How to select right biometric device for the attendance system at your company?

Selecting the right biometric machine for your organisation is more than a hardware decision. Because it involves not just the access control but also the employee attendance data. The device should work seamlessly with the attendance software, should help the HR and management in improving the payroll generation and enhancing productivity.

The decision becomes tough, as the market is flooded with 100’s of biometric attendance machines or fingerprint attendance or time keeping machines.

How to separate the bad from the best? That too, in your company context? What biometric features are a must for a progressive company? And what questions we must ask to check the robustness of the claims?

In this article we are putting down the steps and tests for choosing a right time and attendance machine which should be good for you.

I have compiled an exhaustive list of features, functions, software, reports, process, technologies that one needs to have in a modern fingerprint attendance device.

Precaution:

Don’t confuse Access control and the attendance management.

Access control is designed for allowing the entry for authorised employees, and restricting the unauthorised people. It also registers the time, so management tries to use this data for attendance management, too. But experts advise to keep both these things separate, because:

Access is used many times a day, it makes the attendance logs cumbersome.

Access control data and information goes to IT, while attendance is taken care of by HR. When two tasks are on the same machine, coordination between the two teams is an extra activity.

As per the attendance data experts, when access control is used for attendance capturing about 12% attendances goes unmarked for various reasons. It initiates attendance regularisation requests. Extra work for HR and IT, and productivity loss on the part of employee.

Step1: Choose the level of protection needed

While the biometric device manufacturers develop their systems, the miscreants also find out the loop-holes and ways to crack the technology. So, it's important to recognise what level of security your company needs? For a basic security, fingerprint recognition is enough, but for higher levels of protection you should go for the right biometric device with finger+ card, face+ pin or retina, palm verification sensors. And fake fingerprint recognition technology.

Installing the biometric attendance device that has the right combination of functions and features is the key to successful protection from intruders.

Step 2: Check for these important Concerns

A: The Source of the Device design: While most of the device component are manufactured in China, more important is where it is designed? Like, the Apple iPhones are designed in the USA & shipped from China. My study says biometric devices designed in South Korea have better quality & attendance management thought process built into the design, which you may require for a mature time capturing device. The Heart of the device is its sensor. The Korean designed sensor technology is also far superior.

Such devices are found to be employee friendly, and seamlessly connect with enterprise attendance softwares.

B: Sensor: The most vital criteria for selection of a fingerprint attendance device is: Reliability of sensors.

The speed & accuracy at which it can scan the fingerprint or face, and then match for accurate results. The durability & life of sensor is important too, as replacing the sensor because of failure is a pain & a challenge to business continuity.

The new age sensors come with Fake & Live recognition technology too. You must read recent news on how some employees use fake fingerprints, and the companies are losing money as well as man-hours.

C: Make of the device: The employee attendance capturing machine should be robust, built with good quality body. It should be IP65 compliant.

It's important, because in a country like India the workforce often use devices roughly. The weather conditions also varies on a large scale. We have all seen extreme cold as well as the heat-waves in the same location. Only robustly made devices can handle such climate and weather variance.

The machine should also be dust-resistant. Biometric devices are vulnerable to this cause.

D: The default Biometric features: The biometric time and attendance device should have built-in fingerprint reading sensor, RFID & smart card reader, keypad for local registration of employee fingerprints, power supply, internet jack, wall mount option. It should have the capacity to store at least 30 days of employee time and attendance log, and the ability to generate punch reports.

Ask your vendor: Can they at least store 1000 finger templates on the device? Push technology is also a must if you want a modern biometric attendance system. This will ensure seamless information transfer between biometric hardware and the attendance software.

Step 3: Evaluation of the time and attendance biometric machine.

A: Applicability to business: Ask, in what ways the biometric fingerprint machine suits to your needs on these parameters:

Nature of business, complexity of shift, employees working on client sites or onsite employee attendance capturing, terminal wise attendance record and field employees.

One will have to select from the range of attendance marking devices. List of such time capturing machines are as below:

Finger scan / fingerprint biometric devices / Palm based scanner

1. Face / retina scan devices
2. Portable / hand handle devices
3. Wall mount with battery backup devices
4. Touch pad with heat sense technology
5. GPRS enabled devices
6. USB based data transfer biometric devices
7. B: Is The Biometric devices modern and up-to-date?
8. With technology evolving continuously, the latest edition of biometric fingerprint devices are smart enough to sense the difference between fake & live fingers.

