bmfinance.comTime and Attendance and Software as a Service
Time and attendance has been available as a web based product for for around 5 years now but it has recently enjoyed renewed interest from the business community
Web based means that the user interface is delivered via the web rather than by a server\client software installation.. This can be a locally published web server such as Windows Internet Information Server (IIS) or perhaps your Linux web server. Alternatively it can be a Software As A Service (SAAS) application provided by a third party provider
To access the the time and attendance system you open an interface in your web browser. The clear advantage here is that the time and attendance system can be accessed on any PC with access to the network in the case of a locally published application or in the case of a SAAS solution, access to the Internet.
The typical web based time and attendance can usually handle more user sessions across local area networks (LANS) wide area networks and via Virtual Private Networks (VPN’s) because the server takes care of all the processing and the web interface requires a lower network bandwidth that a server/client style interface.
Locally published web based time and attendance is by far the more common solution particularly when data collection terminals (time clocks) are concerned. This is essentially because there is an interface between the time clocks on your network and the software behind the web interface, again on your network and the associated database. The application is limited to your network, your hardware and your time and attendance database.
SAAS by comparison is hosted on a remote data center server and it runs a database for many companies. It may have to communicate with time clocks on your network and it needs to get through your firewall do do that. It then has to replicate this for many companies who share the web application. Often there are technical barriers here that need to be overcome but there are also very clear potential benefits because the application is delivered in a unified and consistent fashion to all users.
This usually provides more consistent and stable product because every user is impacted by product issues which increases the need for the service provider to both react to issues and to ensure that system maintenance and up-time is maximised… because the entire client base will be affected .
Some suppliers of time and attendance offer a dedicated hosted option which basically is not a SAAS product but in effect web server software and database on a hosted server which can reduce your need for capital investment in server hardware and infrastructure. The cost of this hosted service is usually quite high as the cost of the systems is not spread between a large number of end users.
To summarize; If your company has multiple branch locations where payroll is managed centrally but authorization of staff attendance is performed locally this is an ideal application for both locally hosted and SAAS web based time and attendance software.
When sourcing potential suppliers you will need to determine their ability to collect from time clocks or bundy clocks on all sites ( if this is a requirement of yours) and you will also need to consider those employees who are unable to use time clocks and may need alternate log in methods such as a web interface or a telephony based option.