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"Journyx Timesheet™ is a
timesheet and expense management solution for the entire enterprise"
Source : Journyx
9 Critical Characteristics to Demand from Your Timesheet Vendor
Timesheet is also known as :
Timesheet Template,
Software Timesheet,
Time Tracking,
Productivity Timesheet,
Web Based Timesheet,
Timesheet Tracking Software,
Timesheet Management,
Web Timesheet,
Online Timesheet,
Time Tracking Management,
Timesheet System,
Timesheet Solution,
Use Timesheets,
Tool Timesheet,
Automatic Timesheet,
Timesheet Portal,
Easy Timesheet,
Timesheet Standard,
Timesheet Sample,
Time Management,
Online Timesheet Expense,
Employee Timesheet,
Timesheet Free,
Timesheet Automation,
Timesheet Module,
Generate Timesheets.
#1 - The Most Common Mistake In Buying Timesheet Software
Don’t fall for a deceptive demo.
You have the power to demand that any vendor absolutely, completely prove beyond a
shadow of a doubt that their solution will solve your company’s specific business
problem. You deserve a detailed demonstration that uses your employee list, your
customer list, your project list, your company’s logo and color scheme and that shows
you reports on your data that will prove to you that your business problem is solved. If a
vendor can't make you 100% certain that the solution will work for your specific business
needs, then walk. Period. Canned demos are designed to deceive. Don't believe them.
What To Ask Competitors – “Can you absolutely prove to me that you will solve my
business problem, using my employees, departments, projects, etc. and then show me the
reports I need to see?”
How We Do It - At Journyx our demonstration will not be a ‘movie’ that you just sit back
and watch. You’ll have free use of the full package yourself. And we’ll show you
exactly how our application can solve your problems. After the demo is over, we’ll leave
it up and live – still loaded with all of your data - so you can log into it afterward and
show other people in your company how it works.
#2 – How To Know If You Will Get Responsive Support.
Most vendors provide a static outdated FAQ list and support staff that are often part of
the sales team. When support is part of the sales force you only get help as a prospect.
Once they've got your money, getting help … well … it’s ‘iffy’- at best.
What To Ask Competitors – “How many cases do you have published in your
automated helpdesk tool? Is your support staff part of the sales team? In what time can
you guarantee me responses? Can I talk to 3 recent customers that are happy with your
support? What is your average response time? What did your most recent support poll
turn up as the overall satisfaction level for your supported customers? Do you even do
such polling? What percentage of your customers renew their maintenance contracts
each year?”
How We Do It - We have both automated support with fresh relevant content and
responsive support people who are independent of the sales team.
We have 162 answers to commonly asked questions available in our automated helpdesk,
so the most common configuration questions are answered 24 hours/day. Many questions
sent to mailto:support@journyx.com will automatically generate a response with the proper
answer, sometimes even including a patch if there has been a defect in the software.
Customers solve their own problems with this system about 4500 times per month.
While the automated tools are effective, sometimes you need help from a human. Here’s
what a customer had to say:
"When I call your support line, I get one of your support staff about 75% of the
time. If I have to leave a message, my call is returned within 3 to 4 hours. When I send
an email to support@journyx.com I get the automated response stating, 'We will respond
in 24 hours' but in fact, I typically get a response within 3 to 4 hours."
- Scott Steinberg, Senior Business Analyst at Analog Devices (with 1800 users on Journyx Timesheet)
Another said,
“I work in an Information Systems dept and have a reasonable amount of
experience with contacting support teams for services. I would like to say that the support
team you have is the best I've come across. Polite, quick and friendly. Well done.”
- Samantha J Parsons - Institute of Physics Publishing – Bristol, U.K.
A poll of our supported customers on May 21, 2004 provided these statistics:
90% said they were contacted by a human within one day of submitting their issue, and
91% gave us an overall positive rating on our support team. We’re working to improve
these numbers, but we believe that they’re already better than all our competitors.
80% of our customers renew their maintenance contracts each year. We think most of
our competitors have a number close to zero.
#3 – Web-Based or Web-Enabled? And Why It Matters.
Many timesheet systems that claim to be web-based are in fact only web-enabled.
The fact is that your company’s chosen operating systems and chosen browsers will
change over time, and if a vendor doesn’t support all systems and browsers today, then it
might not support whatever you choose in the future.
Web-based software works on all browsers on all operating systems, and every aspect of
the software can be administered via the web. This enables real-time accurate data
collection and management worldwide without the difficulties of maintaining special
software on client machines. Web-enabled means that only some aspects of the software
work via a browser, or that it doesn’t work well with certain browsers or operating
systems.