These devices push the data directly on server over the cloud instead of local servers, which ensures real time attendance data.

By attaching small biometric hamster to the mobile & other smart devices over OTG cable, marking attendance with geo-fencing & geo-tagging is also possible.

In the modern biometric devices the master fingerprint templates are stored over the cloud for authentication. Registration of finger template from remote location is possible. And you get a lot of storage capacity on the device.

With high level of configuration available the biometric device performance can be very well managed.

Even Night vision / poor light face detection technology is available.

Choose as per your requirement.

C: Biometric machine configuration: The biometric devices have many configurations. But most of the time, these features are not used. In fact the clients are not well informed about the advantage of the features. So they don't get the full benefit.

A quick check of what must be configured.

Scan ratio for speed

Combination of authentication / authorisation. Finger + card, either or, PIN.

In & out bifurcation.

Device tempering alarm

Push enabled on real time

D: Verified biometric service provider: The new-age business is not only about a good product, but the value-add that the service provider brings to the table. It is also about employee experience. And fast after sales support. A quick checklist for attendance system service provider.

Experience in similar industries like yours

Domain understanding of attendance linked to payroll & HR compliances

Service & support TAT

With the right biometric device, appropriate attendance software is a must. An integrated attendance system is future. Companies have now started specialising in only enterprise attendance solution.

In my 10+ years of experience working with attendance management system I have seen many clients hooked to wrong devices because they wanted to save some bucks, but are now not in a position to change because of high cost of installation, procurement, training & dependency.

With the new generation biometric devices, the migration is not so difficult & the economies are attractive, too.

If you need an expert advice, speak to us on 9821186599 or email us on dhwani@opportune.in. We guarantee you a cost effective long term solution.

Source: https://www.cuckootech.com/how-to-select-right-biometric-device-for-the-attendance-system-at-your-company/

A Hassle-free and Effective Solution for Your Employees’ Attendance!

The advancement of technology has made things simpler, automatic attendance system at the office is one of the many areas where it has done the miracle. However, in spite of reducing complexities, the systems like card-punching machines are not capable of preventing manipulation. It is common among employees to punch the card of a colleague who is absent for the day, to help them get their attendance. This is where the biometric attendance system finds its significance since it records the attendance by scanning the body-parts such as iris, fingerprint, etc. of employees, thus ensuring accuracy and transparency. 

Here are the benefits that you can enjoy from such machines:

• Periodic Download: Attendance details can be downloaded periodically from the system to use it for analysis purpose.

• Biometric Data: It allows you to scan different types of biometric data such as iris, face shape and voice pattern apart from the fingerprint. So, as an employer, you can consider deciding the body part you would prefer to be scanned.

• Cost Reduction: Cards or fobs are often found to be lost or to suffer wear and tear. Replacement of the same incurs a considerable cost on the company and to prevent the same, companies are switching to biometric attendance systems that are highly cost-effective.

• Hassle Elimination: Each company has its own rules for the associates who miss bringing their cards from home. Some ask them to go back and bring the card while others prefer to make a temporary card which may even involve clicking a fresh photo (and of course a long process of taking permissions). With biometric systems, you do not need to worry about such things. After all, an employee can never leave his body-part at home!

• Remote Attendance: Such a system will allow in recording the attendance of employees working remotely. Yes, some biometric attendance systems provide you with the opportunity to record the attendance of people working from a remote site. 

• Better Resource Management: It helps in identifying the resources who do not turn up in time and the ones who take more frequent breaks. It thus allows you to manage resources in a better way.

• Data Security: The data is kept safe as biometric details like fingerprints are non-retrievable.  

• Integration with Existing Systems: Yes, we know it may become a burden on your part to migrate from the existing system to a smarter one. We would advise you to integrate the biometric attendance system with the existing one such that you can allow the associates to punch their cards as well as go for biometric scanning depending on the requirement. 

And among all such systems that are prevalent in the market, the CuckooTech system can be regarded as the best for more than one reasons-

Gamification: It extends beyond a mere attendance machine. To motivate the employees, it has a provision of giving them reward points based on their attendance. One can earn these cookie points through regular use of the system and redeem the same at movies or the likes. What else can be a better motivator towards recording daily attendance?

