Make or buy, that is the question
Before KEK Application Systems looked for a third-party tool for time recording, project working times were recorded using a system developed in-house. This application reached its limits over time. Stefanie Lechner, head of commercial administration at KEK Anwendungssysteme, remembers:
“For pure time recording, the existing solution was okay. However, the usability declined over time. In addition, adding required new functions always meant that colleagues had to work on developing these functions themselves. ”
Stefanie Lechner
Head of commercial administration, KEK Anwendungssysteme GmbH
Through an Internet search, KEK Application Systems then set out to find a suitable alternative to the self-developed system. According to Ms. Lechner, two or three solutions were shortlisted in the end. The decision was then ultimately made in favour of ZEP. ZEP stands for time recording for projects and was developed specifically for the requirements of companies in project-oriented industries. For these companies, the particular challenge is not only to record working hours as precisely as possible (“time clock”), but also to allocate these working hours to various projects as quickly and precisely as possible, in order to then promptly prove and invoice them to the client.
Time recording, costs, vacation management, invoicing
At KEK Anwendungssysteme, all time recording for the various projects has been carried out by ZEP since 2013. There, the recorded working hours are then linked to the stored hourly and daily rates and can be billed immediately. ZEP also manages absences and vacation periods.
The ZEP additional Billing module is then used for billing, which automatically transfers all billing data (times, hourly/daily rates) from time recording and aggregates it into an invoice that can be printed out immediately or sent by e-mail. External costs and expenses associated with the projects can be entered as documents directly in ZEP and assigned to the respective projects. As Ms. Lechner confirms from her daily work, the workflow of time recording, cost allocation and automatic invoicing, which is integrated in one solution, accelerates and simplifies the work process and eliminates sources of error during manual data transfer.
Smartphone and app: Up-to-date work with ZEP
KEK pays particular attention to contemporary work. For time recording, this means the ability to record working hours via smartphone as well.
“Smartphones and apps are part of everyday life for our younger employees. The fact that ZEP has mobile apps for all common mobile operating systems has contributed to a very high level of acceptance among this target group. ”
Stefanie Lechner
Head of commercial administration, KEK Anwendungssysteme GmbH
But regardless of age and smartphone usage, all employees benefit from being able to enter their working hours anytime and anywhere via an intuitive user interface.
“Usability was originally one of the main goals of looking for a third-party solution. With ZEP, we have definitely achieved this goal. ”
Stefanie Lechner
Head of commercial administration, KEK Anwendungssysteme GmbH
Resource planning with ZEP
A ZEP add-on module that is currently being evaluated by KEK Application Systems is the Resource Planning & Workforce Planning module. “The aim is to be able to get an overview at any time of which consultant is involved in which project and what the workload of the individual consultants is,” explains Stefanie Lechner. ZEP also offers employees the option of assigning so-called work packages to work on. Each work package defines the time period and scope of work to be performed. The ZEP user interface can then be used at any time to see up to date how long a work package has already been worked on. ZEP also shows whether an employee can still complete their work package at all by accessing the data from the vacation and absenteeism management module. In addition, the module provides information on how heavily an employee is overwhelmed or overloaded by a project (or overall). Stefanie Lechner explains the current status: “We are currently in the process of creating the internal organizational conditions so that we can then use the module as efficiently as possible. ”
Customer requirements influence the development of the application
After working with ZEP for several years, Ms. Lechner is convinced that the original decision of “buy” instead of “make” was the right one. She is impressed by the availability of the provider:
“provantis is always available to provide us with advice and assistance. In addition, it is good to see that customer requests are incorporated into the development of the software and are available relatively promptly as part of new releases. ”
Stefanie Lechner
Head of commercial administration, KEK Anwendungssysteme GmbH
