Business2.12.2013

Bytes launches new biometrics tool to reduce overtime claims

Bytes Universal Systems has launched a new biometrics product for its SAMRASplus suite of next-generation local municipality ERP to help organisations combat excessive overtime, invalid sick leave and other time and attendance-related fraud.

NAVAJO Exception Reporting(HR), part of Bytes Universal Systems’ homegrown biometrics framework NAVAJO, is fully integrated with the SAMRASplus Overtime and Leave modules to enable seamless biometric management of employee activities in the workplace. Using NAVAJO, management can accurately track all staff movements and compare them to officially recorded time and attendance logs, with any exceptions visible on the SAMRASplus dashboard.

“This is not a ‘Big Brother’ solution but rather a means of combatting the current scourge in overtime claims that many of our customers are battling with,” says Brian Brougham-Cook, general manager, SAMRAS and MTS, Bytes Universal Systems.

“For instance some customers have reported incidents where maintenance staff have clocked in much more time for service calls than GPS data would suggest,” says Brougham-Cook. “By combining NAVAJO with the Netstar vehicle tracking solution built in to SAMRASplus, all as part of a customer’s time and attendance workflow, managers can immediately see how long a service call takes – including driving time and time spent onsite – when drivers log in and out of the trip on biometric scanners.

“The solution is also effective in tracking employee leave time, since employees have to physically be at work to log in and out. This virtually eliminates opportunities for overtime fraud, such as not capturing a leave transaction, not working shift hours, or adding extra hours to overtime claims.”

As part of the NAVAJO family, NAVAJO Exception Reporting can be used with biometric devices from any vendor, which means municipalities can add to their existing infrastructure as needed rather than having to replace their existing devices.

“With NAVAJO and SAMRASplus our customers can be assured that regardless of the biometrics solution they implement, the system will deliver consistent results – even if they decide to change hardware vendors down the line,” says Brougham-Cook. “And because it’s NAVAJO it makes life easy for our customers since employees only need to capture their biometric profiles once.”

SAMRASplus is an extension to Bytes Universal Systems’ industry-standard, purpose-built local municipality ERP system SAMRAS (South African Municipal Resource Administration System). Powered by Microsoft SharePoint, SAMRASplus provides organisations with a comprehensive Web portal that integrates with SAMRAS Classic modules such as payroll, HR, billing and expenditure.

It also offers extensive document management and workflow capabilities, as well as various reporting tools and dashboards for information workers. SAMRASplus tools change the way information is retrieved, shared and managed, enabling improved service delivery and faster ROI.

 

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