ELECTRONIC WORKFORCE MONITORING SYSTEMS GO MOBILE
9 April 2015 – In order to benefit from increased remote worker safety and more accurate information for payroll and back-office administration, facilities management and specialist commercial cleaning companies are increasingly adopting Ezitracker’s mobile-based electronic workforce monitoring (EWM) solution for their field-based staff.
Formally known as Panztel, Ezitracker first introduced EWM in 1998. At the core of Ezitracker’s EWM system is verification of the worker’s attendance (including time and duration) so that there is proof of a visit – for example, actual evidence of time spent at a client’s premises (providing contracted services such as cleaning).
Historically, this was predominantly achieved using landline telephone numbers. On arrival and departure to remote workforce location, field-based staff would simply dial a freephone telephone number using a fixed line phone, key in their unique PIN and the system would automatically capture the employee ID, location ID, attendance time and duration. Using landline technology, ‘Calling Line Identification’ (CLI) technology means that the precise location of the remote worker is instantly ascertained, removing scope for fraud and timesheet abuse. The limiting factor, however, is the reliance on the availability of a landline telephone in the remote working location.
Due to the increasing prevalence of mobile devices, the logical progression for Ezitracker was to develop the system to work with smartphones, overcoming the need to have a landline present.
In order to make this possible, the challenge was evidencing that the worker using the mobile device was in the correct remote location, without using CLI technology.
Mathew Parr, Head of FM Sales at Ezitracker, explained how this was done: “Smartphones are pre-configured with a mobile application. Following this, uniquely coded NFC (Near Field Communication) tags are placed at the remote working locations. On arrival and departure, the remote worker passes their mobile device over the tag and Google’s mapping technology is used to pinpoint the worker’s location. We also utilise a geo-fence to ensure that the visit-logging coordinates are within a certain radius of the required location. This means that establishing visit attendance is just as effective as it is using a landline.”
Ezitracker’s mobile-based EWM solution also offers additional benefits: not only can staff record their attendance, but they can also view real-time changes and updates to their daily work plan and schedule, send back detailed visit reports to supervisors and receive messages from office-based staff. All information is captured and shared in real-time, which can include instant ‘no-go’ safeguarding alerts to staff. This helps clients to meet their duty of care obligations for lone-working staff.
In light of the additional benefits that mobile-based EWM solutions offer, four out of five of Ezitracker’s new clients now choose it over the traditional landline option.
For more information about Ezitracker visit: http://www.ezitracker.com.
Ends
Issued on behalf of Ezitracker Ltd by Next Step Marketing Ltd
Media enquiries to: Heather Lambert
Tel: 44 (0)1256 472020
Fax: 44 (0)1256 471010
Email: heather@nextstepmarketing.co.uk
Note to Editors
Ezitracker is the market leading remote workforce management service used by local authorities, independent care providers, facilities management/cleaning companies and other organisations that employ large numbers of field-based staff. The service delivers a competitive advantage to users by transforming the management and control of site based workers, leading to improved service delivery, better productivity and significant cost efficiencies.
In addition to the UK, Ezitracker have overseas operations in Australia and New Zealand.
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