Author: Spine Tech

There might be apps on your phone which are just there. You don’t know their purpose so you don’t use them.

What if I told you, using these apps can greatly increase your productivity? Here are 6 feature of Spine HR Suite which are very often overlooked by users-

– Visitor Management

You would not want to skip on your visitor appointments. Or even worse- poor hospitality! We are sure you would not want to disappoint your precious visitors. Visitor Management helps you schedule visitor appointments. Hosts can request visitor meets and visitors can be directly approved by the security by checking into the system. For regular visitors a pass with photographs can be made as well. Having a visitor management module eliminates the possibility of proxy visitors.

– Travel Request

Booking tickets? Cancellation? Where to stay and halt? Hotel Booking and Reservation? That is so much work apart from the course of the business. But there’s a way to get around all of it and not affect the efficiency at all. Travel Management it is! You can create tour plans,  outline, book tickets, hotels, cancel if required and check the itinerary status as well! The flow would be driven by the approval matrix and tickets/receipts are required to be attached for submission of expenses.

– Expense Management

Did someone say expense management? Expense management is one very commonly overlooked feature. In the course of business or not, the expenses are very important to be tracked. With an expense manager, you can sort and categorise your expenses under different heads. One will require the bill/receipt to submit the expense request. Cheque payments, Foreign Currency payments and Per Kilometre expenses (for travel) can also be recorded!

– Discussion Forum

An online forum where the employees of an organisation can put forth their views with regards to the betterment of the organisation. Sounds too good to be true right? With Spine HR Suite’s Discussion Forum, this has become a reality! HR can create a discussion panel and a topic for open discussion. Employees can like, dislike or even comment on other employees’ comments. One can surely say this is a social media for official use!

– Resource Booking

Remember that time when you wanted to use the conference room for a very important zoom call but there was already a meeting going on there? Yes, this can be prevented with the Resource Booking feature! Various assets can be allocated to employees for a set period of time. And one can also check the availability of resources at their convenience.

– Request Desk

Instead of going to the HR every now and then to check the status of your request, you can just view it on the request desk! You can request or cancel requests at any time. Apart from that you can track the escalation of your pending requests. Even closed request details can also be extracted!

 

In Conclusion, there are many features in an HRMS which are overlooked and undervalued. If you are an existing user of Spine HR Suite, you can now use these features to their maximum potential. And if you are looking out for an HRMS which would boost your organisation’s efficiency by automating processes, Spine HR Suite is what you are looking for!

Fixed Assets are surely a very integral part of any organisation. But the real question arises when you ask “is it really important?”

The answer is YES! It is extremely important to manage your fixed assets efficiently! Why? Well, here are 4 reasons why-

– Tracking Fixed Assets

The most common problem organisations face while managing fixed assets is tracking them. Be it the life cycle of an asset or the current holder. It is important for an organisation to know where its assets are. The most effective way of tracking assets is implementation of  Fixed Asset Management System. There are various ways of tracking fixed assets but the most popular way is to assign them a barcode/ QR code or an RFID tag. This makes tracking of assets way more convenient.

 

– IT Asset Tracking

 An FAMS helps an organisation manage it’s IT Infrastructure by keeping a date sheet and reminding and/or notifying about renewals/ expiry/ service dues, by Helping them track the IT Assets and by assisting in allocating the proper asset to the proper employee. If looked at from a different perspective, IT Assets are the core of an organisation. Be it laptops, desktops or just anti-virus software, IT Assets need to be tracked and managed like actual fixed assets. Here are 4 ways in which a Good FAMS will help you manage your IT Assets.

– Categorisation of Assets

With an efficient Fixed asset management system, you can create asset categories as per your convenience. Asset categories may include simple, general categories like IT Assets, Furniture, Machinery, etc. Besides this, you can also create more specific categories like laptops, Air Conditioners, etc. You can also create sub categories like One Ton Air Conditioner, Half Ton Air Conditioner, etc! An FAMS for sure, will make asset tracking much easier for you!

