With over 1000 users, we will keep adding to this list as time goes by. Please feel free to contact us if you require any information regarding your industry
SA Blood Transfusion Service	Piemans Pantry	Hi-Tec Rubber
DV Engineering	Wetherly's	SANBS

It was the unmatched flexibility of the Turbo Time time and attendance solution that cinched the deal for the South African National Blood Transfusion Service (SANBS).

After several unsuccessful attempts to establish an automated time and attendance register using software from alternative vendors, the organisation engaged with market leader Turbo Time and immediately gained the benefits of a proven Windows-based solution.

SANBS is an association of voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors which seeks to provide all patients with sufficient safe, quality blood products and medical services related to blood transfusion in an equitable, cost effective manner.

According to Renetha Botha, operations system analyst at the organisation, efficient management of the limited funds available to the organisation is critical to ensure maximum efficiency in the execution of its mission. “While the organisation is dependent on volunteers for the donation of blood, we have a nationwide network of paid employees. Managing time and attendance manually is an onerous task that takes up a great deal of time – hence we sought an automated solution,” she says.

The organisation tried several packages without success – managing all the various shifts that the organisation operates proved to be too onerous for most packages, which Botha says could cater for a maximum of just 5 different shift cycles. “With some research, we identified Turbo Time and the company demonstrated that it could easily cater for our needs. Not only that, but we have discovered that the package delivers a wealth of additional functionality, including accurate reports that are generated practically immediately and can be emailed to anyone who needs to see it. It’s also really easy to use – not just from an IT perspective, but also for the staff members who use it to sign on and off at their different places of work,” she explains.

With over 600 staff members, she says SANBS is using the SQL Turbo Time version of the software, which is centrally managed from a single server, but serves two offices. Since the SANBS is amalgamating with the Kwazulu-Natal branch, Botha says she is keen to see the solution be extended to the new region owing to the ease with which centralised staff management can be extended to further locations.

She notes that the flexibility of the standard package is matched by the willingness of Turbo Time to customise the solution to specific needs. “If there is anything that isn’t in the standard package, Turbo Time is easily able to build it in to address your needs,” she says – and with the development team locally based in Randburg, access to the developers is easily facilitated.

“TurboTime has been taking care of our time and attendance for three years now. It’s a powerful package that automates all aspects of this task – from recording time on duty, to calculating the totals of time worked, leave due, and many other metrics. It even prevents excessive sick leave from being taken and then integrates easily with our payroll system to ensure that staff are appropriately remunerated. The flexibility and usability of the technology is unmatched, and has consistently delivered value to our organisation,” Botha concludes.

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The manufacturer of one of South Africa’s favourite snacks says that the management of its staff of some 500 people has been greatly eased through the use of the Turbo Time automated time and attendance system.

Headquartered in Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, Piemans Pantry keeps hunger pangs at bay across the country by producing some 400 000 pies every day. The plant provides employment for approximately 500 people. Payroll administrator Babs Cousins says that with this large staff complement, Turbo Time is a very practical solution to manage staff time and attendance.

“Handling this process electronically has proven to be the best option; Turbo Time is simple to use from both the perspective of management as well as from the perspective of the employees,” she says.

Noting that the system delivers the versatility to adapt to different operating environments, she says Piemans Pantry makes use of proximity sensors with workers using a card. “We did try biometric fingerprint readers, but with the amount of flour in our factory, these unfortunately were not suitable for our environment. So we installed a Turbo Time proximity card based system, mounted in waterproof housings and that solved the problem immediately,” she says.

Not only is the Turbo Time solution practical, it is also highly reliable, continues Cousins. “We’ve been a long-time customer of Turbo Time, having relied on the technology for ten or eleven years. In that time, the only outages we have had have been from lightning strikes – and we can’t blame that on the system,” she explains.

Another important feature of the Turbo Time system is its full integration with the VIP payroll solution which the pie maker uses for remuneration. All time and attendance information is automatically collated and calculated, allowing for highly accurate payment for each staff member including regular time and overtime; meanwhile, detailed reporting is available for various metrics relating to leave, sick leave, tardiness and more.

