Inspiration to Create AboutTime

This letter from Ryan Remkes, CEO and Founder of AboutTime Technologies says it all!  

AboutTime Team,

My wife was home cleaning out files from my construction business, Better Builders.  She found this sampling of "Time Sheets" and "Daily Logs" from 14 years ago in 2000.   She snapped a picture and sent it to me titled "Inspiration to create AboutTime." At the time, I had about 40 employees and this was the typical and common way to capture what was going on in the field. Check out the level of "detail and accuracy." This picture represents the core problem we help our customers solve every day.

It is amazing to me now, looking back, that I could actually turn a small profit and grow a business with such inefficient methods of measuring and managing field labor and project production!

Thousands upon thousands of companies are still managing their most valuable resources, their work force, assets and their businesses this same way today.  Some companies have graduated from paper and are now using a spreadsheet or possibly a cleaner form.  Still they require their workforce to manually input (and estimate) field information at the end of the day or even worse, at the end of the week. Foremen are guessing on assets used and cost codes.  The information is outdated and inaccurate before it even hits accounting. These companies need our solution. They are our future customers.  They are why we started AboutTime.

This small sampling of old time sheets and daily logs brought back many memories. Today the AboutTime solutions provide drastically improved accuracy, accountability and visibility... so much more than I ever had as a contractor. Our customers gain competitive advantages that help their teams work efficiently, it reaffirms to me that we are doing the right thing to help our customers enjoy a much better way to manage mobile resources. It's AboutTime!

Ryan Remkes

CEO AboutTime Technologies

The Importance of Technology in Construction

Just because things have always been done a certain "way," does not mean that "way" is the best "way" to do things.  According to Winston Churchill “ there is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.”   We all know if there is an industry that doesn't embrace change it is the Construction Industry.  It is not surprising that historically the construction industry has been one of the last industries to embrace the benefits of technology.  However, companies that are willing to change and incorporate new technologies into their business are seeing huge gains and pulling ahead of their competition.

If any industry is mobile, it is the construction industry.  Most construction companies have multiple job sites with multiple crews working on multiple tasks.  Knowing what is happening at all times on all job sites has always been a near impossible task.   Technology that was developed for smart phone and tablets has opened doors for the construction industry to more accurately track what is happening at project sites.  In a recent study done by McGraw Hill Construction, they found that companies who invested in mobile resource management systems reported “shorter work schedules by 9%, Project cost decreases of 10% and increases in project ROI of 2%.”

I think Winston Churchill would agree that using technology is "the right direction."

To Err is Human

We all make mistakes but when those mistakes cost your business money sometimes they are harder to forgive.   Mistakes happen all too often when there is a lack of communication from the office to the field and back again.  Anytime paper has to switch hands there are numerous threats for mistakes to happen.  Unreadable forms, lost forms, inaccurate data, and untimely information can all be the cause of problems.  However, they are all mistakes that could have been prevented.  How?  By allowing Automation to help manage your projects.  A mobile resource management solution can provide all of the tools necessary to reduce mistakes from the field and send timely accurate data to the office. 

1.    A mobile resource management solution should be simple to use.

Keeping it simple takes away any excuse to not use the system.  Clocking into a job should be easy and only takes a few seconds to complete.  Gathering important information without the hassle is what automation is all about.

2.    It must have a time and attendance feature.

Your employees are your largest asset.   Therefore, time and attendance is the basis for all other information that is gathered.  Knowing who is at work, where they are working and what they are working on provides basic information that is needed later in order to track productivity, assign future tasks and follow job progression.

3. Mobile resource management solutions should track labor and productivity?

Automating your Time and attendance is a big step to take when you are beginning but with the technology that is available today there is so much more that your solution should be able to do.  Comparing how much has actually been completed on a project with what was budgeted gives a clear picture of how much labor a task actually takes to complete.  Not only will this information help to monitor current projects, but it will also help to estimate the costs of future projects. 

4.    How does the solution handle all of the messy paperwork that must be filled out in the field and delivered to the office?

