When punch card clocking system was introduced to record employees' attendance a long time ago and still quite many companies are using it now, the weight of power is tilted to employees. Employers almost have no knowledge whether employees themselves, or their colleagues punched the clocking records when they were late for works. But this is the limitation of punch card clocking technology, whether employers like it or not, they have to live with it.

To prevent time theft that causes employers to pay extra 'wages', they embrace biometrics time and attendance system when it becomes available without much hesitation to replace the old system.

And the power slides to employers this time. As employees, you lose the control instantly. Not only that you can't punch for your buddies but also you lost the grip of your own clocking records. All the clocking records stored in the biometrics terminals are transferred to a computer system managed by HR department. You have no idea whether your employers could or would manipulate your records to become time thieves themselves. But this is the automation attendance system, whether employees like it or not, they have to live with it.

Although some biometrics clocking terminals support receipt printers, where employees can print receipt as proof of their attendance time, most employers would not prefer to invest unless it is mandatory by the government like what happens in Chile.

The recipient of the power would always be the happy one, be it employer or employee. But again, this is unhealthy from the management’s point of view.

Naturally, the best solution to rectify any technological weakness is by introducing a newer technology. This time around, to strike the balance of power, replacing the Windows-based time and attendance software to a web-based or even a cloud-based system seems like a very good move, plus having clocking terminals that support web-based system.  

The nature of windows-based software is individuality, which means that the application is normally use to complete tasks assigned to the software operators. But for web-based system, collaboration supersedes individuality. The trend of personal technology provides more computing power; with the web-based solution that networks almost everybody, it encourages information sharing and interactions between two or more parties. So, why not let the employees logging in to the web server to view or print their own attendance and work schedule, or having more personal or company information to their benefits? All these would improve communication within an organization.

Our product, TimeTec Web seems to be the solution to the balance the power. And in view of the complication in setting up a web server, we launched TimeTec Cloud to simplify the deployment.

In fact, the balance of power in the workplace would create better understandings between employees and employers. For employers, they should take this technology transformation opportunity to share the obligatory information among employees, to build a better working environment and enhance the sense of belongings of employees to the company.  

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

The concept of brand is not as highly sophisticated or far-fetched as what many brand consultants and branding agencies have been trying to make business community believe. They ought to rake the dough while many are still in the blur of the subject matter.

Personally, I don’t think there is a specific formula for a company to follow in order to produce a successful brand in a specific time period. Of course you could set aside an awesome budget and plan for over the top branding activities to highlight your brand but don’t confuse advertisement and marketing activities as brand, it’s part of building a brand but it is not the brand itself.

How do you feel when you see Apple products? What words come to mind when you see Dell? What feeling do you relate when Coca Cola is mentioned? How about Honda? It’s all about feelings; it’s all about human emotions. That is what branding is, in my humble opinion.

For me, Apple products are stylish and reliable. Dell is cheap if you know DIY but lacks user-friendliness. Coca Cola is fun and full of memories, Honda is dependable. 

Brand is totally about consumer perception. No matter how much brand awareness activities are being carried out to make your customers believe what you want them to believe about your brand, when you don’t deliver your brand’s promise, negative perceptions start to form in your consumers’ minds. And if this perception is not corrected instantly but further strengthened by constantly failing to deliver the promise, the brand is still forming – just that it’s not to your preference.

Every brand has its personality and personality is best described with human terms. When you deliver what you want people to believe about your brand, then you are on your way to having a promising brand.

FingerTec’s brand essence has always been about making things easy for our clients. And trust me that on our side, the tasks have never been easy. Nonetheless, we take the pleasure knowing that FingerTec is easily implemented and support is available everywhere to help our clients the world over. Occasionally, there are some glitches we need to rectify and the respectful teams are always dedicated to deliver. At FingerTec, the objective of delivering “ease of use” has been communicated throughout the company and everybody is aware of what we have to do.

Taking things a step forward, soon FingerTec will be making things easier with the T-box package for TimeTec Web.  The T-box will simplify implementation of TimeTec Web where we have pre-configured everything for you to ease your work. We’ll offer packages that make system deployment easy and hassle-free. One package solves it all.

Say what you want about a brand, pepper it with great slogans but at the end of the day if you failed to deliver the talk, you fail. Walk your brand.  

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