Among the firm’s business principles is the strong belief that employees are the company’s most valued assets. To provide that asset with quality service, Broadview needed to get a handle on its ability to manage employee human resources data across different locations.

   "We’d been using paper-based Excel spreadsheets, which didn’t give us nearly enough functionality or the information that we needed," said Rene Kraenzlin, Broadview’s managing director and chief administrative officer. "For example, when we needed last year’s salary information for a particular employee group, we had to track down the data and dump it into an Excel document to figure it out. It took us hours just to perform this one task."

    Broadview evaluated a number of HR management systems but soon realized most were either too expensive or too complicated for their needs.

    "We looked for a robust system that would be easy enough for every HR team member to use; one that would enable our team to generate simple reports. We found most HR systems were very difficult to use and very expensive," said Kraenzlin. "We had a specific list of features we needed such as flexibility in design, ease of use, reporting capabilities and strong benefits management. We felt that most of the systems out on the market only met a few of our criteria."

    Through research on the Web, Kraenzlin learned about HROffice, an HRMS system from Ascentis Software. HROffice allows companies to track employee compensation and benefits ranging from personal data, benefits coverage, compensation history, COBRA, FMLA eligibility and maintenance, OSHA tracking and more. HROffice’s custom reports feature allows users to generate information within minutes, saving days worth of work using manual report generation methods. The system also allows flexibility in customizing features to meet benefits management and tracking eligibility.

    "Ascentis gave me a demo to play around with and I saw just how easy it was to use and became sold on the product," said Kraenzlin.

    Broadview implemented HROffice in 2002. "Implementation was very quick; I was able to transfer existing data into HROffice in no time."

Reporting simplified
    Gone are the days--and weeks--spent generating simple reports. Kraenzlin cites reporting capabilities as a major advantage of HROffice. "Now, when we need to run a report on salaries for the same employee group I mentioned earlier, HROffice enables us to generate that report in two minutes," said Kraenzlin.

    With its ease of use and intuitive Windows-based platform, all of Broadview’s HR staff are experts on the software and can run reports. "Before, in our staff of five people, only one person was able to generate a report. Now, all of our staff can perform these tasks and don’t have to spend days learning the software in order to use it."

Solid benefits management equals cost savings
    Kraenzlin also applauds HROffice’s strong benefits management capabilities. With the ability to more accurately assess the company’s benefits costs, Broadview can determine the true cost analysis of benefits and get more bang for the buck.

    "Previously, we had no way of summarizing our actual benefits costs in one simple report. HROffice gives us a better handle on the actual costs of benefits and we can determine cost analysis. We couldn’t do this pre-HROffice."

    "Now that all our HR and benefits data are in one place, we simply use the wizards feature of HROffice to compare benefits. We can easily see individual costs employees are paying and compare that with the amount the company pays. This makes us much more knowledgeable and responsive since we don’t have to scramble around for data."

Self-service functionality helps employees help themselves
    Broadview’s HR staff is realizing significant time-savings as a result of HROffice’s latest technology advancement: HROffice Self-Service, an employee self-service module of HROffice.

    Built on the Microsoft .NET platform, HROffice Self-Service enables employees to access and update their HR, benefits, attendance, and personal information through a Web browser. With HROffice Employee Self-Service, Broadview’s HR staff can focus on more strategic initiatives since employees are able to access and update their own information. For example, employees can compare benefits plans, look up vacation accruals and change their benefits information.

    "By allowing employees to take charge of their HR and personnel information, we no longer have to send out quarterly benefits summaries. This was a very time consuming process that took our staff two to three weeks to compile since we had to collect and verify data and then follow up with each employee," said Kraenzlin. "Now, employees can view their own data and make changes. This saves us printing costs associated with generating benefits summaries and ensures that we are working with accurate information."

    "HROffice is amazing. When you look at the price and features of the software, it’s just unbelievable how much functionality you get for your money. We’re in awe of HROffice."