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Warm Up To Technology for A More Effective Workplace



Many SMEs shy away from the latest available technologies because most of them are comfortable in doing business the conventional way; not keen on spending more money on software and tools, believing that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. After spending many years in this business, I learned that it wasn’t easy for customers to switch from one solution to another, let alone wanting to do it voluntarily. Most were reluctant to pick up on new things, holding on to the motto that familiar is always better, when more often than not, it proved otherwise. When FingerTec decided to change the bundled software from the ‘primitive’ FoxPro TCMS V2 to the more advanced TCMS V3, it was a struggle for us to persuade our customers to switch over. The process took us over a year and still, many hoped that the previous system remains. In fact, if SMEs are confident enough to deploy technological advancement in their daily processes, it would bring about a lot of advantages to their business operation for various obvious reasons. 

 I lived through the 90s and the early 2000s when telephone lines and facsimile were the two major communication tools in the office and companies spent a huge sum of money paying the bills. Communications with clients were limited to conversations over the phone or face-to-face meetings which proved to be even more costly if the distance between you and the potential customers is great because it adds other costs into the equation such as hotel expenses, meeting rooms, meals, and etc. Let’s face it, the recent technology does not only improves communication, it does so much to improve business’s operations for SMEs and more.  

 Instead of being indifferent and having a nonchalant attitude towards technology, SMEs need to warm up to technology in order to carve a better future. 

 How so?

 With so many readily available communication tools in the market, technology has changed communication in a big and inexpensive way possible. When in the 90s and early 2000s, the cost of one very short SMS was close to USD0.10, nowadays you can communicate for hours without having to take the cost into consideration. Physical presence is not required anymore when the team can be connected via the likes of WhatsApp, Skype, Quip; making it possible for businesses to be effective, and be able to break that barrier of conducting a  ‘formal meeting’ because what’s more important for the SMEs is to get things done quickly and correctly, rather than the formality of things. 

 Technology can also assist SMEs in keeping things organized, sharing resources and assigning responsibility in a more systematic way by deploying project management software for example or simply utilizing Google Drive for easy collaboration and sharing of resources in real-time and increasing productivity in a major way. 

 On the other hand, deployment of Software as a Service, SaaS like TimeTec TA for Employee Attendance Management or TimeTec Leave for Employee Leave Management simplifies and makes an operation more effective. SaaS usually is designed to promote automation and by having these tools in the workplace, the operation cost can be reduced significantly thus saving more costly and important resources for the company. In terms of the workers, they can likewise be tasked with different and more difficult tasks which can’t be accomplished via automation. On top of that, automation provides more accurate results and contains audit trail for easy tracking of information whenever the business requires. In short, SaaS tools do not only reduce the overall operation costs, it also provides efficiency that many SMEs are in dire need of.


 Advancement in security technology is another breakthrough that provides advantages to the workplace with the adoption of smart card and biometrics for access security. The biometrics technology only allows authorised personnel to enter restricted areas by having their credentials verified, and all the verifications come with accurate records that are kept in the system for the longest time. Apart from access control, biometrics has penetrated other areas as well as PC access, time clocking and many more. And when the transaction data can be stored in the cloud, the tampering of the data is not possible, providing businesses with comfort over its security issues. 

Another good thing that technology brings is its customizing option. Let’s face it, not one commercialized solution is designed to fit any company like a glove, but with a little tweak here and there, companies can further exploit the technology to better serve their businesses. With the right cost and development time, customization option could benefit SMEs tremendously. The availability of technology presented to us in this time and age has enabled remote working, teleconferencing and co-working space which has completely reshaped the workplace. Everything is literally at the tip of your fingers with the availability of mobile and cloud technology.

 Who would have thought that now I could communicate with my client in India or Germany or Lebanon without having to spend a bomb on phone bills? On top of WhatsApp, occasionally we do ‘face-to-face’ Skype video conferencing as well as share resources online accessible across the world by our customers. 

