatever the reason employee time capture and other administrative costs should be falling upon completion of your time and attendance system.

ATS TimeWork gives you real-time access to all employee data including; attendance, employee absence and payroll accuracy. ATS TimeWork cloud-based solution allows today’s mid and large businesses to gain a competitive advantage while increasing profit margins.

A well planned time and attendance implementation can provide stupendous benefits, streamline business processes and improve overall efficiency within an organization. Now depending on how long your solution has been in place, its functionality should be far reaching while, allowing users, to gain access from anywhere on any device with access to the Internet.

ATS TimeWork gives you the ability to leverage the internet and provides an easy and secure process for the capturing employee time and attendance.  There is no hardware or software required, ATS TimeWork allows you to lower payroll costs and replaces traditional paper time cards, spreadsheets and costly manual, time calculation.

If you are three months into your current solution and it has not yielded the cost savings you had hope to achieve, give us a call at; 1.866.294.2467. You can also visit our website to view a demonstration of TimeWork.

 

Real-time data will no longer be just available on computers and legacy systems. Today’s businesses want effective business management software that helps their companies streamline payroll costs and increase shareholder value. ATS workforce management software supports your core business operations with market-leading applications and technologies designed to work together in a fully integrated business suite.

ATS time and attendance delivers a comprehensive set of integrated, cross-functional business automation processes. With ATS TimeWork time and attendance, you will gain the following benefits:

Reduced costs: Use enterprise services architecture to improve process standardization, efficiency, and adaptability. Extend transactions, information, and collaboration functions to a broad business community.

Gain higher ROI: Install ATS TimeWork using rapid-implementation techniques that cost less than half what traditional approaches cost.

Improve financial analytics and corporate governance: Gain deep visibility into your organization with labour and business analytics functionality. Increase profitability, improve financial control, and manage risk.

Support changing industry requirements: Take advantage of ATS TimeWork scalability and latest cloud technology to integrate your end-to-end processes seamlessly.

Reduce risk: ATS time and attendance software solve complex business challenges. We are the trusted partner for leading organizations, with our team of qualified representatives to support business practices of companies in Canada, United States and Europe.

ATS TimeWork time and attendance delivers information in real time through its management portal dashboards. The software meets the needs of businesses by offering a comprehensive solution with industry-specific functionality. ATS industry-leading workforce management software responds quickly to rapidly changing business demands, complies with rapidly changing industry regulations and improves customer satisfaction.

To view a demonstration, go to our website. To speak to one of our account representatives, call 877.294.2467 or you can join the conversation through social media.