Background:

BSI Designs (BSI) is a top manufacturer in the cafeteria equipment industry, designing and manufacturing high-end countertops, food shields, heated displays, refrigerated merchandisers and other products for the foodservice industry. BSI serves customers in the corporate, healthcare, and education sectors, delivering customized designs to best fit the unique needs of each client. The company currently has 120 employees.

Problem:

BSI previously tracked its 16 hourly of the 120 employees with hardcopy timecards. While manageable, the system was inefficient for supervisors and payroll workers. With the manual system, supervisors had no easy method of quickly identifying issues with overtime and workflow. BSI needed a more efficient method of compiling, calculating and tracking work hours.

Solution:

Savance is a software and network provider that specializes in automating business functions. BSI engaged Savance to install its EIOBoard Electronic In Out Board software with integrated electronic timesheet features. The electronic timesheet system automatically calculates hours worked, vacation time, overtime, and other statistics without data entry errors. The timesheet feature can be easily integrated into a company’s payroll system to reduce the time and effort of payroll tasks.

Savance offers several options for hourly employees to check in and out. For BSI, Savance recommended an employee touch screen kiosk along with EIOBoard Time & Attendance, our electronic timesheet solution, so employees can check-in at the touch screen kiosks located in the entryway.

For an easier employee check-in process, the kiosk can also be combined with a prox card reader, magnetic card reader, or a barcode scanner. Alternately, employees can use their desktop computer or mobile phone and any one of EIOBoard’s interface options to update their statuses. However, in BSI’s case, a kiosk was a must. “Not all employees have a computer tower,” said Andrew Lee, payroll manager at BSI Designs.

After seeing the functionality of EIOBoard’s Time & Attendance features, BSI added additional EIOBoard tools, including the Microsoft Office Add-On, Telephone Integration (TAPI), and Private Instant Messaging.

Savance’s Outlook Add-In interface allows employees to synchronize their appointments and other obligations, while also giving them all the functionality the electronic status board has to offer. The Outlook Add-In also allows employees to schedule their future status, such as vacations, business trips and meetings into Outlook. This makes it easy for others to plan meetings and other tasks around their coworkers’ plans.

Along with the Outlook Add-In, Savance has integrated a telephone status feature. The Telephone Integration (TAPI) automatically changes a person’s status to ‘On the Phone’ when an employee makes or receives a call. Other employees in the office can quickly discern whether a coworker is available. Users can choose whether to add Caller ID to the interface, allowing others to see the caller’s name in the comment field.

Along with TAPI, BSI Design employees use the Private Instant Messaging feature, useful for short exchanges when email or meeting face-to-face is not necessary.

Results & Benefits:

During the first couple of months following the initial implementation, Lee reported that there were a few glitches. It took some time for BSI to find the right settings. Office employees, for example, could modify the time they punched in at their desktop. This setting may be desirable in some situations, but BSI preferred that employees not have this capability. With a couple setting changes, the problem was rectified.

Once the initial setting issues had been taken care of, Lee believes that the benefits were immediate. Of course, the obvious advantage was real-time computation of hourly wages. Supervisors can easily pull up employee statistics, plus they can more easily control overtime. Added functionality has also increased BSI’s efficiency and productivity. The Outlook interface and TAPI quickly became indispensable. Receptionists utilize the chat feature to inconspicuously communicate with coworkers that show they are on a telephone call. “In my experience, EIOBoard is great,” said Lee. “[It] makes it easier to compile and run reports on our employees, saving a tremendous amount of time.”