Week 1. Task 2

Choose any specific IS products sold on the market or developed in-house. Then describe its value for the company and describe what parts/processes constitute main systems components as they are shown on fig. 1.3 (p.8).


At the Merchandising Company where I am currently employed at F&M Expressions Unlimited, we employ over 100 people to successfully run the company. Since we manufacture our own product within the company the biggest expense to the company is direct labor of its employees. F&M has a software called Time Guardian MTX which classifies employees by department, records days off, vacation time, holiday pay, hourly wages or salary amount, anything related to employee wages. Before computers were introduced into the company, employees hours were usually recorded on paper with a signature of supervisor approval. With this software everything is directed connected and recorded within the software. Schedules are setup for each employee per department to oversee when the employee should be clocking in for work, in and out for lunch break, and out for the end of the shift. An error is drawn if an employee works a shift outside their set schedule which the accounting department can investigate during processing hours for payroll. This software comes with a hand punch, where employees press their hand on a reading screen where the machine will read their hand to see if it matches the employee code entered to punch in for the day. This allows no error for employees trying to punch in for each other because every employee hand print is different thus not allowing two people to punch in under one set employee number. Once we poll the punches into the computer is analyzes against the set schedule to see if any employee is clocking incorrectly. Employees that put in for a sick day, vacation time are all matched up within the system for approval before adding it onto the employee's virtual time card.
This system is perfect for our company as it has been used for several years now without major error. It allows each employee to punch in and out without trouble and with security of their own information. There is no need for manual adjustments unless the employee forgets to punch. This allows us in accounting to ensure all labor is directly accounted for and correct. Once all the data is polled into the computer it is directly sent to Paychex Payroll Company to process paychecks for all employees for that pay period.
Input - employees manual punching in and out for their shift at work
Processing - The accounting department polling all punches to match their set schedule  to complete their hours worked for the given pay period.
Output- Paychex sends us the paychecks for each employee with the correct amount of hours worked caclulated by the software in Time Guardian
Feedback - Employees either satisfied or unsatisfied with the amount of hours, pay rate ect. Accounting Dept can always make further adjustment when necessary if employee missed a day of punches for example.
Overall, the system allow us to ensures we gain all accurate punches for employees to be paid for their work in the manufacturing plant. Its better then a piece of paper with hours written down and better then a stamp clock, because the unique hand reading will only allow that employee registered to the employee "pin #" to clock in and out. This software is used everyday of operation and is on a double battery backup in case of any emergency power outages or serge's. Since labor is 75% of the company's overall expenses it is very vital is information is as accurate and correct as possible. This software controls labor expense which adds up near 6 million dollars per year at the company so the importance of its accuracy is beyond great. 
The great part of about Time Guardian MTX is it catches any errors by drawing up an error code such as "MP" for missing punch. The system catches whenever there is uneven amount of punches signifying the data is incomplete and is not ready for processing. When an employee forgets to punch or that data is not received correctly the system draws an error code for the accounting department to do further research. Missing information can lead to incorrect time cards for employees which does not go over well. Even though it's the employee's responsibility to punch it the system has each schedule to check against to make sure the data was polled in completion. The feedback from the employee after receiving a short paid payroll check will not be good, its so our job in accounting to review every single time card per employee to make sure the system caught all errors. 
Like stated before, the input is the employee punching in and out for work. Processing is the information being transmitted or "polled" into the computer system for accounting to review. The output is when the data is transmitted to Paychex payroll company to create employee payroll checks to be distributed. Finally, the feedback comes from the employee whether the paycheck is correct or not. Negative feedback will result is missing or incorrect data was received by the hand punch clock resulting with a incorrect pay check. If the error favors the employee, very shockingly we will never hear about it from the employee, but if it is to the disadvantage of the employee a payroll adjustment will have to be made for the employee the following pay period. Missing information is never good and the software is put in place to help prevent any missing or incorrect data.
In the year and half I have been working with this software, I have maybe seen a handful of missing data which accounting caught on the final review and a manual adjustment was made to correct the data. Without this software each of the 100 employees would have to faithfully fill out a manual time card for a supervisor to review and approval for a pay check. This obviously can get dangerous trying to trust every employee to write down their honest hours vs what they can "get away with" because of lack of technology to record this data. With Tim Guardian keeping track of employee schedules and matching them to the time punch our system is very successful is paying our employees for their honest hard work.