Fake Finger Detection:  The biometric attendance system can easily differentiate a fake finger from a real one and thus minimizes or nullifies the chances of manipulation.

Globalization: It makes the scenario easier for the employees attending different offices as it is capable of recording attendance at multiple locations of the same company.

Contractor Management: This biometric attendance system is also equally efficient at contractor management and helps an organization to plan and manage its workforce.

Integration with other Systems: It can be easily integrated with other systems such as Leave Management systems. Nothing can beat CuckooTech with respect to its ability to calculate leaves based on the attendance it records.

Rostering: It even helps you to roster or plan shifts and review the same, depending on the business requirements.

Mobile Compatibility: Yes, you can even record your attendance on days when you are working from home. CuckooTech biometric attendance system is compatible with your phone and with the help of cloud configuration, it helps you to record such details accurately.

State Compliance: It is pretty evident that the makers of this system understand the importance of state compliance as they have designed it by keeping the format for registering same as that specified by the state.

Analytics: It gives you ample scope for analysis and downloading reports related to the data, as required.

SAP Integration: SAP integration is also possible with the help of this biometric attendance system. 

Equipped with all these extraordinary features, CuckooTech System stands out among the rest and helps in overcoming a lot of problems that the common attendance management systems bring!

Now Employee Management Becomes Easy With Time and Attendance Software

Are you a management professional who is looking for managing the workforce and thereby improving their performance? Then Time and attendance software can make your job easy and effortless.

Let's dig deep into this and know more about Time and Attendance Software.

A brief introduction of Time and attendance software

Do you have any idea about punch clocks or paper timesheets? The Time and attendance software is a digital and upgraded version of these two. You can utilize this software for calculating payroll, evaluating performance as well as scheduling and planning the workforce.

This automated time attendance system not only improves operations but also helps you to save your hard-earned money. It integrates with payroll systems as well as with the different organisation of your business.

It has many quintessential HR functions. How can we forget the excellent time-tracking systems of Time and attendance software? In short, it has different indisputable benefits. Now it's time to check some of the advantages of this marvelous software.

More productivity generation

Have you ever thought of how to enhance the efficiency of your organization and how to do labor management in a better way? Well, as you give salaries to your employees, you can track your productivity with the help of this excellent time attendance system software and ponder on different forms of improving efficiency as well as work management.

It also helps you save your valuable working hours as you don’t need your manager or human resources to calculate the payroll. Now, they can concentrate on the other duties instead of focusing on working hours of different employees.

You get real-time data

If you are a manager, you'll unquestionably understand the importance of real-time data. Instead of getting just historical records you will get up to date information which will help you to manage your rotas as well as schedules.

Diminish error issues

Human error is the biggest problem in any process. If you try to record the data manually there are chances that you might make some mistakes unconsciously, especially while transferring data from one system to another. But this time and attendance software can lessen the errors of the payroll process, and you can see high accuracy in the data of work hour tracking and the salary of the employees.

Now employees can track everything

After login into their system, the employees can check their working hour schedules and even track paid off time.

Boosts the morale of the employees

Your employees should trust their company fully, then only they can give their hundred percent on their work. Small mistakes in payroll affect their trust a lot. They start feeling less valued. But when you start using time and attendance software your time cards and time sheets become next to perfect. Because of this, employees can work without any stress.

This software can do overtime calculation for you

It’s excruciating when you have to calculate different rates for an individual employee with different terms and conditions. It needs a great deal of time to track the type of work and paying them accordingly. But you don’t have to worry at all because this time attendance system will resolve all your problems and do the job accurately on behalf of you.

You'll see many happy employees in your company

If you start tracking working hours of each employee accurately, it will not only reduce their worries but also give them equal treatment. Employee satisfaction is a great deal in any company. It will help you to retain your greatest assets, i.e your talented employees. Also, this digital tracking system will ensure that your employees take breaks on time and don’t spend excessive time on break.

What Makes CuckooTech The Best Attendance Management System In India?

Legendary boxer Mohd Ali titled his autobiography: The Greatest. And he wrote a note on the cover-- I want to be modest, but then I have to tell you the truth! We are feeling the same, as we tell you why CuckooTech is the best attendance management system in India.

