TimeControl Public Sector Solution Area

TimeControl in the Public Sector

Public sector organizations are challenged by applying private sector requirements yet maintaining public sector standards and systems. When public sector organizations look for a timesheet, TimeControl is a popular choice.

More and more, organizations in the public sector are being called upon to manage themselves as though they were in the private sector. The interest in transparency, good governance and effective use of taxpayer funds has expanded in recent years and this interest has fostered a keen interest in the public sector of flexible off the shelf timesheet systems. Yet, while the demand to apply additional private sector management metrics increases, there is no relief from the existing standards and challenges that already exist in the public sector.

Timesheet interest in the public sector has expanded dramatically in recent years and finding a timesheet system that works in the public sector is more challenging than might otherwise be expected.

The standards, metrics and oversight that are requested of organizations at the federal, state, regional and municipal levels are familiar to those in the private sector and timesheet systems in the private sector for managing those metrics are plentiful. However, managing an organization in the public sector carries a range of challenges that the private sector does not have to deal with.

Metrics in the public sector are rarely profit. Instead, satisfaction metrics such as citizen satisfaction, reduction of waste or speed of response must be measured. The public sector must also commonly deal with unionized employees and their collective agreements. Most public sector organizations must manage a mix of government staff and private contractors who, in some cases are embedded and interwoven into groups which produce the work of the organization.

Flexibility

The timesheet system must be able to adapt its terminology, its data structure and even its process to the particular organization. This may mean that fields that would be required in a private sector system must be obscured or even removed. TimeControl is tremendously flexible in this area. It allows for an unlimited number of custom fields to be added to both the associated tables and to the timesheet itself and existing fields can be renamed, mapped to drop-down lists or removed from view with default values if required still populating them.

Ease of Use

A key requirement of timesheet systems in this situation is that end users must be able to perform their regular timesheet functions with minimal or no training. TimeControl also excels in this area. While TimeControl contains a robust collection of features, only those features which the end user actually requires are presented. This reduces the amount of clutter and confusion that is caused by many other systems. Also, the layout of the timesheet and the ability to pre-populate data on a person-by-person basis results in HMS not even having end-user training classes. Training for TimeControl is typically reserved for Administrators and Supervisors who will use more of the system.

Ability to Link to what's there

Public sector systems for financial management, human resource management, project and work management are often either internally developed or highly customized. When a timesheet system must link to these legacy systems, it must be flexible. TimeControl's Link module was designed with an infinite amount of flexibility in mind. Out of the box, TimeControl can prepare a transaction file in CSV or XML format which precisely matches the requirements of the existing system. In addition, TimeControl is already designed to link to external data sources for validation of data elements such as department names, project lists and cost center codes.

Speed of deployment

Public sector organizations work under tremendous pressure and when there is a demand for metrics such as a timesheet provides, it often has resulted from legislative promises to produce those results. In this situation, it is critical to be able to deploy the timesheet in a timely fashion. TimeControl deployment schedules are measured in days, not months and even complex requirements can be delivered with a minimal involvement by external personnel.

Low Cost

Deploying TimeControl is one of the most cost effective timesheet solutions available today. TimeControl licenses cost only pennies a day and, thanks to its flexible hardware requirements, support software for the system is typically already in place.

Known in the public sector

TimeControl has been available as a commercial off the shelf application since 1984 and is already in use by public sector organizations at the municipal, regional, state/provincial and federal levels in many countries around the world. Whether you are in Canada, the US, Australia, the UK or the EU, TimeControl is in use in the public sector near you.

Interest for TimeControl from public sector organizations continues to grow. We invite you to look at how TimeControl can help resolve your timesheet challenges.

See the resources section to find out more about TimeControl or contact a TimeControl representative and have us answer any questions you may have.

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