Rockford Components connects to Tensor for secure Access Control, Time and Attendance, Payroll export system
Rockford Components is the UK’s largest independent provider of wiring, interconnect and system solutions for the defence, aerospace, marine and nuclear industries. Established back in 1978, the company has “has successfully addressed the high reliability and increasingly competitive market worldwide, achieving controlled growth in that time whilst engaged on many significant projects.”
According to Rockford, their engineering driven approach to Design and Manufacturing delivers a cost effective and quality solution to meet customer requirements through the life of the product.
Although they already had an electronic clocking system installed, the company decided to overhaul its entire time and attendance and access control solution, in order to achieve a higher level of security, streamline operations and manage their workforce in a more efficient manner. After careful consideration, Rockford’s management team decided to opt for a complete Tensor Access Control, Time and Attendance and Personnel Management system.
Hardware-wise, the Tensor solution installed at the Rockford Components site includes multiple T1488 smart card readers, accompanied by T32xx clocking units and electromagnetic door locks. On the software side, Rockford Components runs the latest-generation Tensor WinTA.NET and WinAC.NET software suites.
Tensor also tweaked the Time and Attendance system installed at Rockford in order to enable the export of payroll information to Rockford’s 3’rd party payroll system.
Moreover, in order to increase the employee’s overall efficiency, Rockford Components has also implemented the Tensor Time & Attendance Self Service Module (SSM), a web based application that allows enrolled employees to Clock IN or OUT for Time & Attendance purposes, book themselves ON or OFF the fire evacuation list and book ON or OFF jobs via their internet browser.
Plus, with the help of the SSM module, employees are also able to view their current holiday entitlement, clock card reports and browse past absences using an absence planner and request amendments to clocking & absence periods in the past & future.
Key members of staff were thoroughly trained at Rockford Components’ own site on using the Tensor systems, and Mr. Richard Short, the company’s Finance Manager, describes the quality of the training process as “good”.
At the time of the interview, the Tensor system installed at Rockford Components was used mostly for “site access control, time and attendance management and payroll export”, but Mr. Short was quite convinced that they were still far from having tapped into its full potential.
In fact, the Rockford Finance Manager told the Tensor reporter that they were seriously considering making extensive use of the Tensor personnel management features (WinHR.NET), especially in terms of calculating job costings.
Using a Tensor Smart Card and input device (keypad, barcode scanner etc), workers can book time against multi-tiered jobs to produce a fully costed analysis and breakdown of time spent on each job. Reports show jobs that are over budget or those approaching their budget limit. This information can also be exported to a spreadsheet.
Tensor Smart Cards are easy to use, according to Mr. Short (“easy, no problems there”), and the same can be said about the rest of the system. However, he did point out that “there’s a learning curve you have to go through in order to fully appreciate all of the features the Tensor solution can offer”.
Mr. Short also revealed that Rockford Components fully benefits from the additional level of personnel safety enabled by the Tensor Fire Roll Call feature, although, luckily, for the time being, the system was only triggered in test situations, not in real emergencies.
Ever since the Tensor systems were initially installed at Rockford Components, the company’s representatives had to call the Tensor Help Desk line only a couple of times, in order to solve various minor functionality issues.
“The quality of the service delivered by the help desk was very good. In fact, the Tensor analysts helped us solve all of our problems remotely, so the Tensor Operations Department were never actually required to re-visit our site for repairs”, Mr. Richard Short revealed.
Since they’re satisfied with the overall quality of the service delivered by Tensor and haven’t encountered any significant problems regarding the system’s functionality, the Rockford Components Finance Manager answered with a definite “Yes” when asked whether they would recommend the Tensor solutions to other companies.
Summing up, Mr. Richard Short revealed that Rockford Components is very satisfied with their choice of “connecting” to Tensor: “The system is easy to maintain and to use. Plus, it also helped our staff improve their overall efficiency”.
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Customer Information
Rockford Components
Rockford House
Acer Road
Rendlesham
Woodbridge
Suffolk
IP12 2GJ
Telephone: 01394 420800
Email: sales@rockford.co.uk
