Five Reasons Time And Attendance Tracking Software Implementations Exceed Budget

The following list is not in any particular order

. Ive seen Time and Attendance Tracking software projects exceed budget expectations for all of the reasons listed below. My objective with this article is to provide some foresight into why a project might exceed budget and, hopefully, help you limit the chance that the project exceeds the agreed upon budget for the work. Ive had to go to companies in the past and provide reasons why we were not going to complete a project within the budgeted expectations so I know firsthand that this is not much fun.

1. Time and Attendance System Implementation Scope not defined If you have specific interfaces, reports, or capabilities you need from your new Timekeeping System, make absolutely sure the time is allotted within the scope of the engagement. With my prior consulting practice, we would break down each function and process of the implementation by a range of hours. Specific custom interfaces or custom reporting requirements were included as a line item.

2. Time Attendance Software Implementers access to time and attendance Payroll, HR and IT resources are limited The few times we came in over budget on projects, this was frequently the reason. Before we would schedule time or book travel arrangements, we required the client to send us, in advance, everything we would need to set up the product. Often times we set up many of the code tables and data remotely and then finished the setup on site. Even with this process we occasionally ran over budget because of limited access to HR or IT resources. Make sure your IT staff makes time available to assist the implementer and make sure someone within the HR staff is available for any issues or questions that may arise. Hourly rates for Time and Attendance Tracking Software implementation experts can run well over $100 an hour so its a good idea to not have them waiting around for access to those people from whom they may need assistance.

3. Lack of experience from the Time and Attendance Tracking Software implementer Im sure you checked references for the software you plan on selecting. Did you check references on the person who will implement it? Every Time and Attendance Tracking Software implementation expert has to perform their first five installs of a product. My advice is to not be one of the first five and maybe even the first ten. With HR applications, it takes that many installs to figure out what you are doing. Sure, the implementer may be certified on the product but there is absolutely no substitute for experience. Ask the companies you are considering for references on projects that your assigned implementation specialist performed.

4. The project time was under quoted This is rare and its a good thing it is. In the past, I have seen a few companies purposely under quote a consulting project to win the deal. The project is then half completed and they let you know additional consulting time is needed to finish. When you end up contacting references regarding the software and the implementer, its a good idea to ask if the project exceeded the budget or not. If you chat with four or five references and all of their projects exceeded the budget, this might be a red flag.

5. Unforeseen computer errors and conflicts We all use computers and weve all seen very strange unexplainable problems occur. Any time you are installing a software application mistakes and conflicts are possible. With a prior Time and Attendance Tracking Software I performed implementations on we ran into a handful of situations where we could not get our system to install correctly on a customers servers. Installing the system, at most, was usually supposed to take only a few hours. Ive seen it take an entire day. The problem with this budget exceeding reason is that its no ones fault and it cant be predicted. On a positive note, this type of problem was rare and not the norm.

As I have pointed out in this article, there are many reasons a Time and Attendance Tracking Software implementation might exceed budget. Ive tried to point out a few of the more obvious reasons to hopefully allow you to avoid those situations. Budgets are tight right now and no one wants to go to their boss and let them know an expensive project just became a whole lot more expensive.

by: Bruce A Anderson

POST COMMENT

How To Fix Corefoundation Dll Errors - Quick Help ! Can't Load System32 ? - Enough with Errors ! How To Fix File Exe Errors - Here is a Fixer ! Error In Ntdll.Dll - Here is What to Do ! System32 Script Error - Here is a Fixer ! What Features Must Good Web Conferencing Software Have? Benefits of Clinical Software Error Fix Removal-Error Fix Review Importance of Clinic management Software Macintosh Data Recovery Software Error Fix Tool-Error Fix Review Error Fix Tool Review-Error Fix Review Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Buffer Overrun Error - Fix!