Baker Triangle     http://www.bakerdrywall.com

After 35 years of collecting time sheets the old-fashionedway, BakerTriangle in 2009 decided to replace paper timesheets for their 1500+ workerswith the most modern electronic system available. This decision came after almost six months ofsearching for the right solution to fit BakerTriangle’s diverse building operations, to ultimatelykeep tabs on workforces working dozens of jobs scattered over the United States.

After weeding out less capable products, Kenneth E. Sewell, Director of Technologyat BakerTriangle, the leading drywall, ceiling, and plaster specialty contractor in the southwest,chose what he calls the “best solution on the market.” With sales topping $130 million in2009, BakerTriangle is the twelfth largest in the nation among wall and ceiling firms.

Kenneth spent some very exhaustive months researching the top time and attendancesystems, finally deciding “AboutTime was the most progressive and flexible than any of theothers.” (Kenneth’s article appears appearing in May 2010’s Associated General Contractorsof America GCA TechBrief, “TIME AND ATTENDANCE SOFTWARE CHOICES.”)

Kenneth quickly excluded systems requiring a recurring monthlysubscription service, overseas-outsourced development and/or support, device- or carrierspecificrequirements, those closely associated with payroll processing companies, and thosewhose solution involved providing devices to all employees. There weren’t many choices left.

“I looked at about 15 different companies and ultimately selected AboutTime,” hesaid. “Not all vendors have construction customers– but that does not stop vendors from claiming they do.

“Our executive group started off imagining we’d be barcoding all of our employees.‘Let’s give every guy an ID badge and we can scan them in,’ we thought. So I then actually visitedone large company using barcodes and closely examined how it all worked. They bar-coded andscanned ID badges but it just wasn’t very impressive. Worse, they still experienced issues wewere trying to stop, such as ‘buddy punching’ (clocking in for a friend), lack of accountingsoftware integration and other major issues, too. We began exploring fingerprinting and oncewe discovered it was feasible, we changed our requirements.

“I won’t forget the day when it all came together: I realized we could give our foremen inexpensive netbooks to collect fingerprints to clock in our guys in the field.“We found there was really only one company that could do the job via mobilefingerprinting-- AboutTime. We also liked the fact you don’t focus on just one device orplatform, but offered us different operating systems and a whole host of devices like Blackberry,Palms, PDAs, Netbooks, Windows Mobile, land lines-- whatever we needed.

“We wanted our system to start simple. When our employees worked through learningcurves and gained familiarity, we wanted to add more controls, increase restrictions, andimprove functionality. With AboutTime we selected a partner to help us through integrationissues, workflow changes, adjustments and even personnel challenges. The way we run todaymay not be the way we run tomorrow. AboutTime has the kind of built-in scalability that willgrow with BakerTriangle every step of the way.

“BakerTriangle wanted biometrics to collect fingerprints to clock their workers intoa job. So we bought netbooks for 150 of our foremen,” Kenneth says. “When you’ve got 1500 employees waiting to clock in on 75+ jobsites, the system must work every time.

"The system had to be intuitive. And the shear scope of deploying 150 new computers out to guys who may have never really used computers would have been a challenge, too. We didn't hire our foremen because of their computer skills. However, AboutTime is 'point and click.' On the second day of timekeeping at the 32-story 'W Hotel' in downtown Austin of one of our large jobsites, we clocked in 80 employees in less than 15 minutes. Everyone was amazed!"

As if a landmark within a landmark, the Austin Westin "W Hotel" is one in a series of innovative, modern buildings consisting of 37 hotels and retreats in the most vibrant cities and exotic destinations around the world. On the same par, BakerTriangle craftspersons uniquely outfit each hotel room and floor, crafting exquisite, amazingly innovative spaces, while AboutTime keeps tabs on everyone's work, efforts, and movements.

While accurate time collection was BakerTriangle's first key issue, no less important to BakerTriangle is the need to quickly import data directly into their SAGE TIMBERLINE OFFICE accounting system. Payroll created from actual data is collected from mobile worker's actions, including particulars about date, time, customer, job code, equipment use, working location, tagged photographs, and much more. Kenneth said data must be entered only once.

"I visited another vendor's customer and was horrified to see the lack of integration with their accounting software," he recounted. "That customer had to manually enter each employee, job and cost information into their time and attendance software and again into their accounting software. This wasted time and introduced errors. So we learned that at a minimum, we did not want to reenter employee and job information."

With huge projects looming also in Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Hood, and other places potentially employing about 200-300 men on one site, "AboutTime has been huge in terms of trying to keep accounting straight for our seven different companies-- all divisions and joint ventures working on one project. That's why we integrated AboutTime with our SAGE TIMBERLINE OFFICE, envisioning that anybody can clock IN on one clock, and clock OUT on another clock– no matter where those clocks might be.

"Our team went with the one vendor we felt was most progressive. We have been extremely pleased with our selection. BakerTriangle is already seeing the benefits of electronic time and attendance and would recommend every contractor see how it can work for their company, too."

Finally he offers sage wisdom: "Time and attendance can save your company many tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. If you are looking for the best ways to manage labor costs in a down economy, AboutTime might be right for you, too."