Workforce Management Blog

Synerion North America Inc. acquires ITR Systems Division

Synerion becomes the largest Canadian mid-market provider of WFM solutions following the acquisition of ITR Systems Division.

Dec 15^th, 2011, Mississauga, ON – A veteran in the WFM industry, Synerion announced this week their acquisition of the assets of the  ITR Systems Division.  Combined, the merger will create a company with more than 65 years’ experience and 20,000 customers worldwide, in a wide array of industries. The merger of the ITR division with Synerion means more effective, efficient and superior solutions for Synerion’s and ITR’s clients.

About Synerion

Tracking more than four million employees in various industries, Synerion provides comprehensive Workforce Management (WFM) software solutions and services that enable organizations to effectively optimize their most valuable asset – human resources. Using cutting edge technology and industry best practices, Synerion’s WFM Suite offers organizations a set of integrated tools for the measurable management of workforce performance. The solutions help companies meet organizational goals and maximize business performance.

About ITR

Established in 1965, ITR is the largest privately owned Canadian provider of workforce management systems, with more than 45 years of experience. With offices across Canada, ITR delivers exceptional, scalable solutions and responsive customer service. ITR’s Systems Division develops, implements and supports innovative software that helps organizations of any size and in any industry manage all aspects of their workforce including: time and attendance; employee and job scheduling; accruals; labour allocation; and time and labour reporting.  Tracy Parzych CEO of ITR believes that Synerion will be able to nurture and grow the ITR System Division.  She added, “The merger will enable the software to become even stronger and bring new opportunities to the employees”.

Ernie Pozzobon, President and CEO of Synerion North America, says this merger will provide expanded capabilities, and better levels of customer support.

“Synerion is excited about the possibilities and opportunities that will stem from the acquisition of ITR’s division and looks forward to creating many new and innovative releases in the human resources software arena in the future.”

“Moreover,” Pozzobon said, “the products and consulting services that Synerion delivers, combined with the complimentary products with which the company integrates, will create synergistic value. Customers will feel this synergy and ultimately receive a higher return on their investment.”

To learn more about Synerion, visit www.synerionwfm.com.

No matter what industry you are in, companies know that every dollar counts. So why wouldn’t you want a solution that can help save your organization money while improving operational efficiency?

By implementing an automated time and attendance system, you can save your company 2-5% of your annual payroll expenses. This could amount to thousands or even millions of dollars a year. With time and attendance systems, companies of all sizes are able to realize a significant return on investment.

How does automating your time and attendance save you money?

-Decrease in payroll errors

-Decreasing total payroll processing time

-Decreasing unauthorized leave time

-Improving labor reporting

-Eliminating costs associated with paper timecards

-Eliminating the risks of employee buddy punching or time fraud

-And much more…

What should you consider when choosing a time and attendance system vendor?

-Have a few companies present their solution so you can get a complete picture of what a time and attendance              solution can do for your organization

-Consider the level of support you will be receiving from the vendor if any issues arise with the system

-Speak to the company’s current customers to see if they are happy with the solution, the support, etc

-Do not focus too much on the price tag as a low cost solution may not have the capabilities that your organization will require to get a significant return on investment

For more information on Time and Attendance along with Workforce Management visit our website

When you are looking into implementing a workforce management solution, solution providers are always telling you about how they can save your company money and improve your business processes.

Now hearing those words sound nice, but what does it really mean to you without some numbers to back it up?

Let’s look at specific examples and how different industries can benefit from implementing a workforce management solution.

Example 1 – Manufacturing

If you have 1 employee, who is paid $20/hour and arrives 15 minutes late, takes a long lunch, or leaves early each day. How does this affect your company?

$20 per hour = ($12/60 per minute)
= $0.33 per minute
$0.33 per minute x 15 minutes
= $4.99 per day of unproductive time
$4.99 x 5 days per week x 52 weeks in a year
= $1300 per year of unproductive paid time

Since this is a manufacturing plant, what if you have 6 workers who are dependent on that 1 worker who is unavailable for 15 minutes every day, with each employee being paid 20/hour?

7 employees x $1,300 per year
= $9,100/year of unproductive paid time

Let’s go one step further and see what happens if half of your 100 employees adopt this habit.

15 minutes = 15/60 hours
= 0.25 hours
50 employees x 0.25 hours
= 12.5 unproductive hours per day
12.5 hours x 5 days per week x 52 weeks per year
= 3,250 hours per year of unproductive work
50 employees x $9,100/year
= $65,000 per year of unproductive wages

Now if your company needs to add additional resources to compensate for the unproductive wages, that’s an extra $65,000/year in labour costs, or even worse, if you are paying overtime the costs can be even higher.