– Asset Disposal

Asset disposal is the elimination of an asset from a company’s records, typically by selling or scrapping it. These are often long-term assets that contributed to generating profits, such as machinery, technology or company vehicles. Asset disposal can be mistaken very easily by not recording the correct value or by miscalculating the scrap value. FAMS helps you in recording depreciation on a regular basis, being automated, an FAMS provides accurate calculation regardless of the method of calculation (unless you switch in the course of the lifetime of the asset of course). Having access to the lifecycle of an asset also helps one in proper calculation of the disposal value and the authentication of the depreciation applied over the lifetime.

In conclusion, having an Asset Management system is extremely necessary in an organisation. You know what else is necessary? A good Fixed Asset Management System. Here are 4 advantages of an Asset Management Software & How to choose a FAMS? 

As the name suggests, “Hybrid” Deployment takes elements from both On-Premise and On-Cloud Deployment options.

 

It gives you confidentiality by installing the software on your premises while keeping the costs comparatively lower. This kind of hosting offers you a hybrid of both traditional hosting options. The cost is a bit higher as compared to on-cloud but it also has a higher level of customizability. It is suitable for organisations which have multiple softwares but do not want to or cannot get an on premise server.

 

Listed below are the advantages and disadvantages of Hybrid Hosting:

Advantages:

• Cost

As compared to On Premise hosting, Hybrid more offers you a lower initial upfront cost. Instead, the upfront cost is usually distributed over the course of a year. This makes it more affordable for the smaller organisations who are also looking out for confidentiality. Hybrid hosting keeps the costs loewer without compromising on confidentiality.

• Customisation

Since the system as well as the software is on your premises, you have a greater level of customizability. Along with that, updates and maintenance is easier as well because of the constant support of the provider. In terms of customizability, hybrid hosting is the best of both worlds.

• Accessibility

Just like an On Cloud System, you can access Hybrid HRMS at your convenience. But Hybrid does not limit the accessibility to just the software, since the system is also on your premises, you can access the system and server just as easily. Now that is a win-win!

Disadvantages:

• Long-Term Cost

When we look at the long-term cost of an Hybrid system, it turns out to be more than the one time initial investment you make with On Premise HRM System since the payments are spread over a period of time, the costs add up to a great amount.

• Server & Maintenance

Since the server is on your premises, you need to have a dedicated IT Team and bear server maintenance costs. Just like an On Premise system, the server maintenance costs are higher here.

In short, Hybrid Hosting takes the pros and cons of on premise and SaaS and eliminates their shortcomings. It minimises the disadvantages and maximises the advantages. 

Hybrid Hosting, being so complicated to deploy, is difficult to find in India. Spine Technologies is one of the very few solution providers who provide all three deployment options. On-Premise, SaaS or Hybrid deployment, Spine HR Suite is the way to go! You can learn more about Spine HR Suite here.

Is On-Premise deployment a hassle? Is it worth it? Too Expensive?

You might have thought these things if you have ever considered deploying an HR System. On premise HRMS is the most secure way of storing your data and ensuring your confidentiality. 

Following are the pros and cons of an on-premise HRMS:

Pros:

• Long-Term Cost

The upfront cost of implementing an On-Premise HRMS System might be large but if we look at the full cost of ownership and longevity, the cost is comparatively lower than the recurring payments. SaaS deployment asks for a fee and charges on a periodic basis be it monthly, quarterly or annually. These fees add up to a huge amount in the long term. Larger organisations with plenty of resources are advised to get the HRMS deployed at their premises. On-Cloud deployment still stays relevant nevertheless.

• Control

With On-Premise HRMS, you have complete control of your system and the server, given that you have a dedicated IT Team. Since the hardware and data belongs to you, any changes or configurations can be done at your convenience. This is one of the major advantages of On-Premise deployment; you have access to your data all  the time! 

• Security

With HRMS hosted on premise, only you have access to your data. No one outside your network can access your organisation’s data. One can certainly say that on-premise hosting is the most secure way of storing and hosting an HRM System. Bigger organisations who have to ensure confidentiality should go for on-premise hosting of HRMS.

