Mobile Employees

BlackBerry Customer Success Story

Construction Firm Keeps Payroll and Labor Costs Under Control with Help from BlackBerry Solution
THE CHALLENGE
As a small firm with 18 employees, Princeton Design Guild relies heavily on technology to handle tasks at multiple job sites. In their industry, employees, contractors and vendors clock in at job sites to keep track of time for billing purposes and tracking labor costs. At first, this was done using handwritten timecards, which was often inaccurate and time-consuming. They then moved to the JobClock System from Exaktime Innovations, an application that tracks time and attendance for every worker at the job site, on another mobile device. They didnt have true mobile convenience since the software didnt synchronize over-theair with their back-end server. That meant supervisors had to visit each job site, key the data into their smartphone, drive back to the office, connect to the only computer that worked with the software and then export the data. This time-consuming process took four hours each Monday morning. We need our data to be accurate and as close to the minute as possible, says Jim Castelize, Manager of IT Services with Princeton Design Guild. The solution we had in place worked, but it didnt work well, and we didnt know of any other options.

Princeton Design Guild (PDG) helps clients renovate their existing house or build a new home, and has built its reputation on an integrated designbuild approach to the business. Its team of architects, craftspeople, carpenters and construction staff provide an end-to-end service, from concept drawings through to finished construction.

THE SOLUTION
Industry: Real Estate & Construction Region: Americas Company Size: Small Business 18 employees Email Platform: Microsoft Exchange Solution: Exaktime Innovations JobClock/EX and PocketClock/GPS
When Castelize found out the JobClock System was available on the BlackBerry smartphone and would allow users to sync their smartphones with the server in the office he deployed it to five of the companys supervisors. Not only can they connect back to the office for email communications, they now have mobile access to their time-keeping system. The JobClock System on the BlackBerry smartphone gives us true mobility, says Castelize. JobClocks are battery-powered portable time clocks that are locked down at each job site, and workers, contractors and vendors clock in with keytabs they carry with them. They simply press green to Go, red to Stop and yellow to Track Travel Time between job sites. JobClock/EX software with Bluetooth technology helps supervisors collect time punches from JobClocks and send the data to the office via their BlackBerry smartphone. The other solution theyre using is PocketClock/GPS, which transforms a BlackBerry smartphone into a mobile time clock that travels with crews. With the BlackBerry smartphones GPS receiver, PocketClock/GPS records the location along with other information, so supervisors know the clock in/out was done while the employee was actually on-site. Using a PIN code, supervisors can clock in and track the type

of work being done for accuracy in timekeeping and get better information for budgeting and future job estimates.

At any point, our supervisors can access and send almost up-to-theminute time management data on their BlackBerry smartphone from any job site which has helped save time and contributed to increased billing accuracy.
Jim Castelize Manager of IT Services Princeton Design Guild

Exaktimes JobClock.NET service sends data directly from the BlackBerry smartphone via Bluetooth wireless technology to the server in the office. The BlackBerry smartphones sync themselves and do all the work for us, says Castelize. There are no additional steps in the process.

PRINCETON DESIGN GUILDS BENEFITS

With our BlackBerry smartphones, we now have more up-to-the-minute time management data and more accurate job costs, says Castelize. These days, we need to know that information for budgeting and job estimates, so this helps us to do our job better. The company can also pull up a report, export it to their accounting software and generate an invoice within half an hour. That helps the company show the customer that it knows exactly who was at their site at what time, which helps this small business look larger with a more professional image. Because managers can access this data on their BlackBerry smartphone, they can now spend more time in the field rather than performing administrative tasks back at the office. On Monday mornings, they no longer have to spend four hours filling out paperwork at the office instead, they scan the JobClocks and send the data back to the office via their Bluetooth-enabled BlackBerry smartphone. They report that a four-hour weekly process has now been reduced to approximately one hour, freeing up time to perform billable tasks. In their business, the email replies they send to clients are just as important as the original email for documentation purposes. The BlackBerry smartphone allows us to have true synchronized access between our email and our Microsoft Outlook at the office, says Castelize. With most other devices, you have duplicates of everything you did on your device and on your computer when you get back to the office. Now we dont have that issue. Security was another consideration. We didnt want to lose two weeks of payroll data we couldnt duplicate, says Castelize. The data we collect in the field has to get back to the office securely. Thats why we didnt go with just any brand of phone we went with a product that meets our strict confidentiality and security requirements for remote data access.

KEY BENEFITS
Reduced four hours of administrative work per week to approximately one hour Ability to access almost up-tothe-minute time management data Better able to securely send payroll data in the field Provides a professional image to clients

www.blackberry.com/go/success
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