Let us confess, there are some good multinational Attendance Management System available. But in India, they just can't compete with the Cuckoo capabilities. Why do we say, so?

Because we are talking about India. CuckooTech is the world-class time and attendance solution, futuristic, fast, and ultra-flexible attendance management platform, created from ground up for complex Indian business requirements.

Let us tell you 5 important distinctions which makes it the best attendance management system in India, in spite of the presence of multinational players--

1: Business Scenario Approach: Unlike other Attendance Software which boasts of their features, we focus first and foremost on attendance scenarios. Rest assured, every single feature that you want, you will find in Cuckoo. These features are designed & developed to perform under complex Indian scenarios, the real-life challenges you come across in your business environment.

CuckooTech is designed in such a way that for every attendance scenario there are multiple ways to perform a task. This flexibility is highly useful and desirable in the Indian context with variations in different geographies, industry-specific requirements, and cultures.

It's this innovative approach to complex business scenarios that make us the most recommended attendance management system by our clients.

If you are getting curious, CuckooTech has all the important attendance features.

Integrated attendance hardware and Software, scalable solution,

Mobile attendance, work from home, biometric synchronization.

Push technology for Real-time attendance dashboard

Gamified attendance program,

Attendance compliance. Reports as per state requirements.

Fake-finger detection, push technology and multi-location capabilities.

Secured environment VAPT & APP SEC certified

With Virdi as the global bio-metric partner, we provide customer service in almost any corner of the world.

2: Cuckoo Is Made For Cloud:

While older companies have customized their legacy attendance management software to run on the cloud, the CuckooTech is ‘created for cloud’.

Cloud is native to CuckooTech's architecture. This really makes a difference in performance.

We have specially created the dedicated ADIS platform to utilize the best of cloud technology. ADIS utilizes the internet of things (IoT) technology to seamlessly integrate hardware and the software. Plus, push technology makes sure that you will achieve the most smooth, ultra real-time performance.

And it works beautifully in complex shift planning scenarios. Even in the toughest multi-shift scenarios like modern retail and Hospitality.

Now let us move to the third important distinction:

3: Gamification and Employee Engagement

CuckooTech is the world's first gamified attendance management system to engage the employees.

New age workforce doesn’t like to be monitored. But with Cuckoo, when employees fill their time sheet, make punches, apply for leave they get scores. The comparative score-card and attractive rewards keep them engaged. It is a unique feature. Not even offered by expensive dollar eating solutions.

4: Cuckoo is Torture Tested:

CuckooTech is used by 100′s of most demanding customers. While good software companies use stress testing for their software, we at CuckooTech follow torture Testing.

The software is continuously tried and tested for extreme Indian HR scenarios. (Volume of employees per customer 10K+, multiple-attendance capturing options from mobile to biometric, auto shift planner with the 24hrs cycle, and many more.)

And we handle these business scenarios in all kinds of business environments-- From manufacturing to modern retail, BPOs, facility management, hospitality, advertising as well IT & ITes services.

We are open to any demo by asking you your toughest scenarios. It will be a pleasure to show you how CuckooTech can take those challenges smoothly and efficiently.

5: Preventive Care:

This is the most important 'function' in CuckooTech.

The cuckoo team has evolved a method of problem detection even before it occurs. And we suggest clients to avoid certain behaviors which can cause attendance related problems later on. This is a result of our experience over the years, and Indian industry-specific scenarios documented by us.

We are proud of this innovative approach to customer care. You can only experience it, it can't be shown in demos.

Now, there is one most important thing to sum everything up--

Opportune Master-Mind Sessions:

We regularly engage with the HR community. We organize Master-Mind sessions with Indian HR leaders and Business owners to understand new challenges. These expectations are addressed in the development of cuckoo attendance management system on an ongoing basis.

Because the solution is on the cloud, in a sense, the CuckooTech attendance management software is updated and upgraded throughout the year.

Conclusion:

CuckooTech should be your choice-

If you are an expanding company or a large company and need multi-location integration.

If you are looking for the time and attendance management software not just for compliance management but also for smoother business operations and productivity enhancement.

If you are in an industry like hospitality or modern retail or a BPO, and you have to manage complex shift and workforce planning, or if man-power cost is a big chunk of your cost and business profitability depends on managing it well.