Cons:

• Upfront Cost

The upfront cost of hosting HRMS on premise is large. A smaller organisation might not be able to afford to bear the upfront cost of hosting an HR Management System on their own premises. Since the upfront costs are so high, smaller organisations are advised to get a system deployed on cloud.

• Maintenance

The cost for maintenance of an on premise HRM System is higher as compared to a cloud hosted HRMS as well. Also the organisation must bear the cost of a dedicated IT Team as well. Plenty of infrastructure is also required to deploy an HRMS on one’s own premises.

• Deployment

The deployment process of an on premise HR System is lengthy and time consuming as well. On Premise HRMS deployment is suitable for bigger organisations who must maintain a high level of confidentiality and must have secure connections. It takes an average of 7 days to deploy an HR System. Depending upon the efficiency of the client’s server and IT infrastructure, it may take longer.

In conclusion, On- Premise HRMS deployment is advisable for bigger organisations who have plenty of resources and IT infrastructure. Also it takes a lot of upfront investment which might not be affordable to the smaller organisations.

Spine HR Suite provides you all three types of deployment options- On-Premise, SaaS and Hybrid. You might also want to read 5 necessary elements that you must look for in an HRMS. You can learn more about Spine HR Suite here.

“Software as a Service” do these words scare you?

Don’t worry it is not at all complicated! This blog will take you through the meaning of SaaS and its pros and cons .So you know about the deployment option you want and you can carry out your HR Activities at full efficiency!

 

What is SaaS (Software as a Service)?

Software as a Service (SaaS) or more commonly referred to as “On-Cloud” Deployment is the type of software deployment wherein the system is installed on  the provider’s end or a third-party host. Following are the advantages and disadvantages of a SaaS deployment option: 

Pros:

• Accessibility

With your Login ID and Password, you can access cloud hosted HRMS from anywhere at any time. On-Cloud HR Systems can be accessed through Android, iOS and Web. provided that the solution provider is present on these platforms. With a good internet connection, SaaS deployed systems are very accessible

 

• Affordability

Cloud based HRM systems are cheaper as compared to an on-premise HRMS in the short term as there is no huge upfront cost. On-Cloud deployment asks for payements at regular intervals though. These periodic payments include the maintenance costs, support costs and licensing as well. It is advisable for a smaller organisation with no dedicated server to go for SaaS deployment as- 1) There is no requirement of a server  and 2) There is no requirement for technical experts. Cutting out these two factors greatly affect the cost of implementation and the system as well.

 

• Easy Maintenance

Maintenance is very easy with cloud hosted HRMS. Since it is externally hosted, there is no need for you to worry about or invest time in the maintenance of your software. You just need to ensure timely payment of maintenance fees. With SaaS deployment you do not need to worry about the technical part of the maintenance of the.

 

• Easy Deployment

A cloud hosted HRMS is easier to deploy as it is accessible through the internet. It can be set up in less time as there is no need to install a physical server. Deployment here, also takes a lot less time and is quicker than the traditional on premise deployment. The deployment and usage is as easy as installing an application.

 

Cons:

• Connectivity

With HRMS deployed on cloud, there is a necessity of a reliable internet connection as the server is accessed through the internet. If you do not have a strong, secure and reliable internet connection, you might face some inconveniences when trying to connect.

 

• Customisation

Since the system is not present on the premises of your organisation, customisation and/or configuration of the system is a difficult process. Also sometimes, complex configurations may not align with a cloud server. Customisation, though limited, is possible. Do contact your service provider to ask if the customisations you require go with the guidelines set by them. All in all, SaaS allows customization but on a limited basis.

In conclusion, SaaS or On-Cloud deployment is advisable to start ups or smaller organisations. Since it is very flexible and affordable, smaller organisations should consider Software as a Service option for deployment. But still, it all depends on the decision maker, these were the pros and cons of SaaS which would help you make the decision. 