According to Norman Wegerle, managing director of Turbo Time, the solution has been designed to address the diverse time and attendance needs of South African businesses. “TurboTime is filled with management tools, features over 50 standard .0reports, with breakdowns that calculate the labour costs in terms of time and money, informing management as to costs of running a business,” he says.

Noting that examining the time and attendance records for any given employee can be a time-consuming – but necessary – task for human resources staff, he says Turbo Time makes all records readily available for analysis. “Computerised Time & Attendance or Time with Access Control delivers the necessary control over lost time, late arrivals and early departures and absenteeism, effectively allowing business owners to increase the productivity of their companies,” he adds.

Piemans Pantry has enjoyed the benefits of the system for over a decade – and, says Cousins, “We’re a big advocate of this system owing to its practicality, ease of use and reliability. It’s a system that makes the operation of our factory so much easier.”

Comment: - Lightning creates havoc in certain locations with all type of equipment as any IT manger will tell you. We have fibre optics installed at a number of sites and the lightning problem thankfully went away. Unfortunately it is expensive in the short term, but in the long run defiantly pays for its self. You only notice when equipment breaks down. If it never breaks down, you don’t even notice it is there.

There is a new exciting product being released this year that will make fibre optics substantially more affordable – watch this space – Feb 2006.

www.piemanspantry.co.za

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The Turbo Time computerised time and attendance software solution, combined with biometric fingerprint readers, has made short work of a mounting human resources administrative load that was confronting management at rubber manufacturer HiTec Rubber.

Hitec Rubber, with a factory located in Apex, Benoni, develops and produces rubber compounds which are supplied to clients for further processing into end-user products. The business has been in operation since 1992, and has a staff complement of 43 full time employees, although this fluctuates with casual labour expanding the ranks from time to time.

According to Drew Anderson, HR manager at the company, the catalyst that prompted the company to seek an automated time and attendance solution was the departure of staff members dealing with this function. “Handling the manual clock cards and calculating wages was increasingly becoming an administrative nightmare. Inaccuracies and uncertainties had staff continually questioning their hours and pay; meanwhile, the payroll administrator was spending time unnecessarily calculating clockings, which she should not have to be doing,” he explains.

As a result of the burgeoning workload, payroll – executed fortnightly and monthly – was running late, and Anderson acknowledges that such a situation can only result in disgruntled staff.

Seeking an improved solution for the management of time and attendance, he says initial investigations were disappointing. “The costs of some solutions were astronomical; however, continued research turned up a solution that was not only fully flexible and customisable to our specific needs but also very cost effective. That solution is Turbo Time.”

He says his company visited a reference site – a confectionary manufacturer – and was impressed with the flexibility of the solution to work in a practically clinical environment, as well as the demanding and dirty environment of rubber manufacture.

“We initially opted for thermal fingerprint readers to replace clock cards, but these proved unsuitable in the factory, so Touch & Go readers were instead used. Since implementation, the Turbo Time solution has proven to be absolutely simple to use by the workers as well as administrative staff,” he says.

Anderson adds that the level of support that the company has received from Turbo Time is equally impressive. “Either online or over the phone, if we ever get stuck there is always someone available to sort out the problem – at any time of the day or evening.”

Not only is time keeping far more accurate, but he says the workers trust the solution implicitly. “We no longer have any queries or complaints with time keeping, and owing to the accuracy, the wages bill is also highly accurate where in the past administrative staff were inclined to be a little to generous with timekeeping,” Anderson explains, adding that the solution has even had the effect of improving the punctuality of workers.

“It’s possible to build in penalties into the system, in accordance with Union and labour requirements, so workers very quickly learn that it is to their advantage to get to their workstations on time,” he continues.

