Lifestyle Sports

CONTACT: TONY MCENTEE, DIRECTOR

At a Glance

Sector: Retail

Employees: 1000

Product Installed: TMS (Time and Attendance software)

Client Objectives: Keeping an accurate record of hours over a variety of locations; streamlining of work activities.

They say: The workload and wages bill have both decreased, while company has grown.

Irregular Work Schedules

Lifestyle Sports is Ireland's largest sports retailer supplying sports equipment, clothing and footwear with 67 stores nationwide, 14 of which are in Northern Ireland. The company has 1000 employees countrywide working temporary, full-time and part-time shifts with irregular work schedules. Mr Tony McEntee, Director explained, 'In the past we operated a manual hand-written system which was time-consuming, inefficient and open to error. It was impossible to keep an accurate record of hours." He required a time and attendance solution that would be able to monitor all the different shifts and hours in a variety of locations in an efficient and controlled way.

TMS brings 10% Saving in Net Wages

Advance Systems' Time and Attendance software (TMS) was installed in 2001 and was launched in all stores countrywide. "It has been a huge success, It has driven costs down; there is accurate control of hours. Each store can decide in advance the number of staff that is required for the following week and this has cut overtime for the company by 1.5 million. This has generated a 10% saving in net wages' according to Mr McEntee.

Streamlining of Company's Processes

The time and attendance system streamlined the company's labour activities, thus saving the company financially. Managers' workloads have decreased and the business has grown with the same resources. The minimum of training was required as the system is so user friendly. Deadlines are no longer an issue as the system is so accurate and reporting is so efficient they can be met with no pressure. Employees reacted well to the system as it gave them ownership of their hours and ensured accurate calculation of holidays due etc.

Professional Team with 'Can-Do' Approach

Tony Mc Entee commented: "Advance Systems has given me a truly professional and excellent service. Our working relationship is very good. Advance Systems were chosen over their competitors because of their can-do approach, they have a very professional team, they listened to the needs of our company and I felt they would provide the time and attendance system that would suit us." He also added that cost was not a factor when choosing this system.