Customer Solution Case Study
/ Global Staffing Provider Lowers TCO and Sharpens Competitive Edge
Overview
Country or Region:United States
Industry:Temporary Help Services
Customer Profile
Aerotek Inc., one of the largest staffing providers in the United States (and part of the Allegis Group), specializes in placing temporary workers in the engineering, scientific, automotive, energy services, and aviation industries.
Business Situation
With as many as 55,000 contract workers in thousands of locations in North America, Aerotek clearly needed a timekeeping solution that would standardize and automate tracking and reporting.
Solution
Aerotek implemented Workforce Timekeeper from Kronos. The solution runs on SQL Server 2005 implemented as an active/passive cluster and takes full advantage of SQL Server Reporting Services.
Benefits
- More cost saving
- Greater customer service
- New business insight
Stephen Hill, National Director of Implementation Services, Aerotek, Inc.
Aerotek Inc., one of the largest staffing providers in the United States (and part of the Allegis Group), specializes in placing temporary workers in the engineering, clinical, scientific, automotive, energy services, and aviation industries. Aerotek calculates that the Kronos-SQL Server solution has lowered its total cost of ownership (TCO) and enabled it to better monitor costs, increase reliability, and improve business insights and customer service.
Situation
Imagine the complexity of tracking the time of as many as 55,000 contract workers in thousands of companies across all of the United States and Canada, not to mention half a dozen countries where hiring practices and employment regulatory environments are as different as those of Germany and India.
This is Aerotek’s challenge.
Choosing a timekeeping solution was originally a decision left to local Aerotek managers. While these independent and usually manual solutions met each location’s basic time and attendance needs, they posed enterprise-wide challenges to the collection of contractor data and to its analysis.
Fraudulent time clock punching, such as “buddy punching” (in which tardy or absent workers have a coworker punch in for them), was a problem, as was incorrect interpretation of information on handwritten time cards. Manually managing and approving paper time cards was laborious and time-consuming. Aerotek employees had to enter time card data from many different formats into the company’s payroll system by hand. All this added a “huge cost to doing business,” says Stephen Hill, Aerotek’s National Director of Implementation Services.
Without standardized data and reporting tools, Aerotek had no company-wide access to its clients’ workforce data. Gathering the necessary data to invoice clients in a timely, accurate manner was also a challenge for Aerotek’s site managers.
Aerotek clearly needed a timekeeping solution that would standardize and automate data entry and, in turn, generate custom reports for clients who operate under wide-ranging timekeeping needs, pay rules, and regulatory constraints, all key to the service quality Aerotek’s customers expect.
Solution
After considerable research, Aerotek found Kronos Workforce Timekeeper™ deployed on Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Its scalability and versatility seemed tailor-made for the company. It was the most cost-effective solution and flexible enough to meet specific state, provincial, and federal regulations. Running on SQL Server was a decided plus, too. As Derek Brown, an Allegis technical lead, puts it, “With hardware costs almost half those of other database management systems, simplified reporting using SQL Server Reporting Services, and related staff expertise, SQL Server would do its part to lower our TCO.”
Today, 40 clients employing 6,000 contract workers use the Kronos-SQL Server solution. “For clients who need time clocks, we always implement Workforce Timekeeper,” says Barb Perdue, an analyst with the Allegis Group (Aerotek’s parent company). “But some choose not to use it for a variety of reasons, including the use of proprietary systems and a preference for paper time cards.”
When clients are ready to implement Workforce Timekeeper, they choose their timekeeping method—biometric devices like the Kronos 4500 Touch ID, web entry, or web time stamp. Aerotek can then set up the solution to accommodate each client’s business needs—for example, tailor pay rules to comply with federal labor regulations, such as those of the Fair Labor Standards Act, or with state laws regarding the correct calculation of overtime, meal rules, and breaks.
Once implemented, the system pulls the data collected into weekly time reports. Exceptions are highlighted for managers so they can quickly verify or correct them right in the system, emailing approval to central Aerotek staff. Kronos then relies on SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports to pull that data into the payroll system. Aerotek also uses this data to confirm invoice amounts and ensure accurate billing.
Kronos releases standard weekly reports based on client specifications. If clients need customized reports—for example, because daily hours are structured uniquely—SSRS makes short work of creating additional, client-specific reports against the database.
Benefits
Aerotek calculates that the Kronos-SQL Server solution has helped lower its TCO and enabled the company to increase its system uptime and to improve its clients’ business insights, mitigating their compliance risk. “This solution has given our business a significant competitive advantage,” says Hill.
Cost Savings. Aerotek estimates that the solution saves about $180,000 per year in wages at its headquarters alone. Before, Aerotek required a dozen employees to approve and process data; now it takes four. Automated reporting has further cut labor costs, and Kronos timekeeping devices have eliminated time card interpretation errors and fraudulent time clock punching.
SQL Server 2005 has also helped reduce Aerotek’s TCO through easy-to-use database management tools and hardware cost savings ($25,000 per socket compared with $47,000 per socket for other database management systems).
Increased Availability. As Keith Hawks, database administrator with the Allegis Group, notes, “We implement active/passive clusters in a two-node cluster to help guarantee uptime. SQL Server more readily supports active/passive clustering than competitive databases.”
Improved Business Insight and Customer Service. The versatility of the Kronos-SQL Server solution has been particularly valuable. “We can accommodate any corporate schedule or pay rules to help clients comply with state, provincial, and federal regulations,” says Stephen Hill, Aerotek’s National Director of Implementation Services.
Workforce Timekeeper can also generate reports to help clients determine project costs, develop more accurate bids, and properly staff projects. “Some clients needed to see a detailed breakdown on the areas and the amount that they were spending on temporary staff,” explains Hill. “Using the Kronos-SQL Server solution, we can give a data breakdown, even to the day.”
Microsoft SQL Server
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