Call Us For a Tough Torture Test: 9821186599

Source By: https://www.cuckootech.com/best-attendance-management-system-in-india/

What Makes CuckooTech Attendance System the best in the market?

Biometric Attendance System uses physiological features such as fingerprints or face to verify the identity of the person and record their arrival & exit time as well as maintain their attendance. Compared to manual entry this method is time saving and far more accurate. The chances of manipulation are very less because the fingerprint or iris is different of each and every person.

Biometric Attendance System is integrated with Payroll software and this helps HR in reducing errors related to payroll processing. It also helps top management in analyzing attendance reports. With cloud technology, real-time information about employees in and out time as well as attendance is possible.

Biometric Attendance System

Biometric attendance system is cost effective because you don’t have to keep a person engaged to record the in and out time of the employees. Also, you don’t have to worry about RFID or chip cards getting lost by employees. Companies also don’t have to buy expensive software in order to make it functional.

With Biometric attendance system you can easily keep tab on employees and they won’t be able to manipulate data to earn extra money or engage into time theft.   

   

Why CuckooTech?

Cuckootech was founded by Opportune, a company with rich experience and knowledge of HR Domain. Below are some of the benefits of using Cuckootech’s Biometric Attendance System

Fake Finger detection

CuckooTech Biometric attendance System comes with patented technology that can easily detect a live and fake finger, this completely eliminates the possibility of buddy punching.

Plug and play device

Cuckootech comes with the state of art patented Virdi biometric attendance devices. And so, you don’t have to install any software on client’s desktop or server. All the biometric devices are connected to the cloud through ADIS intelligence system. This has resulted in 40% cost saving on operational costs and device installation.

Gamification

Employees are not always keen to follow the rules and regulation especially when it comes to scanning fingerprints to record the in and out time. This can result in conflict during payroll processing. With gamification of time and attendance system, employees earn points for every correct attendance marking and these points can be utilized to redeem rewards. Also, the highest point earner receives the award and bonus rewards from cuckootech. This makes the employee motivated to follow the rules.

Push Technology

With Push technology, all registrations are pushed instantly to the attendance cloud. This ensures you get real-time seamless information of Time and attendance.

Attendance on mobile

Field Employees are able to register their attendance through easy to use mobile application. The registration is pushed on cloud server using ADIS Intelligence System

CuckooTech uses Google’s advanced geotagging feature to verify the employee’s presence at client’s premises.    

These are few of the numerous benefits of using CuckooTech's Biometric Attendance Software System. If you need any further information please feel to call us or drop a comment down below. 

A Must-Have Feature Checklist For An Attendance System

The attendance system market is flooded with solutions. All biometric device system integrators claim to have an attendance management software. With software developers coming out from every home in India, designing a good looking software isn't a challenge. But what about functionality?

In this checklist, we are assuming that web-based, cloud-based systems are the future. Any good T&A system will take care of leave management too.

If you are looking to find out an attendance system software which is comprehensive, with depth & maturity, this checklist will help you decide.

We have created this checklist based on our thorough background in HR automation for about more than a decade. Attendance management is a crucial subject and needs enterprise treatment. Because it tracks an employee’s performance, productivity & salary cost for the organization.

If you are considering to buy, upgrade or migrate to an Attendance system here are the key features to look for:

1. Biometric devices:

The biometric device is the 1st step taken for the correct attendance automation. With so many cheap biometric devices available in the market, it is tough to select the right biometric device. But a wrong biometric device can lead to losses, like salary lapses, business productivity loses, security lapses. Check this now!

Tips to choose the correct biometric device:

Check for sensor quality & warranty. It's critical to check if it can detect the fake fingerprint. Traditional devices are unable to do so.

Biometric Attendance System with Push technology: The attendance data should seamlessly flow to a central data management system on a real-time basis. 

• Finger / Biometric template storage on a central server.
• IP65 & other compliances to work in various climatic conditions
• Multi-country presence – applicable to businesses and companies with a Global presence
• Importance of biometric device: If the correct biometric device is not installed, the whole time attendance management will be a failure. It is plain and simple: Junk data in is junk data out.

The uptime of biometric is a critical factor in capturing employee presence on the work. If even 3% data is manually captured the efforts to generate T&A register is high & purpose of automation is defeated.

