The Miller Group Helped This Contractors Association Streamline An Inefficient Time Entry Process
Your efficiency is the baseline of your organization’s success. Don’t let delays and wasted resources affect your bottom line — follow this contractors association’s example, and have The Miller Group develop a cost-effective and efficient solution for you.
The efficiency of your organization’s processes is perhaps its most important quality. The more you and your staff can accomplish, in the best timeline, and with the least possible wasted resources, the better your profit margins will be.
While new technology can often streamline tedious, manual processes, it’s not always a worthwhile investment. Robust automation solutions and software platforms can be more expensive than their worth.
This was the problem one of our clients was facing — should they stick with an outdated, manual process, or devote tens of thousands of dollars to automate it with a new software solution?
Fortunately for them, The Miller Group’s team was able to find an alternative.
This Contractors Association Needed To Update Their Time Entry Process
At the end of every month, this client’s field contractors were required to log their hours by printing out a PDF form. Once they had filled in the form by hand, they would then need to scan it or take a picture of it on their phone and email it to the Office Manager to enter their hours for payroll.
Obviously, this process was very outdated, and presented a number of issues:
- The Office Manager would have to follow up with the contractors that had failed to send in their timesheets.
- Printing and manually completing the form was cumbersome and inconvenient.
- The quality of handwriting was inconsistent, making it difficult for the Office Manager to verify hours accurately.
- Processing the forms manually (confirming hours, totaling hours, etc.) was very time-consuming for the Office Manager.
- The tedious nature of the process often superseded other processes, such as supervisor evaluations.
Obviously, this process needed to be addressed with a modern solution, which would eliminate the need for printing, scanning, and manually filling out the form. Before bringing the problem to The Miller Group, the client looked for a solution independently and was considering software that would cost them over $20,000/year to use. Obviously, this was more than they wanted to spend.
The Miller Group Developed A Low-Cost And Efficient Solution For This Contractors Association
Our team was brought in and immediately performed a Discovery Process to identify pain points and determine the best way to address them. We developed a new system to automate their time entry process.
This new process allows contractors to access an online website form from any device. Using this form, they can submit their hours, completing the process in minutes — no printing, scanning, or handwriting required.
For the client’s management team, we developed a time accounting system that keeps track of every active contractor (detailing their hours by month, their category of work, their evaluations from their supervisors, and more). The system is automated to inform the Office Manager of any important benchmarks. For example, as soon as a contractor’s total hours move into the next pay rate threshold, the Office Manager receives an email notification informing them, so they can change the pay rate of that contractor.
Thanks to the Miller Group’s team, this client now enjoys a seamless and efficient process for tracking contractors’ hours. Its initial cost was already far lower than the software package they were originally considering, and they will reach a break-even point in terms of ROI 1-2 months of using this new system.
Looking For Expert Assistance Improving Your Efficiency?
Every organization encounters challenges with its efficiency. The reality is that the battle is never really won, and you can always do better. The important thing is to make sure you’re always improving.
Consult with The Miller Group to discover how to harness new processes and technologies and boost your efficiency, without breaking the bank.
Stephen King is our Chief Technology Officer, and has the longest tenure as a technician at The Miller Group. Stephen puts his extensive experience to use for the good of our clients, providing expert technical support, as well as leadership, and guidance to other members of our technical staff.
