Cities, counties rely on time and attendance tools

More local governments are turning to time and attendance products to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk and improve workforce productivity. In many instances, governments are relying on the tools to supplement their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that are already in place.

According to Kronos Inc., local government administrators are finding that basic time and labor products offered by ERP vendors are unable to meet their requirements. Kronos is based in Chelmsford, Mass., and produces tools to help managers record employee time transactions.

Local officials, according to the company, have found that ERP solutions that rely on custom code and scripting languages take longer and are more expensive to implement and maintain. What’s more, the ERP products offer
limited functionality, which can soak up managers’ workdays, as they try to develop time and attendance measures.

According to the company, “Time and attendance data collection is a common weak point in any government infrastructure, one that usually escapes detection and can leak hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars each year. Considering that labor costs represent one of the largest expenses for local governments, time and attendance data collection is a great place to look for quick payback.”

City officials in the following communities use Kronos time and attendance products to extend the value of their ERP investment: Atlanta, Ga.; Dayton, Ohio; Denver, Colo.; El Paso, Texas; Ontario, Calif.; and Stamford, Conn.

Here are some comments Kronos obtained from local government officials on the topic:

“Payroll is typically a local government’s largest expense and even a month’s delay in automating time and attendance can have a significant impact on the bottom line. Kronos helped us orchestrate a swift deployment, which allowed us to plan our budgets more effectively, and also enables us to reign in those budgeted dollars with increased efficiency and reduced payroll errors.”– Beth Machann, city controller, city of Denver

“We’d rather focus our energy on serving our publics efficiently than worry about software customization, which is both expensive and time consuming. Kronos helps us track time and attendance information of our diverse and widespread employees and helps us balance the demands of tight budgets and quality service.”— Steve Conrad, fiscal systems manager, Santa Clara County, Calif.

“Our employees benefit tremendously from the enhanced accuracy and predictability that Kronos provides in the area of payroll. And our taxpayers benefit from the reduced costs and increased efficiency through better data acquisition and improved reporting. Given the complexity of our payroll environment, the more rules and issues a time and attendance system can handle, the greater the reduction in error and higher the ROI.”– Lori C. Austin, manager, accounting and finance/CFO, Kansas City Board of Public Utilities

Kronos recently announced an integration tool that simplifies integrating the company’s applications with existing ERP, payroll and human resources systems.

Other sources of time and attendance tools include:
http://www.timetrak.com/
http://www.alliedtime.com
http://www.waspbarcode.com/wasptime/
http://www.novatime.com/
http://www.pyramidtechnologies.com/