What To Ask Competitors – “Which web browsers do you support? Netscape on
Solaris? On a Mac? Do you support Opera on Linux? Which operating systems? Can
you change the approval workflow in this application via the web browser? Add users?
Is all reporting web-based? Is there anything at all about this application that doesn’t
work on all browsers?”
How We Do It - We support any browsers running on any operating system. Period.
Literally everything that can be configured in our application can be configured via any
web-browser from anywhere on Earth.
#4 – ASP Flexibility Allows Early Rollouts, Server Protection and Easier Upgrades.
Most timesheet software companies either sell software or sell an ASP service, not both.
The majority sell only licenses.
ASP means 'application service provider'. It means you can rent access to our 100%
web-based software that's running on one of our servers instead of installing it on a server
at your office. This allows early rollouts, server protection and easier upgrades.
What To Ask Competitors – “What sort of backup generator do you have in case of a
power outage at your ASP site and where is it hosted? How much does server protection
cost? Can I rollout on your ASP servers and later transfer the data to my own servers?
Where are ASP backup tapes stored?”
How We Do It - We offer ASP services with power outage protection and full offline
backups or the application can be run on your own server. About 100 of our customers
use this service today.
Early Rollout - ASP allows you to rollout much earlier. Customers can roll out on ASP
and switch to a local install when their server arrives. We’ll send you a backup of your
data and you’ll be up and running in a couple of hours.
Server Protection - ASP technology lets us offer "Server Protection" so that if your
server fails we can have you up and running again on one of our ASP sites in under 24
hours.
Flawless Upgrades - ASP sites allow us to do flawless upgrades. At upgrade time, you
send us your most recent data backup. We upgrade the data to the latest version and put it
on an ASP site so they can test the behavior to ensure the validity of your data. If all is
well we finalize the migration and upgrade on your server.
#5 – Why a 15 Day Trial Is Too Short For Timesheet Software.
Most of our competitors offer a 15 day trial. In many cases it takes longer to see how
reports work, how your employees like it, if your managers will use it, etc. Your client
billing process is a monthly operation, right? Wouldn’t you prefer to at least run a few
payroll cycles on this application before you buy it? Every situation is different, and for
most people, 15 days just isn’t enough.
What To Ask Competitors – “Can I have a version of your software that is free
forever?”
How We Do It – Journyx is not a shelfware company. To ensure this remains true, a 10-
user version of our software is available for free forever, to anybody. We think you
should have all the time in the world to make sure you’re getting the technology that will
work for you. Our product speaks for itself. If you still think there’s a catch, our
philosophy of freeware and shelfware avoidance is described at
Journyx.com/whyfree.html.
#6 – A Smart Way To Cut Operational Costs – Without A Chainsaw.
We’re the only timesheet technology vendor that includes data mining technology for
free with our product.
What To Ask Competitors – “Can you please show me your free data mining and
graphing capabilities and fly-through cube reports?”
How We Do It – You want to cut costs, but no one wants to cut the ability to make a
profit. So how do you find the best ways to save? Journyx Timesheet’s built-in cube
reports. Our software, you see, includes our data mining fly through cube reporting and
graphing technology that mines all your operational time data (where 80% of your costs
are) and gives you a complete detailed view of all labor costs across your company. You
can access and create reports on the web in real time. Analyze data. And find ways to
make your operations more cost effective. All based on up-to-the-moment information.
All of which enables you to better track, understand, and manage your business to
maximize performance. You’ll have the information you need to make better decisions,
improve operational efficiency, and discover new sources of revenue.
Every day, tens of thousands of companies all over the world rely on our software to
unlock the power of information locked into time records. Perhaps you should, too. And
let’s put away the chainsaw before your company gets hurt.
See a quick online demo of our cube reporting at
http://www.journyx.com/products/timesheet/cubereports.html
#7 – How Long Will Your Company’s Chosen Database Server Stay Cheap? Your Chosen Operating System?
Microsoft’s prices are subject to change. So are Oracle’s. So it’s important for vendors
of mission critical software to support multiple different operating systems and database
servers.
What To Ask Competitors – “When will your Linux version be released? Which
database servers do you support?”
How We Do It – We’re the only timesheet technology vendor that provides technology on
Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, IBM’s AIX, and Sun’s Solaris. Our technology is easy to
port to new operating systems.
Journyx Timesheet runs on DB2, Oracle, Postgresql, and Microsoft SQL Server. Ports to
new database servers are not difficult for us.
With Journyx you don’t have to feel trapped by database or OS vendors.