Spine HR Suite provides you all three types of deployment options- On-Premise, SaaS and Hybrid. You might also want to read 5 necessary elements that you must look for in an HRMS. You can learn more about Spine HR Suite here.

Do not be afraid of “Asset Lifecycle” it  is not as complicated as it might seem! 

Let us start by understanding what asset life cycle exactly means. Stages involved in the management of an asset is known as asset life cycle. It starts with the planning stages when the need for an asset is identified, and continues all the way through its useful life and eventual disposal.

Following are the four stages of an asset life cycle:

– Budgeting

As soon as you realise the need to buy an asset the role of a Fixed Asset Management System starts. This is the first phase- Planning. The next phase is actual budgeting. Asset budgeting enables you to enter new assets into the budget as efficiently as possible while still giving the budget coordinator the control to ensure accuracy of asset data entry. An FAMS lets you maintain an automated, on cloud record of your planned and budgeted assets.

– Acquisition

Asset acquisition refers to the actual purchase of assets. Asset Acquisition, with an FAMS makes this easier as it allows you to automatically record the new asset. Recording the new asset lets you track the asset more efficiently and barcode labelling is just the cherry on top! You can read 4 Benefits of Barcode Labelling your Fixed Assets! To learn more about barcode labelling.

– Use and Maintain

Now this is the third, longest and the most important stage in the life cycle of any asset. The usage and maintenance of assets require special attention be it servicing or renewal for digital platform assets. Also read How does a FAMS help in managing IT Infrastructure? A Fixed Asset Management System lets you categorise, group, track and record assets and asset transactions. You can get usage reports, notifications and reminders, etc. at the dashboard itself. You can assign assets to employees, get information about the asset and much more. All you have to do is just scan the assigned barcode/ QR Code/ RFID tag. 

– Disposal

When assets are in a nonproductive stage and no longer able to fulfil its primary objective then they need to be disposed. It is the last stage of the asset life cycle. Asset disposal is the process in which long term assets are eliminated from the account records and sold at disposal value. Disposal of assets need to be tracked accurately as it directly affects the organisation’s books of accounts. There is no room for calculation errors and hence, automating it is the best way of getting rid of any! 

 

In conclusion, The four stages of the life cycle of any asset are-

1. Planning and Budgeting
2. Acquisition
3. Use and Maintain
4. Disposal

 

If you are looking for an end-to-end Fixed Asset Management Solution, Spine Assets will get all your ends covered! You can learn more about Spine Assets here.

“What is the best method for employee appraisal?”

We are sure you might have heard about CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) in terms of investment and market. But did you know that CAGR can also be applied to HR Activities and Employee Appraisal. How? Well, that is exactly what we are going to go over in this blog!

 

What is CAGR?

CAGR or Compound Annual Growth Rate is the rate at which your employee grows in a year. In Simpler words, CAGR shows the growth your employees have made over the past year. 

 

What are the benefits of CAGR?

• 

• Employee Growth

Tracking the CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of your employees helps you understand their growth better. As it shows the annual “growth” rate of the employees you can compare the growth with other employees or past performances. This allows you to motivate employees to do even better or provide them with training if required. Tracking employee growth through CAGR is important as organisations have a review/ appraisal once a year and CAGR is the perfect tool to analyse annual performance. Spine HR Suite has an automatic CAGR calculator built in which calculates the CAGR of the given employee in an instant. You can also access reports and graphical representations of the performance.

 

• Employee Training

Tracking the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of your employees also lets you know if any of your employees require training. The aim of using the CAGR technique is to analyse the annual growth and compare it to past years (generally). If the performance is better than last year, there has been positive growth and the employee is eligible for appraisal. But if the growth is not positive, employees might require motivation in the form of training. A positive CAGR also points towards efficient training methods over the last year. 

 

• Employee Appraisal

We already know how important employee appraisal is. If not, you would want to read Why is Performance Appraisal necessary in an organisation? Appraisal is usually a form of motivation for employees. A good appraisal system ensures that employees tend to grow and the organisation retains its employees. Tracking CAGR is the most efficient way of employee appraisal as it provides all the details of the past year’s performance in a summarised manner. Of course, you can get detailed information as well. 

