VAR Sells Biometric Solution To Grocery Stores

For many years, VARs have been selling biometric time clocks to select clients ready to reap the benefits of this accurate time and attendance technology. Recently, though, the price of biometrics has fallen, and end users of all sizes have become more receptive to this type of technology. Channel companies like ITR Systems LLC (Simi Valley, CA) are capitalizing on this trend.

ITR is a VAR/integrator of time and attendance systems. According to Ken Santori, president of ITR, one of his company's most recent biometric-related projects started with a referral from a payroll company ITR has partnered with for years. "The customer, FoodBag Markets Inc. [North Hollywood, CA], is a grocery store with two locations, specializing in South and Central American fresh produce," explains Santori. "Their employees often work at two different store locations in one day. Some buddy punching was occurring, and often an employee would be punched in at two different locations at once. The company wanted a solution integrated with its payroll provider."

Because so many ID badges had been lost, the company switched to employees punching in and out, using the keypad of the time and attendance terminals instead of the swipe reader. The payroll department was losing time regularly updating staff that wanted to check on their punches or total hours worked. Furthermore, the company wanted to eliminate the time supervisors spent keeping track of an employee's location and which cost center should be charged for an employee's time.

A Four-Month Payback Period
Santori says ITR competed with two large time and attendance vendors for this project. ITR made its first presentation to FoodBag Markets in July 2002. "We demonstrated how to correct each of their concerns," says Santori. "We loaded their existing payroll policies into Inception Technologies Inc.'s [Bellflower, CA] InfiniTime software and gave a live demonstration. We also offered several client references with the same configuration, integration, and products."

In addition to the InfiniTime Employee Time Tracking Network System, ITR proposed Synel (Mississauga, Ontario) model 780 biometric data collection terminals. These terminals use fingerprint biometric technology for employees to punch in and out. The units not only offer online system management of employee reports, they also provide employee hours and benefit time in real time via a backlit LCD. A built-in 10-hour battery backup also eliminates the need for temporary time sheets in case of a power failure.

ITR estimated a four-month payback period for this solution. The customer evaluated its options for two months before choosing ITR for the nearly $8,000 project.

Eliminate Wasted Time And Buddy Punching
ITR installed one Synel 780 terminal at each of the FoodBag Market locations. Each terminal was configured to be bilingual (i.e. English/Spanish). "The biometric terminals prevent employees from punching in and out for each other, or from being punched in at two locations at once," Santori explains. "Employees now have no reason to contact the payroll department for verifying their hours. Also, the cost center for each location is verified by the terminal the employee punches in to."

ITR systems engineers moved the supermarket's employee data from its old system to populate the new InfiniTime software. When the customer changed to a new payroll system, ITR automated the process of adding new hires and pay period hours/earnings to the payroll system.

The customer's supervisors learned to enroll the employees in the biometric terminals during ITR's initial installation visit. Special one-on-one and online training sessions were also scheduled regarding the specifics of the software's integration and use. Santori says the supermarket plans to use ITR's solution at any future new locations.