Reselling time clocks is different from reselling time clock systems. Time clocks work as one piece – a critically important piece – but still one piece of a larger ecosystem of attendance tracking and employee management software support solutions. The most successful resellers are solution providers, not just a software vendor. Reselling time clocks will be most lucrative for you when you approach it as a means for increasing the value of your software’s usefulness to your customers. Achieving this requires you to provide an advanced middleware layer to manage the communication between the time clocks and your system.
A sophisticated middleware layer manages the swift and accurate two-way data and communication flow between the time clocks and your back-end system. It expands the utility and value of your software as it operates within a time clock system.
You can build your own communication and data management platform, or you can use a time clock supplier’s communication and data management middleware, such as ATS’ cloud-based AccuCloud system. Either way, you need a mechanism to handle the essential integration tasks that comes with connecting time clocks to your employee management solution.
How ATS’s Middleware Benefits Your Software and Time Clocks
AccuCloud contains a communications and data management middleware that sits in-between your back end system and ATS time clocks. It does the heavy lifting that maximizes functionality and flexibility, while also making time clock management easy.
Below is just some of what the AccuCloud middleware can do. We can’t vouch for what another business’s middleware can do; that depends entirely on the scope of functionality it was designed to control.
Improves Speed and Accuracy of Payroll
Your customers expect that automating employee time and attendance tracking makes payroll runs fast, easy, and error free. So the time clocks need to be configured to collect the right information and then that information needs to get back to your back-end software system, to process payroll.
To do this, the time clock system middleware needs to do more than simply deliver punch data from the time clock to your system. It must also deliver vital employee information from back-end systems so the time clocks can fully and accurately collect punch data from employees.
For example, if an employee moves to a new department, the middleware will push that update to the time clock shortly after the HCM system is updated. Now, all payroll is accurately attributed to the right department without requiring any extra work by payroll or HR personnel.
A sophisticated middleware quickly transfers new and updated employee information from the system of record down to the time clock. Now the new employee can use the time clock from day one and your customer isn’t frustrated by having to fall back on a manual workaround because the system updates slowly.
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Automates Time Clock and Time Collection Software Updates
The middleware is more than a push and pull of data from and to your back-end system. The AccuCloud middleware component can:
- Automate transfer of employee demographic data to the time clock.
- Transfer employee punches to the back-end system for payroll processing, including labeling the type of punch, specifically whether it’s in or out, or a meal break.
- Update time clock time collection software to include different functionality, such as tracking job transfers or meal breaks or view scheduling, if this is a part of your offering.
- Update time clock software to restrict employees from punching in when they’re not scheduled.
- Update time clock operating system, software, and push out security patches quickly.
- Create employees or time clock groupings that keep the time clock experience fast for employees.
- Change the messages that appear on the time clock, whether it’s a new welcome message, a departmental update, or requiring an employee attestation.
The ATS middleware is responsible for automating the time clock configuration setup and system updates, including security patches, and operating system and software updates. You’re working directly with the OEM, instead of a middleman that ties you down to someone else’s version release or update schedule.
With our middleware controlling software upgrades, you eliminate the risks and headaches that come with your customers using time clocks running on different operating system or software versions. Even better, you let your customers avoid the cost and service interruption of needing someone making direct contact with each time clock to complete rolling out updates.
If you want to offer customers an automated time keeping solution with a biometric time clock solution, you need to offer a complete solution, one that provides a hands-off approach to time keeping.
Build or Buy Your Data Management Middleware System?
Offering prospects and customers a time clock system as part of your comprehensive employee management solution demands a communications and data management engine that facilitates the data sharing and system update roll outs.
Let’s face it, you don’t want to rely on them to update the security and software on the time clocks, do you? Being able to use middleware to push out time clock updates exponentially simplifies your fleet management and the customer support experience you can provide. Just one more way to help you make many happy and lasting customers. This includes your small business customers. They might not have all the sophisticated employee data collection and management requirements that your enterprise customers do. Even so, they still deserve and benefit from a system as robust, secure, and advanced as the big players.
So the question becomes: do you build your own middleware?
Building flexible, inclusive middleware software is complicated. We know, we build middleware custom tailored to operate with our time clocks. But that’s our job, providing the components our resale partners need to offer a complete time clock solution that enhances their software.
The costs and risks of building your own middleware layer, can be prohibitive. It will certainly add considerable time to your go-to-market plan and significantly cut down the ROI potential for reselling time clocks.
ATS Partners with You for Time Clocks and Middleware
We want your time clock resale partnership with us to be a success. That’s why we’re not simply hardware partners. ATS offers you fast access to full employee time collection systems that makes it easy and lucrative to resell a complete WFM/HCM solution.
Our AccuCloud system includes the time clocks and middleware layer you need to make data and communication management between time clocks and your software easy, so you don’t have to divert development resources from your core solution. AccuCloud also provides other integration oversight and time clock management tools for resellers that partner with us.
Contact Our Experts Today
To learn more about how to maximize profitability of your time clock resale program, email or phone us today. Our consultants can show you all the ways offering a complete time clock system will augment your solution’s value and serve your customers.