DBK utilise Isys Group Intelligent Time and Attendance System

Established in the Cardiff, UK since 1988 DBK Technitherm Ltd is a member of the Multinational DBK Group. Operating in numerous markets, from Automotive to Security to Industrial, DBK specialise in the innovation and application of Industrial Heating. 

With the DBK Group trading since 1946 operations expanded from the Groups Head Office in Germany into the UK in the 1980’s. With many of their products boasting International Standards including UL, CSA and VDE, DBK Technitherm customer base ranges from small niche organisation through to large nationwide businesses such as Indesit.

System History

In 2004  DBK decided to explore the Time and Attendance market as they seeked to improve their current Time Management Practices. At the time DBK were using a dated electronic swipe system that needed to be removed from its store and downloaded every night if employee’s clocking records were to be recorded. This process proved to be considerably time consuming and with the workforce increasing in size dramatically from 75 employees to 200 employees, DBK turned to Isys Group.

“Errors were being made with the old system due to its age and the considerable amount of manual intervention it required. This was not only costing the business in both capital and labour time but was also proving to be a very difficult task to keep staff happy as it was quite common their pay would be inaccurate.

Indeed, to help ensure payroll was being run correctly and hours were being recorded in their intended way we had to recruit a new member of staff for the Admin Department”.  Paul Roach DBK Management Accountant

The task to Isys was clear; to provide a compressive Time and Attendance System that would reduce the current labour time spent on recording employee’s hours and running payroll. Furthermore, DBK also operated Banked Hours working procedure. This practice would enable DBK to ensure that in busy trading periods their shop floor was utilised to its full resource with employees then cashing in any additional hours worked in this period  for holidays in the months of the year that were traditionally quieter trading times.

Due to the scalability of Intelligent Time, members of the Isys in house development team were able to build and bespoke the system to match the Banked Hours requirements that DBK wanted. In addition to this specific reports were developed to allow users instant information to view how many hours employees had worked and how many holidays they may have accumulated. As this process was now all automated and managed on one single SQL database DBK soon started seeing a Return on their Investment.

“The introduction of Intelligent Time made for a much greater streamlined process. Time spent on day to day administration was greatly reduced. With the old system it would take up to 3 ½ days to complete the full payroll run for a shop floor weekly paid staff, whereas with the Intelligent Time process this has been reduce to up to half a day. Not only has this helped to reduced labour costs but also helped keep our staff happy and motivated knowing they are receiving their correct pay for the hours that they have worked”.  Paul Roach DBK Management Accountant

System Overview

DBK currently use two of the Isys product portfolio.

Intelligent Time is used by 3 administrators to managed and record up to 200 employee’s records on a daily basis.  The Intelligent Time module allows DBK to check employee’s holidays, which can constantly fluctuate due to their Banked Hours approach to work, add any additional shift patterns in busy trading periods and update any employee’s calendars should they report a sickness or absence.

When it comes to recording their staff’s working hours and associated overtime, DBK use an Ethernet based Clocking terminal that also boasts the functionality to allow employees to change their working day activity and cost centres.

Intelligent HR enables all staff’s personnel records to be stored and reported upon. Areas such as training matrix’s, appraisal logs and skill sets are all embedded providing DBK with a fully integrated solution. This single point of data storage has helped DBK reduce the need for additional manual files and spreadsheets.

Report Wizard is another application that has enabled DBK to reduce labour time and costs. In the past reporting upon their staff’s working hours proved to be a laborious time consuming process. Data needed to be downloaded and then re-inputted into a report format. With the Intelligent Time Reporting Suite any data captured from the Clocking Terminals or the system itself is automatically stored and then pushed through, allowing it to be reported upon. One example of this is the Fire Report that DBK run from Intelligent Time to comply with Health and Safety legislation. As soon as the Fire Alarm is activated a report is generated that contains a list of every employee and their ‘Clocking Status’ i.e. On site, On break etc. DBK then use this report for their fire roll calls.

Conclusion

The relationship between DBK and Isys demonstrates the ability that Isys Group has to deliver a fully integrated Time and Attendance system that meets the end users specific and unique requirements. The skill in detailing, analysing and meeting each customers demands from a system is a skill that can often be bypassed but something that Isys feel is crucial when building strong, endearing customer relationships. 

“We have worked together to find a solution that best fits our needs. Whilst having received very good support service the software itself has proven to be highly reliable over the last 5 years”. Paul Roach DBK Management Accountant

Isys Group would like to take this opportunity to thank all at DBK who kindly provided their time and assistance to help produce this article.