Recommendation:

Buy the right biometric device, there are a few good quality devices which are reasonably priced and has high ROI value. We suggest Virdi or Kronos.

2. Attendance rules:

Attendance rule takes care of company specific requirement for employees working time. Rules are the 1st factor of evaluation for a perfect time management software to work with the hardware. Once the data is dumped from the biometric it is important to apply the right time attendance rules.

Parameters an attendance rule should allow to configure:

• Define working hours, full day, half day, short hours
• Attendance policy, late coming & early go rules, mandate login time as per business needs
• Deduction of leave/pay rules if a violation of policy
• Define shifts, multiple shifts, break shift, weekly offs
• Define Shift rules, auto shift, manual shift, rotational shift
• Other parameters like regularisation rules within specific time/days window
• Attendance lock for monthly payroll

Importance:

Rules & policies as per company needs & state statutory compliances helps in the accuracy of employee attendance & avoid manual interventions. ZERO manual intervention & transparent practices across the organization is the success of a T&A management software.

Recommendation:

Today most organizations buy the software which comes along with the biometric device or vendor recommendation. The time is to evaluate the software service provider separately who understand time attendance system & HR domain.

2 such service providers are CuckooTech and Kronos.      

3. Rostering module:

Rostering or shift planning feature is a default/mandate for a progressive & enterprise organization. Highly used in Hospitality, BPO’s & manufacturing companies. 

Rostering features we need to check for in the application:

• Scheduling of shift, team-wise & manager wise
• Amendment to shifts as per business dynamics
• Shift rules as per compliance, the employee cannot be allocated continuous shift
• Shift rules as per business needs, no women workers post 10.00 PM
• Auto shift creation in case of the shift not pre-schedule
• Shift rotation policy & Skip option to handle exceptions
• Statistical data for efficient shift planning, shift plan VS actual attendance
• Publish roaster on the platform & allow the employee to request for a change in shift

Importance:

For a Company with multi-shift needs, defining shift is an important business requirement, in fact, managers have high KRA for effective shift planning. Just imagine an aviation business running only on one fix shift, or state electric department running only one shift.

Recommendation:

A software, which meets business needs as per industry requirement. Check if your software provider understands & implement your business specific requirement.

4. Attendance regularisation:

Attendance regularisation, the success of a system is measured on its usage. Here we are referring to employee using the time management functionality. For them to hook on the system, employee self-service functionality is a must.

Features that need to be part of the attendance regularisation functionality:

Employee attendance can be regularised on a click. Request to regularise missed punch, outdoor activity & working from home should be easy.

Manager self-service function, with capabilities to approve requests.

Importance:

100% employee involvement is the only parameter to measure success. Assume employees do not have an option to regularise because of biometric fault or a human error. It will directly impact their pay. The last thing an organization wants as a reason for an employee to resign.

Recommendation:

A system that allows regularisation of time, quickly, based on rules. A service provider with a robust attendance solution with similar functionality is the winner.

5. Attendance System functionality

Attendance rules, rostering, regularisation are all the features of a time capturing system, the above features work well if supported with the following functionality:

• Employee & manager self-service portal
• Employee & manager portal should have options for
• Web check-in
• View its own attendance data on a daily/weekly/ monthly / yearly basis with all relevant info like hours work & present status
• Regularisation & approvals
• The employee should be able to read all the attendance policy  & shifts planned
• The manager can do data analysis for its team, like hours worked, short hours, regular late coming, Over time workers. Real-time attendance deviation based on shift planned
• Timesheet one of an important function for IT & ITeS companies
• Admin should be able to lock the data as per defined dates, any change in data post attendance lock is considered for next month payroll as arrears
• Attendance alerts via email / SMS notifications
• Mobile app for offline attendance marking & various attendance related request while on move or at the comfort of a sofa at home
• Gamification of attendance function, to engage the employees on the online portal

Importance:

These features are the backbone of the attendance system, without these features, the system cannot run independently. It is like we have the data in a box, but accessibility to the box is restricted, and it is of no use. Similarly, an attendance system with best biometric, rules & practices cannot work, if we do not have the ESS & MSS portal for employees ease.

