Perfect your own organization
Before using the “Software as a Service” tool (SaaS tool) ZEP, employees of the Society for Consulting and Implementation (GCI) recorded their hours in Excel spreadsheets. “This required a great deal of time for every employee and was difficult to control at the same time”, says Elke Ploder, assistant to the management at the Austrian site.
On this occasion, the consulting firm for SMEs searched the Internet for web-based software that allows users to record their hours simply, conveniently and at any time. As it quickly turned out, ZEP was the “optimal solution” for consulting experts, according to Elke Ploder. The individual configuration of individual application modules and the price-performance ratio have also particularly impressed GCI. “We didn't have to book the complete package, but opted for the ZEP Professional version with the additional department module.”, adds Elke Ploder.
“Learning by doing”
Elke Ploder estimates that the introductory phase of ZEP, which took a maximum of 4 man-days at CGI, was an average effort. The two-hour introductory webinar — a seminar that is held online — was paired with a conference call, during which questions could be clarified immediately. “The introduction was understandable and logically understandable for all colleagues. It was a good tutorial”, she reports. Following the motto “learning by doing,” the approximately 15 employees at the GCI site in Vienna familiarized themselves quickly and intuitively with the new software. “ZEP is simple and self-explanatory thanks to the help windows, so we barely needed the manuals.”says Elke Ploder.
“If questions still arise from time to time, the ZepSupport team provides us with quick, easy and expert support. ” The ZEP consultants in Ditzingen can be easily reached via the provantis hotline and can therefore help immediately. “This service saves us a lot of time and makes our work easier”, explains the assistant to the management.
Easy access for all employees
The consulting firm GCI uses ZEP in particular to organise time recording, travel expense reporting and project management. Elke Ploder has been evaluating the projects and calculating travel expenses for around nine years. For them, ZEP is a “big relief, as evaluations run much faster with ZEP than in Excel.” It is also used to exchange data between PDF and CSV formats.
Since ZEP only requires a stable Internet connection, employees can access their travel time, hours and project records at any time via iPhone or laptop, even when out and about. In addition, the web-based software is ideal for the four employees in Romania and the freelancers from GCI, as they also have easy access via the Internet. “ZEP is also available in English. This is of course ideal for our Romanian colleagues and our international employees”, explains Mrs. Ploder. Another advantage: GCI has not yet had any technical issues with the SaaS tool. “The software works perfectly even when several colleagues are logged into the system at the same time”, emphasizes Elke Ploder.
The conclusion and the outlook
“The individual ZEP software is very effective, as we were able to optimize both our time management and costs with the tool,” says Ploder in summary. Since the benefits for the company are considerable, they will definitely continue to use the software and may also rent the vacation recording module.