Another aspect of the Turbo Time solution which contributes to better management is the integration with Hitec’s Pastel payroll. “Everything is automated – even the paying of bonus hours. We only deal with the exceptions, of which there are very few. That makes payday a breeze every time; the previous battles with the calculations of hours worked, bonus, overtimes, deductions and paper shuffling are all gone as is the constant stream of queries and complaints from workers.”

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When managing a growing staff complement became an increasingly onerous task for a burgeoning engineering company, it discovered that an automated time and attendance system was the answer to ensuring accurate and easy administration of its workers.

DV Engineering, founded in 1993 October by managing director Martin Kruger, has steadily grown over the years to its present status as a multidisciplinary machine shop environment employing some 85 people with assets in excess of R10-million. The company produces metal pressing, does tool making, CnC machining and has recently commissioned a fabrication division. Its ability to produce high-quality goods is recognised by a leading manufacturer of safety equipment used in the mining industry, with nearly half of the components of ‘self contained rescuers’ manufactured in DV Engineering’s Benoni, East Rand, factory.

According to Kruger, when the company initially started out, managing the time and attendance of a small staff of less than ten people was a manual process. “With so few people, it was easy to do the logging on and off by hand. However, with the staff complement growing steadily over the years, this task began to take up more and more time, and also became somewhat confusing with so many people coming and going. We got to the point where we had to look at an automated system of face an ever increasing mountain of administration,” he says.

The locally developed Turbo Time software with the Touch & Go card scanners emerged as the ideal solution; DV Engineering installed the system way back in 1998 and, says Kruger, has never looked back. “From a time consuming and inaccurate process, we now benefit from a fully automated ‘clock on/clock off’ solution. It’s very easy for all the workers to use, and cuts out any potential for abuse. Furthermore, with full integration into our VIP payroll system, wages are instantly and accurately calculated. It really makes life a lot easier,” he says.

“After a number of years we were strongly advised to upgrade the system by installing extra readers and a turnstile. We were reluctant to do so but eventually decided to bite the bullet and went for the upgrade. We were absolutely shocked to see the amount of time lost. The turnstile ensured that if you were this side, you got paid, if you were that side, you were “Off site” and you were not paid if it was outside the tea times or lunch time. If the employee was not at his machine (making a 1000 units an hour) then the production just came to a standstill. Turbo Time showed us which employees were costing us serious lose of production time. In some cases we were loosing over an hour per employee per day and you can imagine what that costs in lost productivity.” he pointed out.

As a long-time user of the system, Kruger says the ongoing development on the product has stood his business in good stead. “TurboTime has progressed significantly since the first system we implemented in the late 90’s. There are continual enhancements, and we get the benefit from that. There is no doubt of the value that this system has added to our business, allowing us to concentrate on engineering while being sure that our workers are reporting for duty appropriately, and are getting paid correctly,” he concludes.

Comment by Turbo Time:- We have implemented a NEW “Job Timing” module that works with your existing Turbo Time package. This software measure what Job numbers the employee is working on. You may note that you paid am employee nine hours normal time and two hours overtime for Monday. The Job modules will show you that he only logged seven and half hours to various tasks for Monday and in one case he took 4 hours to do a task you had only budgeted 2 hours for.

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Wetherly’s manages countrywide staff complement with Turbo Time

With a large staff complement in branches countrywide, management of time and attendance is a potentially time consuming activity. However, decorating specialist Wetherlys has bypassed the issue by automating this critical business function with the Turbo Time computerised time and attendance register which delivers easy management across 13 branches and some 500 staff members.

A division of JSE-listed furniture giant Ellerines, Wetherlys provides a wide range of local and imported furniture and complementary decorative items such as pictures, mirrors, lamps and rugs. Applying the ‘warehouse’ shopping concept, the Wetherly’s brand is synonymous with high quality and style.

According to payroll administrator Jasmine Narasoo, the Turbo Time solution is easy to use by staffers at all of the organisation’s branches. “Clock times of every staff member at each branch are emailed in to me; these are then imported into Turbo Time which calculates time and attendance to 100% accuracy,” she says.

