CS Holdings recognised as top performing Kronos dealer

Showing its mettle as a heavyweight player in the solutions market, JSE-listed CS Holdings has been recognised as the best performing dealer in the world by time and attendance management giant, Kronos.

The Systems Integration division at CS Holdings, which holds the sole rights to the Kronos product in SA, secured the award through achieving 132% of the target set by Kronos in 2003.

Says David Hunter, a divisional manager for Systems Integration: "Kronos is the biggest time and attendance software company in the world offering the most effective and versatile workforce management solutions, so winning this award comes with quite a bit of prestige. The award is for best performance against targets set by Kronos, so it means that we have overshot our target by the biggest margin out of all the Kronos dealers in the world - an achievement we`re proud of."

Currently Systems Integration has 170 Kronos customers in SA and Hunter says the retail sector in particular has adopted the Kronos solutions and realised the benefits with customers like the Edcon group, Pick 'n Pay and Shoprite. "We are also a strong player in the manufacturing space, with the likes of Nestle, Macsteel, Oceana and Illovo using Kronos solutions from us."

"Our biggest differentiator is that we are a business and IT solutions company with a depth of knowledge in Kronos and the time and attendance management market in general," Hunter says. The philosophy behind our approach to time management is to empower the supervisors and line managers on the shop floor to make online decisions using Kronos.

"As far as innovations that keep Kronos ahead of the pack go, the latest innovation is the Web-based software which we`re currently using at Nestle and Macsteel," says Hunter. "Because the product is Web-based, it can be run from a central server and is far simpler to manage. There is also a substantial saving on labour and training, since the product requires fewer administrators and is controlled from a central point," he continues.

"Apart from Kronos being important to us as a brand, time and attendance software is critical to the successful running of a business today. Good time management actually saves the company a great deal of money, over and above that it offers the customer a very quick return on investment (ROI)."

Hunter says research conducted independently by Nucleus Research, shows the average organisation surveyed got full return on its Kronos investment within five months. "Furthermore, Nucleus says more than three-quarters of users reported a ROI of above 250% and that savings through the elimination of payroll errors, paid for the implementation costs of the solution for more than 88% of the users surveyed.

"Kronos is an American-based product with thousands of installations in every conceivable industry and type of business. The versatility of the product, the ability to gain from the worldwide Kronos experience, and CS Holdings` business solution approach places our offering head and shoulders above our competition. What adds to our success in this market is the fact that we have a highly-skilled team that understands the market and the South African labour law - an essential attribute for success."

Looking at the future of the time and attendance market, Hunter says the potential for growth is huge. "Last year, Kronos spent $40 million on research and development. Add to that the fact that Kronos has certified interfaces into major ERP solutions like SAP and JDE (both represented by CS Holdings), and you`ve got a product and a market that`s worth betting on," he concludes.