Grow Your Business: The Information Ager's Essential Tool Guide, Part 1

As I am busy writing this article, it suddenly dawns upon me exactly how much software has influenced the way we function as human beings. During the first few hours of your typical day, you would have interacted with some form of software, several times over. Think about it: When you are awoken by your alarm program on your mobile phone, you heat up some milk, using the microwave's pre-installed program. You flick through the news channels with the assistance of your TiVo's program while eating your cereal. As you leave, you activate your burglar alarm program, before getting into your fuel injected, software controlled automobile. As you exit the driveway, you activate your GPS program before coming to a sudden halt at the software controlled traffic robot, having just turned red. You are not too fazed with your bad luck since you are listening to your favourite track on your iPod, which is happily running on the most recent Linux operating system. Within a couple of hours, you would have interfaced with many pieces of software, knowingly or unknowingly.

While theoretically it might seem somewhat romantic to imagine a life without these computerized components, in reality it would be quite difficult. Businesses also have evolved over the centuries to become extremely competitive and today it is software more than anything else that gives one business the edge over another.

We're all fairly acceptable of the common statement that knowledge equals power and thus it is no big coincidence that today we consider ourselves as living in the Information Age. If stone was instrumental as a tool during the Stone Age, it is easy to see that today it is data - the efficient storage thereof as well as the business friendly representation thereof- that is the equivalent of what the stone was during the Stone Age.

While both our work environments, together with the tools that we use to seamlessly navigate these environments have changed significantly, one thing has stayed fairly constant- our reliance on human resources.

In the very first instalment of this series of articles, I want to look at using a very simple software tool which is very often overlooked by many businesses.

By utilizing a Time and Attendance system, you can dramatically reduce your administration overhead; reduce unaccounted staff hours, increase staff- and overall productivity with a ridiculously easy to implement, off- the- shelf packages.

Having directed a consulting company myself for several years, I still dread to think of how many of the staff hours were simply lost track off or how many hours never ended up on our invoices- lost to the company at a huge cost. Not only did we lose money, it was also quite an embarrassment when, from time to time, I would have a client on the phone, instructing me to correct a faulty invoice where he/she was overcharged. This off course portrayed total lack of professionalism. On the other hand, I'm sure the same client would not have informed me, had I undercharged him!

Furthermore, with poor processes in place, most businesses suffer severely due to time wastage. In a report published by Robert Half International, the company estimates that the average employee steals four hours and fifteen minutes from his/her employer per week. That is the equivalent of over 5 weeks of work, during the course of a year.

Here is an example of your yearly loss per employee for company X: Take the average number of workdays days in a month: 21.67. Divide this by 4 and multiple by 5 to get the average amount of workdays during five weeks: 27.0875. Multiply this by 8: The average number of work hours in a day. This works out to 216.7 hours in company X's case. Multiply this by the average hourly rate of an employee: $35.71 (use your own numbers). By this formula, it cost company X $7738.357 per annum. Of course this number is not equal across all companies, but rather was given as an estimated average, which means some companies have even greater losses and some have less. What if I tell you it's quite realistic to half this loss for your entire workforce, by making a yearly investment of less than the equivalent of one employees lost hours. With a good time and attendance software system, you not only gain in terms of lost hours, but you also gain significantly in several other areas, making it a very sound, low cost investment.

While our paper based timesheet system was bearable when my consulting company started out, mainly because there were other more urgent matters, it soon became evident that it was just not efficient enough. Not only would mistakes creep in and go undetected, but the whole process was extremely time consuming and unmanageable. Reporting was virtually non-existent, especially on historic data. Archiving was a mess. The list is endless.

A modern time and attendance software system will not only assist you in doing error free invoicing, as is my case now, but it can also enable you to easily keep track of sick days, report on profit, utilization and past performance, while it will also assist you in analyzing employee tasks in order to determine realistic future expectations. All of this is done via workflow enabled processes, so that you have a full audit history of each request and approval thereof. These processes are easily configurable and will put your data in a locked state, but only when it makes sense to do. This ensures a close to perfect, easily accessible reporting source. Another advantage is greater transparency. All key decision makers have access to real time data, 24/7. In larger companies, this data can be put to good statistical use, for example, when making new appointments, handling increases or when cutting costs.

Furthermore, some vendors integrate a complete user portal into the time and attendance offering- enabling your time and attendance system to serve as a central information hub, encouraging interaction between employer and employee. Think sharing company templates, CV's, allowing employees to update their personal information and contact details, to apply for leave, to capture hours against projects, to complete surveys etc, etc. Your employees share information with you and you, as the employer, share configurable information sources with your employees via a central, easily accessible, internet based location. No more of those unnecessary challenges where, for example, you send out a document to hundreds of people, only to find out that you have left an important clause out. Share your information centrally with a centralized approach. Have your employee update his changes in personal information, from one central location. Centralize your data! Some vendors will even host the package completely off site, freeing you up to do what you do best- while also accelerating your return on investment seeing as you don't have to fork out up- front investments or invest in skilled support staff.

Currently there are quite a number of different options available, but this should not deter you, as once you have gone through the relatively small implementation exercise, you will be able to do more, with less, which is what business (and life) is all about. Time and attendance systems really are there to make your life easier. Implementing a good time and attendance package is a must in my opinion, for any company that employs more than 10 staff members, sometimes even less (e.g. a consulting firms with several parallel projects). With the cost effective offerings available, sometimes free to try, there really is something for all companies, from small to large.

To summarize: The right time and attendance software package should not only save you money, but will allow you to tweak your business strategies, which in turn should generate a healthier income and take care of ensuring more quality hours from your staff, while virtually paying it' s own bill, from the word go. Eliminate the manual, time consuming, repetitive, and error- prone, often expensive, paper based processes. Eliminate the disparate, paper based timesheet system. Let well designed software do what it does best, making your life easier while assisting you in getting the most out of your staff.

Keep your eyes open for the second instalment in this series where I will be discussing software as a service- commonly known as SAS.

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