In conclusion, CAGR i.e Compound Annual Growth Rate is arguably the most efficient tool of employee appraisal. It also aids in employee training selection and nomination. Tracking employee growth is also now extremely easy with the Cagr Calculator! 

If you are looking for an HR System which allows tracking and calculating of CAGR, Spine HR Suite is what you are looking for! 

“Tracking and Managing fixed assets is very inconvenient. Isn’t there an easy way of tracking fixed assets? Like from your phone or something like that?”

 

Well, with an efficient FAMS like Spine Assets, Yes, there is a convenient way! Barcode labelling has made the tracking and management of fixed assets easier than ever before. You can create and assign custom Barcodes, QR Codes assign them to your assets for better management.

 

Listed here are the 4 benefits of Barcode Labelling:

 

• Asset Assignment

First off, when you create a barcode for an asset, you have to enter basic information about the asset. Such as the acquisition cost, the employee to whom the asset is assigned to and much more. Assigning barcodes to your assets improves the tracking efficiency of the asset. It also helps you understand the flow of the lifetime of the asset better. 

• Asset Bundling

With a Fixed Asset Management System which allows barcode labelling you can Bundle assets and its components together for faster identification of parent and child components and allocate depreciation accordingly. Now what exactly does “Asset Bundling” here refer to? It refers to creating a parent asset category under which you can then add child assets. In simple words you can create a hierarchy of assets and categorise them.

• Asset Tracking

Now, the most important feature of barcode labelling- tracking of assets. Tracking refers to the record of the lifecycle of assets. The mentioned asset is with what employee of what branch under what department and so on. Barcode labelled assets are much easier to track as all you have to do is scan the barcode or enter the barcode number to get the exact details of the asset and the life cycle history as well. Barcode labelling has for sure made asset tracking very much easier and efficient.

• Notifications & Reminders

Once you assign a barcode to a particular asset the details of the asset are stored in the system until you manually delete them or the asset has been disposed of. As the details like date of acquisition, services due are saved in the system, it automatically reminds you when the due is nearing. You can get on screen notifications, email reminders and much more! This ensures that you never miss out on any of your services due, licence renewals, etc.

 

In conclusion, Barcode labelling is essential in a Fixed Asset Management System as it not only makes things convenient but it also makes the whole asset life cycle tracking, from acquisition to disposal, easier than ever! 

If you would like to know more about a Fixed Asset Management System, you would like to read Why is a Fixed Asset Management System important & Why do you need to automate it? If you are an organisation with major IT Assets, you should also read How does a FAMS help in managing IT Infrastructure?

 

Looking for a Fixed Asset Management System which allows Barcode Labelling and other major FAMS Features? Then you should definitely check out Spine Assets.

We all know how handy an HRM System is for companies. But have you ever wondered what exactly it does and what benefits does it provide? 

Well, the whole concept of an HRMS is too broad and is summarised in this blog. To access the full fledged explanation and know more you can visit Spine Technologies. Now coming back to today’s topic, here are the benefits that an HRMS provides to your organisation:

 

• Automates Processes

The greatest benefit of an Human Resource Management System is of course automation. Automation ensures that the calculations are on point, quick, economical and way more efficient as compared to traditional methods of carrying out HR Processes. You can also integrate different modules which would then automatically work in harmony to provide even accurate and precise results (for example, Payroll and Attendance). To know more about automation in HR, you can read Why is Automation the future of HR?

• Cuts Down Costs

Implementation of an HR Software boosts organisational performance of course, but is more economical at the same time. There are various ways in which an HR Software helps you cut down your costs and improve organisational performance. Be it cutting down the stationery costs incurred in manually carrying out these activities or the indirect costs like employee retention, etc. You might also want to read How and why HRMS is economical for your organisation?

