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Work Track
A new application helps keep track
of employees
By Elaine S. Silver
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Software program runs on cell phones, Blackberries and Trios
to clock workers in and out of tasks and jobs, and locates
the electronic device.
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It's 7:30 a.m. Monday morning and workers are filing into
the jobsite. Their foreman directs some of them to the eighth
floor, where the drywall is almost done. The rest go to the
second floor to start painting.
During the workday, they take time off for lunch. Some return
to the same task after lunch, some to new jobs. Some wait
around because they don't know what to do. Eventually it's
time to go home.
The foreman clocks them in, tells them where to work and
notes when they leave. On Friday, he drives the time sheets
to the main office or field office, and a supervisor waits
to check the sheets. He struggles to decipher the scribbles
and finally brings or faxes the sheets to bookkeeping where
they are added to a pile of similar-looking time sheets waiting
to be converted to data entry on Monday morning.
Enter Aligo's WorkTrack application. Now the day goes quite
differently. Each foreman and some workers have a company-provided
cell phone with the WorkTrack application loaded. WorkTrack
allows field employees to log the shift/job or any other activity
data as it happens. The worker shows up at a jobsite and hits
a button on the cell phone to clock in or swipes his ID card
with the foreman-attached to the foreman's cell phone-to clock
in and clock out at the end of the day.
If he clocks in at 7 a.m., for example, and ends the day
at 4 p.m., WorkTrack captures that information and reports
that he worked nine hours, subtracting for breaks and lunch.
At the end of each day, the foreman presses the send key
and the time clock is fed directly to the supervisor for approval,
then off to the company's database. Once the information is
transferred, the company has an easy way to answer important
questions: What time did they start? How long did each worker
spend on each task? How quickly did each worker get to his
next task after he finished the first?
The ripple effects of this efficiency can be significant.
Joyce Kim, Aligo's vice president of marketing, says that
using Aligo's application gives a company a significant advantage
when it comes time to bid on future jobs because it allows
a more accurate description of its cost structure.
"Companies using Aligo's WorkTrack know where they have
room to make an operation more efficient and that may make
the difference between getting the job and then making money
on it," she says.
WorkTrack runs on Java-enabled cell phones, Blackberries
and Trios. Each device receives a data package with configurable
and intuitive icons. Training takes about half an hour. Administrators
and managers receive the data through a Web-based application.
Aligo estimates that using WorkTrack can reduce payroll and
administrative costs by as much as $2,500 per employee in
the first year.
The package costs $15 per month to track one person on a
cell phone. The price goes up to $25 a month to track multiple
people on one phone, $45 a month on a Blackberry.
WorkTrack even has a feature that lets an employer know where
the cell phone itself is located. "That way, if your
worker logs in, you know he's not home in front of the TV,"
Kim says.
Aligo Inc.
444 De Haro Street
Suite 211
San Francisco, Calif. 94107
415-593-8200
www.aligo.com
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