Recommendation:

Attendance system should have a capability to check for information on the employee portal in real time, the user interface should be simple for the employees to use, and they can navigate their current & past information with ease. Mobile version of the solution is a must.

6. Mobile App:

Any smart attendance solution provider cannot miss the mobile app. App design should have all important functionalities and must be responsive to all kinds of mobile devices. So the employees do not mind installing one more app.

Checks for a mobile app:

• Availability of native apps Android & IOS
• The capability to store relevant data offline & then sync on demand.
• The app should have features to capture geo location, geo fence location to restrict unauthorized marking, option to click selfie, supports validation in case of an audit.
• Notification option
• Process driven installation of attendance app, to avoid proxy marking.
• Capability to integrate with API, for data exchange with payroll software, HR system & SAP.

Importance:

More than 30% of the office staff are on the move for various business support work, ranging from sales, services, support. Business like food delivery, taxi services, e-commerce rely heavily on the mobile app only to track for employee’s attendance. The younger generation is more comfortable using a mobile even on their working desk.

Recommendation:

Subscribe to attendance app that is native for sure. Integrates using API. Capability for integration with 3rd party app using Cordova or similar capability. Scalable to meet other HR function needs like expense claims, leave, helpdesk, Chabot. One app sure to be looked for is CuckooTech.

7. Attendance System configuration:

Attendance System configuration, the importance of the configuration feature is same as a backstage team. The ease of any application is because of the right configuration options.

Checklist for a perfect configuration feature:

1. User creation with roles & responsibility
2. Can configure the email & SMS gateway for communication
3. Mapping of reporting manager for teams with effective dates of responsibility
4. Bulk upload with all applicable rules to avoid junk upload of data
5. Setting up of attendance alert rules as per business needs
6. All attendance reports in PDF, for internal audits & maintaining transparency
7. Audit trail exports on demand available

Importance:

Any automation solution not having the capability to support administrative work is not qualified as per software standard practices.

A simple example of, how system config comes handy: an employee has not turned up to work for more than a week, in a workforce of 500 it goes unnoticed, but with alerts & business logic configured, an SMS / email comes directly to the concerned person. Not to forget importance of audit trails in case of any misuse/breach of data.

Recommendation:

The attendance configuration maturity comes with experience only. The handling of clients across various verticals helps build rules & knowledge repository. My vote again goes to CuckooTech considering the Indian scenario & value for money.

This content is published post extensive study & mastermind series with Sr. HR fraternity, understanding the complexity of the attendance system, and expectations of HR team from an Enterprise Attendance system service provider.

If you would like to participate or contribute to mastermind series please connect with me on 9821186599 or email me on

dhwani@opportune.in

Source: https://www.cuckootech.com/a-must-have-feature-checklist-for-an-attendance-system/

13 Must Evaluation Parameters Before You Buy An Enterprise Attendance System

Attendance systems are a crucial component in HR automation. But what worked smoothly a few years back seems to be lagging in handling today’s work demands. So progressive companies in general are upgrading to advanced Enterprise Attendance System.

If you are considering to upgrade, I have compiled this exhaustive list of 13 must parameters. It comes from our 10+ years of experience servicing the attendance industry, catering to 200+ clients in various verticals.

It is clear from our experience that attendance system is no more just restricted to installing biometric devices and capturing the attendance. The attendance system is now seen as a source of crucial data for business performance evaluation and enhancement.

Let us carefully understand the relevance of each item & how it impacts the business.

1: Domain expertise – Every business has its unique proposition for success. To extend this success the solution also has to be aligned to industry practices and peculiarities. This can be delivered only when the solution provider understands the business & configures the solution to meet the business need.

Be aware, any AS IS solution with free frills does not give the required business success experiences.

Take away: Appoint a service provider who is a subject matter expert.

2: Attendance rule engine – The success of Attendance Management System depends on integrating organisation’s rules in the system. This is a must for optimising the business productivity, keeping in mind the employee flexibility.

Take away: Attendance rules configuration flexibility is a must.

3: Attendance features – The attendance capturing is a complex thing in today’s business scenario. With people on the move, part-time and contract employees, dynamic shift hours, work from hone employees, all needs to be taken care of.

Complexity of these attendance scenarios need to be simplified with a feature rich & user friendly enterprise attendance system.