• Increases HR Efficacy

Besides automating HR Processes, one another major reason why people shift to the automated mode of carrying out HR Tasks is increasing their organisation’s efficiency. Keeping things short, an HRMS lets the managers supervise and direct the employees more efficiently. HR Management System greatly increases the productivity and performance of your organisation by automating the tedious work done by the employees, allowing them to focus more on tasks that need more planning. Investing in an HRMS is no less than investing in an asset. It provides you a long term benefit, gives you returns on your investment, raises the reputation of your organisation and raises the employee retention rate. Like this, an HRMS checks all boxes and qualifies for being an asset! 

• Workflow Organisation

Many organisations unknowingly suffer with a condition called “miscommunication and disorganised workflow”. You surely would not like to be on that list. One way of ensuring that you do not end up like such is implementing an HRM System. Not only does the HRMS helps you communicate with your employees better but it also lets you create levels of approval and a proper workflow chart for smoother flow of operations.

• Futuristic Approach

And finally, HRMS is the future of HR and that is for a fact. As we move toward the era of automation and digitisation, we also have to shift to an automated mode of carrying out HR Activities. Now this does not mean that an HRMS eliminates the need of the HR department in an organisation. But one can, for a fact, say that HRM systems are the future of HR!

 

In conclusion, there are 5 benefits that come with an HRMS that enhances the efficiency of your organisation, these 5 factors are-

– Automation

– Lower Costs

– Increasing Overall Efficacy

– Workflow Organisation

– Futuristic Approach

Attendance tracking can be an extremely tedious task. So what do you do to make it easier without losing the efficacy? You implement an Attendance Management system!

 

But then again, what attendance software should you get?

 

Following are the benefits that Spine HR Suite provides you over other attendance solution providers:

 

– Easy Integration

 

Spine HR Suite can be seamlessly integrated with major biometric and attendance marking hardware to give detailed reports and accurate markings. Spine HR Suite can be integrated with ESSL, Matrix, HikVision, Realtime, Spectra and many more attendance marking service providers.

 

– Accessible Reports

 

Being integrated seamlessly with the hardware, Spine HR Suite is obvious to give you accurate reports. There are various reports available and you can create customised reports as well. Alongside that, extraction of reports is now at your fingertips, just a few clicks away! These reports help you track employee attendance and increase productivity.

 

– Employee Portal

 

Another benefit of implementing Spine HR Suite is that you get access to employee self service portal as Spine HR Suite is a modular software which has much more than just attendance and leave management. Employee portal allows your employees to track their leaves and attendance reports as well. This makes it so that the employees do not have to visit the HR very so often just to get their attendance reports.

 

– Geo Tagging

 

Geo Tagging lets you add geographical information in the form of latitudes and longitude making it easier for you to know the employees’ location along with report time and leave time. This allows you to keep an eye on your employees who are out on the field. Geo tagging can also be used to authenticate attendance with location and selfie based marking so that you have the exact coordinates of your employees when they mark their attendance.

 

– Geo Fencing

 

Geo Fencing enables you to create a digital geographical fence around the workplace which ensures there is no proxy marking of attendance. This boundary makes sure that your employees are actually at the workplace and prevents breaching of workplace boundaries. This fence can be defined and edited by the authority as required with no restrictions on the types of dimensions.

 

– Mobile App

 

Having a mobile app makes it so much more convenient! Attendance marking, leave application, swipe requests, attendance view, everything on your phone, at your convenience!

 

– Swipe & HOD Marking

 

Missed marking attendance? Need to worry if you have Spine HR Suite! You can apply and approve swipe requests for missed attendance. The HOD can also mark the attendance for employees.

 

– Integration with Payroll

 

The best part about Spine HR Suite is that it is modular and can be implemented as modules instead of the full fledged software (which reduces the cost). Being modular, Spine HR Suite allows you to integrate attendance with payroll to make payroll processing easier than ever!

 

 

In conclusion, the distinctive factor about Spine HR Suite is that it is modular and can be implemented for attendance and then you can add modules as you grow! You can learn more about Spine HR Suite here.