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Efficient People Solutions
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Case Study
Captor helps IHC Holland become more flexible
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| A few words about IHC |
| IHC Holland is a member of the IHC Caland Group, a holding company whose businesses act internationally as suppliers and
operators in off-shore oil and gas operations, dredging, shipbuilding and navigation. A ship-builder for nearly three centuries,
IHC Holland has a well-earned reputation for constructing dredging barges and vessels. With a near 50% share of its market,
IHC Holland is a name to be reckoned with in the sector. The company is diversifying into products such as drilling platform
foundations and loose soil tunnel systems.
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| IHC Holland's dredging barges are built in Kinderdijk and Sliedrecht, not far from Rotterdam (the Netherlands). This facility
has a workforce of 1,500 to 1,600. There are other smaller sites in the Netherlands. After a first successful collaboration
with Captor - the installation and launch of badge readers to record attendance and absence, and safety measures in the Kinderdijk
premises - IHC Holland decided to introduce time and access control management for a very large complex project.
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| How to manage flexitime effectively |
| For IHC Holland, the 'Work & Care' project involved a switch from a fixed timetable to flexitime right across the enterprise,
with employees able to organise their attendance according to a flexible schedule. This approach to time management is more
motivating for the employees and they are less prone to the stress caused by minor lateness due to traffic snarl-ups or a
family emergency. Since clocking in and out is trouble-free, the general work atmosphere has improved, and individual time
management tends to empower employees in a positive way.
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| On the other hand, this kind of corporate change inevitably impacts the way the organization works. Attendance and absence
have to be recorded accurately to ensure correct hour counts; which is why the various departments have to coordinate their
actions where there is staff collaboration. Management must naturally be able to monitor the whole process.
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| "Captor was a natural partner for radical change in our way of organizing our timetabling," says Arwin Visser, ICT Coordinator
at IHC Holland. "We knew some of their products and we liked their approach, based on a willingness to listen to us. During
the trial phase, for example, Captor proved extremely flexible when the badge editing and printing software had to be reworked
to our special needs. This concern for the customer was a deciding factor when we thought of Captor for a new project. Another
decisive argument was the quality of the system support and the service contracts, as well as Captor's management hardware
and software functionality. This includes, for example, an excellent integrated report generator. It is extremely flexible
and easy to configure, so now we don't have to model and develop reports on an external application. This has led to substantial
cost savings into the bargain."
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| The Captor solution for IHC |
| When IHC Holland launched its new 'Work & Care' project at the beginning of 2001, Captor was brought in to work closely with
them from the start. One of the first tasks was to develop middleware to make Efficient, Captor's management software, interoperate
with the financial, payroll and production schedule management software already in use at IHC Holland. "This was a make-or-break
condition besides the primary work time registration tasks," says Arwin Visser. "Working on time forms a major share of our
livelihood." In March 2001, the middleware component was ready, as were the first buildings equipped with the cables and terminals
for a gradual roll out. The whole system was operational by November, right on schedule. In 2002, the system was expanded
and fine-tuned by an application administrator who added 25 to 30 'active' users with management and planning rights.
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| The IHC Holland system is built around a centralised database on a server in Kinderdijk with a high-speed link to the Sliedrecht
site. Efficient software makes it possible to record and manage attendance and work hours for 1,500 to 1,600 people, with
data supplied via 45 input terminals and 35 badge readers. "We also like the Efficient-Personal module," says Arwin Visser.
"Its user-friendly interface allows department heads to plan timetables quickly and flexibly, while the employees can organise
their own schedules by consulting their timetables and working hours on an individual basis. They use PCs located for instance
at the entrance to the workshops or the staff canteen - an easy, fast and individually empowering solution. With Efficient,
everyone involved knows what their working hours are, and the software is flexible enough to adapt timetable arrangements
to the needs of each separate department."
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| At IHC Holland, temporary employees also work within the flexitime system. Variable schemes are managed internally and are
calculated at the end of the contract. Flat rate hours worked are sent to the employment agency and paid by them in the usual
way.
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| In addition to recording and monitoring working time, Captor's very flexible access control system has proved a further asset
for IHC Holland. "In our corporate culture, we try to avoid the 'watch and punish' approach," says Arwin Visser. "Badge readers
- we now have about 35, and we are planning to install more - are not primarily used to check people's comings and goings
or monitor how they spend their time. We cover these through our personal, verbal agreements. But we are concerned to make
our premises safe while giving everyone the right to come and go where they need to, even outside of normal working hours.
We use a system of differentiated access levels, managed for each department by a technical service using a special software
module." The whole system favors a flexible approach and its configurations can easily be modified. IHC Holland is also pleased
with the openness of the access control system, and soon plans to integrate some components of the alarm center as well as
access to doors, barriers and gates at the Kinderdijk site.
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| "All in all, IHC Holland is an exciting project, delivering satisfying results for our customer and ourselves," says Vincent
Peskens, Sales Manager with Captor. "We have provided a high quality service embedded in a long term relationship, and due
to our work developing new software solutions, we have broadened and deepened our own expertise." IHC Holland intends to continue
to work with Captor, and is currently testing the latest version of Efficient, which features a new e-mail function, new types
of reports and a wider selection of management information functions.
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