Record working times 75% more effectively and create added value for every employee

The modern way of time tracking

Summary

• Fulfillment of statutory time recording in accordance with Section 16 Paragraph 2 of the Working Hours Act (ArbZG-E)
• Record working times 75% faster
  Employees can easily see how much time was spent on which topic
• Optionally, the data can be made transparent to superiors and colleagues

Challenge

IT Consult Services, a company specializing in customer projects in the fields of collaboration and artificial intelligence, employs 78 staff members. It is crucial for them to always be able to deploy their workforce effectively and bill correctly. The company already uses Microsoft Planner from the Microsoft 365 Cloud for project management and tracks working hours using Excel sheets. However, due to legal requirements for recording working hours electronically and immutably under the Working Time Protection Act, their current approach is no longer legally compliant, necessitating the adoption of a new solution.

Initially, the company attempted to record working hours using a separate cloud solution. This method proved impractical as the working hours recorded in projects and in the central time tracking system differed due to variances in recording methods and user errors. This approach risked the time tracking being deemed non-compliant, potentially leading to severe penalties of up to €30,000.

To avoid this unpredictable risk, the company decided to look for a solution based on MS365, integrated with the Microsoft 365 Planner. However, existing market solutions did not integrate properly, and the defined requirements could not be met satisfactorily by standard solutions.

Action

Based on the bloofactory Prozess, a solution was integrated and implemented within 8 weeks, building upon and into Microsoft 365. It was particularly important to maintain the connection to Microsoft 365 Planner projects, Microsoft Teams groups, and individual Planner tasks. A Microsoft Teams integrated application was developed that can be used from Microsoft Planner and Teams, building upon the existing data.

Each employee can efficiently record their times in a calendar through this system.

Simple recording of times related to projects / topics / areas.

Central calendar with all working times, training and vacation times

Central time recording list with all working times, training courses and vacation times

Easy control of recorded working times with optional detailed view per employee

Results

During a two-month trial period, a sophisticated Teams solution was developed and then implemented on a wide scale. By integrating it into the daily-used Microsoft Teams, time tracking was significantly simplified and centralized.

During the test period, over 1,500 individual entries from 10 test users were easily and elegantly recorded. The time required for recording was reduced by 75% compared to the previous solution, and the error rate due to input mistakes was reduced to below 1%.

At the same time, the revenue from billing services increased by 18.7%, making the work more effectively billable.

Thanks to the integration into Teams, the software could be implemented and trained across the board within a day.

Perspective

The revised time tracking system has already achieved significant improvements beyond meeting legal requirements. In further development stages, the integration of AI-based mechanisms is being tested to further simplify the recording of times through automated suggestions and to relieve employees from the burdensome task of time tracking.