Time and attendance software system procurement in seven easy steps
When your company acquires any new system there are dangers and pitfalls to avoid. Mission-critical systems are especially problematic, and new time and attendance software is no exception. A company can lose thousands of hours to usability issues or bad functionality, damaging employee productivity. Training and maintenance costs increase with every badly planned software module. But there’s hope: if you follow these seven simple steps, you can get a wonderful product from a quality vendor, and streamline your HR and absence management business processes.
1) First, list your current business and time & attendance management processes, and run a comprehensive audit of your company’s computer systems and capacity. List all of the software systems and hardware that you use or plan to use in the near future, and document attendance tracking procedures and scheduling processes. Include on-the-ground employees in the audit. Thoroughly record your company’s employment policies related to hours and work and pay calculation, and document the day-to-day tasks that staff do when administering attendance system tracking procedures and systems.
2) Create your requirements document for vendors. What are your technical needs – and your limitations? Sit down and figure out what you actually need the system to do for you. This is typically the most neglected step in the process, even if it sounds simple.
3) Send out a Request for Proposal. Make sure it is sent to at least five vendors who deal with time and attendance tracking software. Request an itemized proposal which addresses each of your key requirements. If they can’t quite meet those, then ask that they detail what it would take (in time and money) to meet them. Also ask about new industry tech as – vendors should know what’s out there and what’s hot. Lastly, try and hire a consultant who has the expertise to give advice on the technical details. Hire an expert who knows the industry and can ask questions that get beyond the fancy graphics and sales charts.
4) Call your shortlist and ask them to present. Ask for high-level overviews and a general budget proposal. Pay close attention to the company’s philosophy and dynamics – do they present as a team, or is each function presented separately? This is – seriously! – an important indicator of how well the system’s components will integrate too. Specify that you would really love to get both a software engineer and workflow management expert on the presentation team, not just the sales group.
5) Select vendors like you’d select an employee, by looking for for a good personality and great references. Send a letter of intent subject to reference checking, and make sure their references can speak to the absence management areas and products that are most important to your company’s attendance system needs specifically.
6) If none of the vendors are a perfect match, see if your top choice will agree to a trial period for a nominal fee. This will let you test the system and analyze the results. If the time tracking software does most things, ask for quotes on just the specific functions or additions that you still require.
7) Enjoy! Satisfaction with new time tracking software often starts out with huge expectations; staff hope that it will function much better than the old system, and it should. However, new is scary, so this is often followed by disappointment as use brings users down to earth. An adjustment period always has a learning curve, which is sometimes painful. But your users’ experience will level out, and within a few months staff will begin to understand the new system’s strengths and capabilities, and use them to the fullest!