These features range from attendance rules, requests, approval, shift planning, attendance compliance, reports, analysis, and attendance alerts. Using a smart device on move is the need of the day.

Take away: Intuitive & user friendly attendance software needs to be deployed.

4: Custom development for Business requirements. The attendance solution should be flexible enough to be configured for unique business requirements, or to add a component of the custom piece to exactly fix that business need.

Like the high demanding attendance system for Facility / Manpower industry, or, any organisation with high dependency of employees on remote sites.

Take away: Attendance solution provider should be flexible and capable to custom build a piece. Also evaluate if their core system can accept the customisation smoothly.

5: API for integration – Enterprise attendance system, or any system, that cannot handshake with other systems is a resounding NO. Integration of data seamlessly with various ERP solutions is a must for better productivity and fulfilling crucial business demands.

We highly recommend you to buy a solution with API capabilities, even if the solution has one less feature.

Take Away: The enterprise attendance system should be ready for API integration with existing ERP solutions, may it be SAP or a custom built in-house solution.

6: Scalability – Two things to check for scalability. One the volume it can handle considering the next 5 year growth plan of the organisation. Two, ability to scale up and add-on modules for HR, from attendance to payroll on a single integrated platform.

Take Away: Appoint service provider with a vision to grow in the Attendance & HR vertical. A company which can continuously upgrade and scale the system to match up with new age requirements. You need not just vendors, but experts who can advise on the attendance trends in the industry.

7: Multi-location management – This is one of the features of Attendance System, but this is critical & hence part of this evaluation matrix.

Today companies do not restrict the business to cater locally. But are expanding in various geographies. Even globally. In such scenarios the solution should be able to cater multi-location & multi-time zone.

Take away: The capability of MLM feature is to analyse data from the multi-location workforce, rostering of shifts, real time attendance info, finger-template management across locations.

8: Contractor management - With companies shifting its focus on the core business, the trend in outsourcing support function is on rise, so it is important to have a checker in place as the cost of contract resources makes a dent in the pocket, if not monitored for actual attendance & performance.

Take away: The solution should be able to monitor the work order of contractor, to attendance & billing. The key to success is to integrate contractor attendance system with the Vendor management tool. A case study

9: Attendance compliance - Reports as per state statutory is a must. From overtime rules, to compensatory off, number of leaves per year, working hours per day, breaks available and many more details.

Take away: The solution provider must be able to generate the reports, or integrate with a compliance management system for monthly audits.

10: TAT & SLA adherence – Finally, when we are going to on-board a service provider for an enterprise attendance system, kindly validate, review & do reference check for the services. Few SLA like up time of the system, frequency of patch & version upgrade. Chances of downtime because of updates. Response time to resolve critical errors.

Take away: No matter how good is the solution, at least 30% selection score goes to ongoing services & support by the attendance system service partner.

11: Biometric support - The starting point to any attendance system is Biometric Attendance System. It is as much important to evaluate the correct device for the organisation. While cost can be a barrier for good devices. But with onetime expenses spread across 5-7 years, it is a clear case of buying quality device over a cheap solution.

A recent news of employees using fake fingers to mark attendance has caused panic in corporate world, as it affects the security too.

Take away: Biometric device with Push technology, finger template management, sensor warranty, guaranteed capability to detect fake & live finger. And most importantly biometric data should integrate seamlessly with attendance system.

12: Attendance system Security - Data is asset for any organisation. With cybercrime on rise. It is a mandate for any attendance system to have IT security checks in place.

Take way: The attendance system should be security compliant. Need to check for HTTPS, VAPT report & APP security report.

13: Data migration – Each organisation will have historical data in some format available. Implementing a new system without past data will delay the advantage of implementing a new system. Because the new system will not have enough info for analysis & building attendance trends.

Take Away: The attendance system should have the capability to import past data.

We are sure, if the checklist is adhered than you as an organisation will implement a robust, productivity-enhancing, successful online attendance system. One which will save you time and money and will repay its own cost multiple times.

Kindly share your learning, success/ failure case studies.

Looking forward to connect with you for an interactive discussion on attendance automation. Feel free to write to me on dhwani@opportune.in or call me on 9821186599

Source: https://www.cuckootech.com/13-must-evaluation-parameters-before-you-buy-an-enterprise-attendance-system/