Time & Attendance Package Reduces Human Resource Hours For Online Reseller Of Computer Components

Like so many other small businesses, ComputerCom.com (www.computercom.com), a reseller of computer components, kept employee records principally with pen and paper. The company was spending more than 20 labor hours a week keeping track of the time and attendance of 25 employees at two locations in Phoenix, AZ. "The amount of time we were consuming just to prepare payroll was becoming too much of a burden. Not only were we taking time to tally employee hours, but we weren't using that time to do something more productive," says Nick Nogrechi, CEO of ComputerCom. "When you actually think about the time consumed by keeping track of employees' hours, sick and vacation time, and schedules, it's amazing how much work actually goes into it."

The company started to actively look for a solution to its time and attendance problem. After evaluating several options, Nogrechi decided to implement Vitrix's (Phoenix, AZ) HourTrack 98 labor management solution to automate the company's human resource needs. Vitrix develops labor management and time & attendance solutions for Windows 95/NT.

Windows Compatibility Is Big Selling Point
HourTrack 98 comes equipped with a time & attendance terminal mag stripe reader (The QuickSwipe Kit) and is a user-installable product. The software is installed on Windows NT or 95 machines from a CD-ROM. The badge reader mounts to any wall easily and plugs into any normal outlet. A serial cable can be connected to the administrator's PC at all times or hooked up only during the transfer of information from the time & attendance terminal. HourTrack 98 is set up like most user-friendly Windows applications. "It is one of the only labor-management software packages we found that wears the ‘designed for Windows NT/95' logo," Nogrechi adds. "That was one of the reasons we initially went with the system."

Can Analyze Employee Productivity
Employees at each ComputerCom location have their own identification badge and simply swipe the mag stripe every day. Nogrechi adds, "HourTrack does in seconds what used to take us hours." HourTrack also provides ComputerCom with the benefits of analyzing its work force with reports, tracking time spent on individual jobs, and not making calculation errors.

"We have it networked to automatically import the information from both stores on a daily basis, and this gives us a wealth of real-time information," says Nogrechi. "One feature we get a lot of use out of is messaging - we can leave messages for employees who clock in and clock out on PCs - it really opens the lines of communication."

"This system required very little training," adds Nogrechi. "The only thing we had to show our employees was how to properly slide their badges through the terminal."

Customer Becomes Reseller
After using HourTrack 98 for approximately six weeks, ComputerCom became an authorized reseller of the package and added the product to its list of offerings. "After realizing the benefits of HourTrack 98 firsthand, it was obvious to us that we could pass along this product and its benefits to our customers," said Nogrechi. "A lot of our customers are in the same boat we were in, so HourTrack 98 is a natural fit for our showroom," he adds.

This isn't the first time that a Vitrix user became a reseller of a Vitrix product. "This scenario really isn't that unusual for us," says Hamid Shojaee, Vitrix's CEO. "A lot of our VARs actually started off as users. We have 60 resellers around the world, and about 10 started off as customers."

Customer-To-VAR Program Is Set Up
The level of success experienced with customers-turned-VARs has motivated Vitrix to develop a new program to help encourage more users to convert. "We're targeting companies out there with our CTV program [customer-to-VAR] that we feel could eventually become excellent HourTrack VARs," says Shojaee. "This gives us a chance to expand our reseller base to include companies that aren't necessarily in the labor management industry. Computer resellers and consultants can really profit from our product line since we often share the same target customers."