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T&A on your cellphone

Cellular time and attendance adds a new dimension to access control.

It is not always financially viable to place a traditional clocking machine to control time and attendance (T&A) at each and every point where employees are stationed, particularly when staff numbers are less than 10. This is also applicable when there are no fixed sites involved and employees travel to different locations to undertake work.

Beget Solutions, a division of JSE-listed Beget Holdings, has developed a system, integrated into its MobileBIO Website, where employees can clock in and out using their cellphones. The employee sends the text 'CLOCK A' for IN or 'CLOCK B' for OUT via premium rated SMS to a designated short code for the system to register the activity. There is also an option to send a text comment, for example, 'At client xyz'. The cellphone number acts as the employee’s unique ID. An SMS is sent back immediately confirming receipt of the SMS clock.

By means of LBS (location based services) the actual location of the employee is plotted and stored in the Beget system. Employers can log into the MobileBIO Website to access SMS reports and to track the whereabouts of their staff making the system ideal for applications such as self-posting guards where site supervision is difficult, travelling representatives, and for companies such as plumbers and electricians that have several vehicles and teams on different sites at different times.

The SMS clocking can be used integral to Beget’s other fingerprint-based biometric systems to provide full management of all staff T&A by writing the in and out clocking functions – from both fixed and mobile clocking devices – into a central database. Where fingerprint capture is not possible, SMS clocking not only reduces the manual input of clocking information but allows for more effective control of employee movements.

The system works over both MTN and Vodacom networks.

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