Losing 15 minutes here and there may not seem like seem like a big deal at first, but when you take the time to analyze how it can affect your company as a whole, the results can be staggering.

Example 2 – Professional Services

Say your company has 50 hourly employees paid $15/hour and 50 salaried employees, what can a workforce management system do for you?

50 employees x $15 per hour x 40 hour week
= $30,000 in labour costs every week
$30, 000 x 52 weeks per year
= $1,560,000 in labour costs every year

If you save 1.5% of wages (1.5% is a conservative estimate – most companies save between 2 and 5%) for hourly workers with improved accuracy:

$1,560,000 x 0.015
= $23,400 in savings per year in labour costs

With software to quickly generate employee schedules, a supervisor paid $25/hour can save up to 6 hours/week:

$25 per hour x 6 hours per week
= $150 per week x 52 weeks
= $7,800 per year in savings

Adding this all up, it translates to $31,200 per year in savings, not to mention the added value of abiding by compliance regulations.

Example 3 – Retail

Let’s take a look at a chain of grocery stores with 50 different locations where managers are paid $20 per hour. With a workforce management solution, scheduling and attendance administration can be done more efficiently and effectively saving managers 2 hours per week. How does this translate into numbers?

2 hours per week x 50 locations
= 100 hours per week
100 hours x $20 per hour x 52 weeks per year
= $104,000 in savings every year

Now with the workforce management solution capabilities, managers are able to generate optimized schedules, with the right people, with the right skills in the right job at the right time, for the right cost. If each manager can save 5 hours per week in overtime, at a rate of $18 per hour, how does this impact your company?

5 overtime hours per week x 50 locations
= 250 hours per week
250 hours x $18 per hour x 52 weeks per year
= $234,000 per year in savings

In general, studies show that organizations can save up to 5% of their annual payroll costs with a workforce management solution, helping companies in the following aspects:

• Decreasing payroll errors
• Decreasing total payroll processing time
• Decreasing unauthorized leave time
• Improving labor reporting
• Decreasing payroll inflation
• Eliminating costs associated with paper timecards
• Eliminating the risks of employee buddy punching or time fraud

What companies do not realize is that workforce management solutions can be utilized in all types of industries and from our following examples, the savings can be substantial.

Visit our website for more information on workforce management solutions for all industries! Follow us on Twitter and join our Linkedin group for updates on WFM and time & attendance!

Some information was taken from: http://www.ceridian.ca/webcast/

Your company has decided that it’s time to take a look at your current workforce management system, and maybe it’s time for a new change. But where do you even begin?

Shopping for a new time and attendance system isn’t as simple as just looking for the best price you can find. Implementing a new time and attendance system can be a time consuming and costly process. You need a solution that will be specific for your organization’s unique needs, while keeping in the project’s budget.

What most organizations do not realize is that a properly executed implementation process is a key contributor in the projects return on investment. You want a vendor whose implementation methodology has been specifically designed to bring a structured, reliable approach to implementing workforce management solutions.

When it’s time to make the final decision, look for solutions that are designed to shorten implementation cycles, deliver high end user adoption rates, focus on optimizing business processes, and is built on proven best practices. This approach brings the greatest ROI as quickly as possible.

Plan:

The plan phase brings alignment and provides clarity on overall project goals and success criteria. This phase also prepares the customer to effectively participate in the project.

Design:

The design process should be focused on optimizing the customer’s business processes. A detailed examination of policies and rules should be captured and incorporated into a configuration design. This ensures system calculations are programmed accurately to provide maximum automation and accuracy.

Through an effective workflow design session, an effective role based training plan should be created to ensure high end user adoption rates of the workforce management solution.

A comprehensive approach to solution design ensures the customer is well positioned to implement the most effective workforce management processes for their business.

Build:

It is essential for the build phase that you have experienced and accredited system consultants for the configuration of the solution. Since the implementation directly relates to the return on investment, the efficiency of the process is very important.

Test:

No matter how smoothly the initial implementation was executed, it is always beneficial to have a comprehensive testing strategy. Unit, integration and user acceptance testing should be supported by test cases developed during the design phase. This approach ensures that by the time parallel testing is conducted, the system performs as expected.

Deploy:

A well defined deployment strategy should be executed to ensure the move to the production environment is done successfully. Once live, Customer Care professionals should be introduced as the primary point of contact for ongoing support.

By keeping in mind the following objectives during your implementation process, it will help to ensure the fastest and greatest return on your investment.

Learn about Synerion (formerly TimeTECH)’s proven implementation methodology and time and attendance solutions at our website.