Western Power Distribution supply electricity to over 7.5 million customers throughout Wales, The Midlands and The South West of England. They have committed themselves to providing the highest quality of service to their customers and employee around 6,500 staff to help them achieve this commitment. They are proud owners of the Governments award for Customer Service Excellence and have been holders of this Government standard since 1998. They have been a customer of facetime Ltd for over 20 years. We supplied their first pc linked Flexitime Attendance System way back in 1998, as they were being formed from the demerger of the distribution arm of SWEB (South Western Electricity Board).
Roger Smale IT Manager for Western Power Distribution first called us in 1998 and arranged to visit our Bristol office with a view to our supplying them with their first pc linked Flexitime Attendance System. They had inherited an old Hengstler Counter System which had inadvertently been dismantled by builders during refurbishment and thrown into a skip, luckily for us! Yet 20 years on Roger still occasionally laments the loss of his beloved Hengstler Analogue Counters and recalls his shock at discovering the equipment had vanished. But I’m glad to say that from the very beginning he regarded the mishap as fortuitous, as it enabled him to modernize and introduce everyone to a more efficient way of recording their Flexitime hours using software and electronic clocking terminals. His requirement was for four sites initially at Bristol, Plymouth, Exeter and Cardiff and later on Bodmin Cornwall.
Roger wanted a flexitime attendance system that was straightforward and simple to use… still thinking about his old Hengstler system no doubt. Staff needed to see their flexi balances at the clocking terminal. And the monthly pay period reports, flexi balances, daily totals, in/out times needed to be easily read and straightforward. We were also required to supply readers on the clocking terminal devices that would read their existing vending machine cards which every staff member carried, so they would not need to carry two cards. Thanks to our clever development team we were able to do that.
Once the basic requirements were established, Roger later came along to our Bristol offices to discuss the project in more detail. Roger commented how he thought the system looked perfect for them, and we were delighted to win the tender.
Their Head Offices at Avonbank Bristol was first on the list for the roll out, where they required two clocking stations. The software application was installed onto a pc and the database installed onto the server. A client version of the software was installed onto Roger’s pc as he was the main administrator. The implementation including roll out to other sites took approximately 3-4 weeks.
The flexitime attendance system we provided proved to be a vast improvement over the previous Hengstler analogue counter system, which soon became clear to Roger. The flexi hours were now accurate and more reliable with the ability to call up the information instantly in real-time. The system has been upgraded over the years, and 20 years on, we’re really proud to be supplying Western Power Distribution with some power of our own… the power to make time and attendance systems meet expectations.
” I first made contact with facetime around 1998, and asked them to quote for a new flexi clocking system. I visited their offices for a demonstration and liked what I saw and awarded them the tender. 20 years on and three different systems they are still providing our flexi time solutions. If you require a timely support service and a clocking system that does what it says on the tin what are you waiting for, give them a call.”
Roger Smale - IT Manager
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“Facetime provides a time & attendance system that ‘measures-up’ at Clarks flagship shoe shop at Street, Somerset”