As part of a key project to re-evaluate the data provided by its personnel systems, including Year 2K compliancy, Powys County Council invited tenders for the supply and installation of a contemporary 'Open' Time and Attendance solution.
A major supplier criteria was clocking and access facilities across six of the authority's sites. Interface to existing, or future software systems, and simultaneous update of both T&A and Access Control were also key requirements.
Best Solution
| Number of employees |
| 1200-1800 |
| Business Sector |
| Public Sector |
| Location |
| Llandrindod Wells |
| Product Used |
| Open Options |
| - Time and Attendance |
| - Web Clocking |
| - Payroll and HR Interfaces |
A project team was appointed in September 1999 to assess products against stringent evaluation criteria. Crown Computing achieved the highest score for its Open Options suite of software running across Windows NT on a SQL Server, over an Ethernet network. "Although not the cheapest, Crown offered the best and most complete single source solution," recalls Sue Harris, Project Manager, IT Applications, Powys County Council. "The company also demonstrated the ability to supply, install and train personnel on the equipment within our extremely tight time-scales."
As the largest county in Wales, covering some 2,000 square miles, and extending from the edge of Snowdonia in the north to Swansea Valley in the south, Powys County Council employees cover a vast area. As a result, the evaluation team were looking to replace the conglomeration of stand-alone electronic and manual clocking devices with a centralised system which allowed employees to register at any terminal, not just their office based clock.
Time Saving
Although Powys has not yet fully implemented Open Options, one of their key requirements was that the system they purchased was scaleable. They have already around 1200 employees on the system but they wanted to be sure that anything up to 8000 could be accommodated. "It is not envisioned that all employees will actually clock, therefore the ability to electronically download absence and/or attendance details direct to the system is essential. When fully operational I anticipate this functional application saving anything up to a month in administration time," continues Sue Harris.
"Advanced time recording functions supporting both fixed and flexitime work patterns, and the provision of better management reports were also key parameters. The system had to easily handle the management and control of attendance, infinite work patterns, absenteeism and holidays. We also wanted to allow employees to access key information at the terminal, including notification of going on and off site and interrogation of their flexitime balances."
Monitoring all the attendance and absence records to identify actual or possible violations of the terms of the Working Time Directive was a major component of the Powys installation.
User Friendly
"Because there is a statutory requirement for a wide range of reporting structures within a local authority, a user friendly management reporting and graphical trend analysis element was crucial," stresses Sue Harris.
"Within Open Options there are a number of standard reporting writing functions which can be drilled down. However, our real benefits will stem from the add-on Cognos report writing software, recommended by Crown, which creates tables and allows changes to all the fields we use. Useful in-depth absence analysis reporting functions, such as cost evaluation, can be easily produced as it interrogates the database and provides the latest information quickly and easily in graphical form." "Considering Crown Computing only had four months from delivery of tender to completion, we feel they have done remarkably well. As to be expected we have had a few teething problems, as you discover things you may not have considered at the outset. However, Crown has always responded quickly and positively to any fault reported. Another benefit of the Open Options solution is that if there is a software problem, there is no disruption to the employee clocking, as the time is held on the system until the issue is resolved".
Flexible
"We are particularly impressed with Crown's flexibility and keenness to develop customised applications with us. At present the team are working on producing employee details for a statutory report which may be incorporated as a standard part of the software package for local authority use," concludes Sue Harris.