 All in all, the impact of technology in the workplace is amazing and rewarding, and it changed the conventional way workplaces used to run. Businesses cannot shy away from or ignore technology, the leaders need to keep up and warm up to it in an efficient manner. Implementation of new technological solutions such as TimeTec and FingerTec biometrics can ensure optimal profitability and productivity at their workplace, hands down.

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Many SMEs shy away from the latest available technologies because most of them are comfortable in doing business the conventional way; ...

5 Workforce Management Issues Biometrics Solution Can Fix!


Workforce management gets tougher when the staff count gets larger. Micro managing employee is definitely ineffective and placing total trust on employee also is counterproductive when it comes to dealing with juvenile and conniving staff.

What could be the quick and effective fixes to this remedy workforce management problems?
Here are 5 common problems every office is facing and let us explain how biometrics system can repair them.

Issue: Persistent exploitation of loopholes!
Can the user cheat the attendance system’s record? If a staff can clock in for someone else’s time, there’ll surely be cases where the attendance data is not entirely honest and accurate. Could someone else cover for a job without the superior knowing about it? If someone could bring a stranger into a workplace without being detected, someone would. When employees know the loopholes, someone would exploit it to his benefit, for sure.

Biometrics Fix: When you are whom your body parts say you are, only then your time attendance data will be recorded and door access will be granted. The biometrics system will not allow a fake to proceed, and a fake doesn’t deserve to be in a good company.

Issue: The belief that stealing time is not damaging!
Many employees have this notion that it’s okay to spend company’s time leisurely without even care about the consequence. In business, time equals money and stealing company time can be equated with causing company extra unnecessary operation costs.

Biometrics Fix: FingerTec system records each employee clock-in time, break times, clock out time and overtime accurately based on the employee’s own activities and the times will be matched with the company’s time policy. Hence, if company allows only 10 minutes grace period, and the staff enters the office 20 minutes late, the staff’s record will be reported as 10 minutes late complete with the total late time. If a company doesn’t allow employees to clock in early for overtime, early comers will not cause company extra money. Evidently, each person has a price tag and each minute equals to a sum of money.

Issue: Staying Old School is Always Cool!
When it comes to managing workforce such as maintaining manual attendance record, this old school attitude would spell disaster in many aspects including dealing with data inaccuracy, time-consuming data entry, no linkage to other solution such as payroll, difficulty to trace historical data and many more which in turn would cause a company more money to manage a manual system rather than investing in automated biometrics system.

Biometrics Fix: Biometrics system such as FingerTec is designed to automate time and attendance scheduling process and data collection, and the data is not only accurate but it also can provide reports to the management as and when required plus it’s easily integrated with a third party solution to achieve efficiency and better productivity.
 
Biometrics prevent someone from stealing your identity
Issue: Data is Isolated!
Companies assume that time and attendance data or door access data could be good for only payroll and not for other purposes. However, having a pool of useful and accurate data describing productivity of your workforce could help the company achieve better than before.

Biometrics Fix: At this day and age, connectivity is utmost important because it’s time consuming to do double job and data is supposed to better lives. By using biometrics solution like FingerTec, you can switch to deploy cloud-based attendance system like TimeTec TA that allows companies to access to data at anytime online and gauge the productivity accordingly plus data will be available on TimeTec Mobile to cater to staff’s mobility.

Issue: Daunted by Change because Change is Complicated!
Some businesses are intimidated by high technology and thinking that a biometrics system would be expensive, hard to maintain and complicated!

 Biometrics Fix: FingerTec is a biometrics system that has been made easy for all customers. The implementation of the hardware is straightforward with a lot of user guides and support available online on various channels. The complementary software, Ingress and TCMS V3 are offered in MS access and MySQL and for those who prefer his data to be online, TimeTec TA is available for time and attendance to be used with hardware that have PUSH technology. The automation of workforce management will better improve any company’s operation and it would save a lot of money in a long run.

Interested to deploy biometrics time and attendance system or door access system, contact us at info@fingertec.com (Ric/Faza)
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Workforce management gets tougher when the staff count gets larger. Micro managing employee is definitely ineffective and placing total...

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