Misplaced or lost forms cost your business money for many reasons.  The time spent trying to locate misplaced documents adds up but even more important is the threat of not having the information you need to protect your business because a form is missing.  A good Mobile resource management solution should have a forms module that allows forms to be electronically filled and signed in the field.  A system like AboutTime’s FormsXPress attaches pictures, notes, signatures to any form you build then sends the form back to the office. 

5.    Does it integrate with your accounting system?

It’s one thing to collect important information but what do you do with it once it has been collected?  Automation is most effective when the automation completes your workflow from the beginning to the end.  The less room for human error the more accurate the information is.  Make sure, whatever solution you choose, it provides a solid integration with your accounting or job costing system.  

Same Old... Same Old...

Tasks like filling out time cards, and reporting on job progress at the end of the day are often overlooked or pushed back to deal with at the end of the week.   The problem is that, by the end of the week, the information is no longer accurate.  A lot of guesswork goes into filling out time cards and end of the week paperwork that all needs to be submitted to the office.

"Hmmm, I think we worked on 'task A' for 3 hours and 'task B'  for 2 days" or "I am pretty sure everyone was here all week except for Joe and he missed Monday or was it half of Tuesday?"

So you scribble down some numbers on a time card or, if a time card is not within reach,  you use a scrap of paper from the ground and send it up to payroll.  Forms are filled out last minute, and they tend to be unreadable.

What you do not see is that for the next 20 hours poor "Patty in Payroll" is frustrated.  She is trying to decipher the handwriting on several scraps of paper, tracking people down to  get verbal confirmations,  and doing her best to decipher words from what looks like chicken scratch.  Then she has to spend hours entering the data into her accounting system.   Finally, she has a "guesstament"  on what tasks were worked on and how much time was spent on each task.  She compares the numbers to the budgets and realizes that "task A" is only 1/3 of the way done and it has to be completed by tomorrow!  

Big Problem!

  

How do you keep this from happening?  

A system like AboutTIme allows your employees to easily clock IN using their smart devices and then immediately choose a task to work on. Employees simply clock IN to a new task when they move to a different task.  Time records and job productivity are sent in Real-Time to the office where "Patty in Payroll" happily verifies the correct time and sends it off for processing.   Comparing budgets against actual work performed allows the office to see that while "task A" is falling behind it isn't a problem. In order to have it completed by Friday, you may need to send extra workers over.  

The problem is solved before it became a problem. 

It's no wonder that companies who implement an automated time and attendance system see  an 11% greater workforce capacity utilization  than companies who stick with the same old, same old.

The AboutTimes 1st Quarter Newsletter

We are excited to share our 2014 1st quarter newsletter.  You can read the newsletter by following this link (Click HERE),  but first a message from David Moyer, President of AboutTime Technologies.

Construction is a "Risky Business"       

In 1983, Tom Cruise starred in a Warner Brothers movie that landed him solidly as an A-lister in Hollywood. The movie grossed over 63 million dollars while production costs were just over 6 million. Although the movie was titled “Risky Business,” it would appear that it was anything but risky to make. All of us would take those profit margins any day of the week.

Fast-forward to today… In my opinion a remake of “Risky Business” would no longer star Tom Cruise. The title more suits a documentary about the Construction Industry.  In 2013 the US recorded over 900 billion in construction spend. If the margins on that 900 billion were the same as the margins for the movie "Risky Business," contracting would definitely be the business of choice.

However, the facts say that the margins in construction are  slim and in many cases are getting slimmer. Construction is a “Risky Business” and because of that Contractors are “Risk Managers."

At AboutTime our goal is to be your partner in managing risk. We know that every day requires decisions that involve risking your business.

Good decisions are made by having:

1. Great partners
2. Great employees
3. Great up to date information.

At AboutTime we strive to:

1. Be a great partner
2. Give you great up to date information to help you make great decisions.

With one more nostalgic step back, I would like to  quote the great philosopher, Meatloaf… “Two Out of Three Ain't Bad.”