#8 – Ensuring The System Is Flexible Enough To Be Used By All Your Employees
Most timesheet programs offer a single environment for time tracking that includes a few
minor options for customizing an employee’s timesheet layout and process. Limited
ability to customize an employee’s timesheet is a problem for two reasons:
- Acceptance and daily usage of your timesheet system is required in order to
realize the full benefits of automation. Employees are more likely to feel
comfortable with the transition to a new system if the tracking environment
and process resemble the process they followed previously. The ability to
customize employee timesheets to emulate previous processes facilitates
compliance and overall success.
- Not all types of employees track their time the same way. Exempt
employees, hourly part-timers and contractors may all require different
methods of tracking time. The ability to use different timesheets for different
types of employees is necessary in order to emulate each employee’s time
tracking process.
What To Ask Competitors – “What parts of the timesheet can I customize and what are
the options? How many different timesheets can I create for my different types of
employees? If I provide you with a copy of my employee timesheets that are currently in
use, can you configure something similar using the standard options available in your
software? How do I assign one style of timesheet to one group of employees, a second
type to another group, and so on? How do I set up timesheets that allow some of my
employees to track the billing status of their time while preventing others, who do not
track this information, from seeing it?”
How We Do It – Journyx Timesheet allows customers to build an unlimited number of
timesheet templates. These templates have the most options for customization of any
program on the market including, but not limited to: grid versus line item entry layout,
hours entry, in/out time entry, a combination of in/out time entry with project hours
allocation, option for scrolling forward and backward to other periods, decimal time
entry/HH:MM time entry/decimal and HH:MM time entry/percent time entry, minimum
minute increments for time entry, five customizable tracking columns (i.e., tasks, codes)
and open space above and below the time entry grid for custom text and HTML.
Once the templates have been created, Timesheet provides several easy ways to assign
these templates to various groups of employees. The templates can be added to the
appropriate Groups (i.e., all marketing employees belong to the Marketing Group and are
assigned the Marketing Timesheet) for quick assignment and consistent tracking across
the department. Timesheet also offers free import tools that allow customers to set
employee timesheet templates individually via plain text import file.
# 9 Can Your Timesheet Vendor Prepare You For The Future?
Rolling out a new time tracking solution can be a real challenge if you have multiple
departments with complex needs. A vendor that offers quality training services can be a
lifesaver.
What to ask competitors- How many training courses did you offer last year? Were
they effective? How did you measure customer’s satisfaction? How experienced is your
training team?
How we do it- Journyx offers training from the very beginning of your experience
throughout the entirety of your time as a our customer. Our training classes include 8
different express classes that are available online as well as 10 customizable programs
that can be tailored to meet your company’s specific needs. Training from Journyx is not
just a video; we actually take you, step-by-step, through the processes you need to
understand to make the most of your company’s investment in Timesheet.
A survey of Journyx customers who recently took part in one of our 18 unique training
classes showed that 90% felt the class was a positive experience. Over 95% of the
trainees felt that they had received the knowledge necessary to become a skilled user. In
Q1 2004 we conducted 30 training courses, both on-site and through the web, and 10
customized programs. At Journyx we’re always working to improve training for our
customers. You can learn more about our class offerings at:
http://www.journyx.com/support/training.html
Where To Go From Here
Don’t Forget! You can always download and install a FREE 10 user fully licensed copy
of our software from http://freeguide.journyx.com
If you’ve outgrown your current paper-based or homegrown timesheet system, or if you
have multiple installed time collection systems that produce inconsistent data, it gets hard
to understand project costs, to figure out what people are working on, and to send correct
and timely bills out to your customers. It also can make payroll very frustrating.
How can you be sure you’ll get a system that works for your company and is immune to
the most common problems people experience when buying a timesheet collection
automation system? Here are a few things to consider:
- THE MOST COMMON MISTAKE IN BUYING TIMESHEET SOFTWARE
- HOW TO KNOW IF YOU WILL GET RESPONSIVE SUPPORT
- WEB-BASED OR WEB-ENABLED? AND WHY IT MATTERS
- ASP FLEXIBILITY ALLOWS EARLY ROLLOUTS, SERVER PROTECTION AND EASIER UPGRADES
- WHY A 15 DAY TRIAL IS TOO SHORT FOR TIMESHEET SOFTWARE
- A SMART WAY TO CUT OPERATIONAL COSTS – WITHOUT A CHAINSAW
- HOW LONG WILL YOUR COMPANY’S CHOSEN DATABASE SERVER STAY CHEAP? YOUR CHOSEN OPERATING SYSTEM?
- ENSURING THE SYSTEM IS FLEXIBLE ENOUGH TO BE USED BY ALL YOUR EMPLOYEES
- CAN YOUR TIMESHEET VENDOR PREPARE YOU FOR THE FUTURE? WHERE TO GO FROM HERE