Narasoo says the accuracy and ease of use of the solution makes it an ideal tool for effective management. “Instead of having to examine hundreds of records, we are able to use exception reports to quickly identify any issues relating to time and attendance,” she says. “”The output from Turbo Time integrates directly with our VIP payroll administration solution, so every worker is compensated accurately with a minimum of hassle for payroll staff,” she adds.

The benefits of using the Turbo Time solution are considerable, continues Narasoo. “If we had to manually calculate time and attendance from clock sheets, it would be an enormously time consuming exercise. Instead, with the computerised solution, it is a matter of a day’s work to handle the payroll,” she says.

Norman Wegerle, managing director of Turbo Time, says the technology can be used by companies with anything from five staff through to five thousand. “TurboTime integrates with various clock systems or even biometric devices for rapid and easy record keeping of staff attendance. Since staff is a critical resource of especially labour-intensive industries, the ability to manage their attendance easily and accurately is critical to drive greater productivity while ensuring that compensation is both accurate and timeous,” he explains.

A computerised Time & Attendance register, adds Wegerle, delivers better control over late arrivals and early departures and absenteeism, effectively increasing company productivity. “Staff and management are providing accurate and relevant time, attendance reports, while time-card disputes are eliminated. Your attendance and tardiness figures are created with a minimum of management interference,” he says.

The technology is available in several different configurations to address different needs such as the Lite, Pro, Multi User and the very powerful SQL Multi User. ”Our largest site has 4 500 employees while our smallest site has only 3 employees using a fingerprint reader. Turbo Time is a proven tool for the management of your most critical asset – your staff,” he concludes.

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Accurate time and attendance delivers better management for SA Blood Transfusion Service

It was the unmatched flexibility of the Turbo Time time and attendance solution that cinched the deal for the South African National Blood Transfusion Service (SANBS).

After several unsuccessful attempts to establish an automated time and attendance register using software from alternative vendors, the organisation engaged with market leader Turbo Time and immediately gained the benefits of a proven Windows-based solution.

SANBS is an association of voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors which seeks to provide all patients with sufficient safe, quality blood products and medical services related to blood transfusion in an equitable, cost effective manner.

According to Renetha Botha, operations system analyst at the organisation, efficient management of the limited funds available to the organisation is critical to ensure maximum efficiency in the execution of its mission. “While the organisation is dependent on volunteers for the donation of blood, we have a nationwide network of paid employees. Managing time and attendance manually is an onerous task that takes up a great deal of time – hence we sought an automated solution,” she says.

The organisation tried several packages without success – managing the all the various shifts that the organisation operates proved to be too onerous for most packages, which Botha says could cater for a maximum of just 5 shift cycle. “With some research, we identified Turbo Time and the company demonstrated that it could easily cater for our needs. Not only that, but we have discovered that the package delivers a wealth of additional functionality, including accurate reports that are generated practically immediately and can be emailed to anyone who needs to see it. It’s also really easy to use – not just from an IT perspective, but also for the staff members who use it to sign on and off at their different places of work,” she explains.

With over 600 staff members, she says SANBS is using the SQL Turbo Time version of the software, which is centrally managed from a single server, but serves two offices. Since the SANBS is amalgamating with the Kwazulu-Natal branch, Botha says she is keen to see the solution be extended to the new region owing to the ease with which centralised staff management can be extended to further locations.

She notes that the flexibility of the standard package is matched by the willingness of Turbo Time to customise the solution to specific needs “If there is anything that isn’t in the standard package, TurboTime is easily able to build it in to address your needs,” she says – and with the development team locally based in Randburg, access to the developers is easily facilitated.

“TurboTime has been taking care of our time and attendance for three years now. It’s a powerful package that automates all aspects of this task – from recording time on duty, to calculating the totals of time worked, leave due, and many other metrics. It even prevents excessive sick leave from being taken and then integrates easily with our payroll system to ensure that staff are appropriately remunerated. The flexibility and usability of the technology is unmatched, and has consistently delivered value to our organisation,” Botha concludes.

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