etivity

The Organisation module is the backbone of the product. It provides the functionality to create and manage:

It is the flexibility and design of this module that allows the product to work and integrate so well with so many diverse applications that also carry and/or control the organisational and employee data of a company.

The Site & Security manager module is the heart of the security provided within the e-tivity® product. It utilises all the features of the Microsoft.Net® security as well as specific security requirements for the e-tivity® product. Site & Security manager determines what data an employee is entitled to view, edit or delete. It is this module that builds security roles that can be attached to ‘positions’ so that an employee assigned to that position automatically acquires the access rights necessary to carry out the duties of that position.

Time & Attendance is an automated clocking system developed to work in conjunction with the Work Rule Interpreter and Rostering. The module reduces the time and labour involved in the payroll process by automatically:

Additionally, when used in conjunction with the e-tivity® Work Rule Interpreter module, further efficiencies are realised. The time spent distributing, collecting and analysing timesheets can be eliminated altogether, and payroll staff can be reassigned to more productive work. The e-tivity® Time & Attendance system collects the times worked by an employee from any or all of a number of different time collection methods.

The Time & Attendance module Interfaces with your payroll process and is fully integrated with all other Workforce Automation modules

Utilising the very powerful and unique rules based engine, this module applies the specific work rules (Awards) for each employee to the collected timesheets. Work Rule Interpretation allows you to accurately calculate the cost details for either the roster or the actual worked hours. Data entry of information into your payroll system is eliminated, as are many errors. Payroll processing is simpler, more accurate and more efficient.

Work Rule Interpretation uses established work rules and regulations for each employee to accurately calculate their pay details and ensure conformity with all work rules. The specific payment rules for each work condition can be accommodated ensuring correct compensation and/or costing to staff according to the hours worked, area worked in, and time of work.

This information is either used within the Rostering Module to provide costing data of a roster or by the Time & Attendance module to calculate the actual time worked for direct posting into the payroll system. Consistency in Work Rule Interpretation is ensured with easy configuration of work rules in the Work Rule Wizard. Payroll processing time is considerably reduced with automatic calculation of work rules such as public holidays, overtime, premium rates, sick leave and rostered days off.

This module works very closely with the organisation module allowing the definition of different ‘on-cost’ percentages at every level of an organisation. This aspect of workforce automation is considered by many to be a significant point of difference when compared to other applications even though this data is required to accurately control labour budgets. All on costs and credits can be applied to both the roster (schedule) and the actual time worked to provide accurate reporting and if required to be passed through to other applications.

Rostering enables you to leverage the full potential of your available workforce to realise greater efficiency and productivity. The module accurately provides shift statistics by assessing rostering variables such as employee skills and qualifications, work rule conditions, employee availability and the cost of the shift. The Standard Rostering module provides standard fixed and rotational rostering methodologies.

One of the major features available within the e-tivity® product is the ability to view and edit the rosters (schedules) in the way best suited to the client’s business. The following screen shots will give an indication of the various variants available within this module.

The Reports Module is based on Crystal reports thus providing extreme functionality in the creation and management of both factory standard reports and personalised reports. The reports can be generated in a multitude of formats (.xls,.pdf,.dat,.rtf and others) that allows for the use or transmission of the reports in a manner best suited to the resource requiring the data. This module, in conjunction with the alerts module, can provide roster timely reports on labour productivity. This combination allows users to monitor trends, control overtime, compare labour budgets to actual costs, and improve budget planning and forecasting.

The Late Changes module helps managers make the most cost effective decisions when dealing with last minute or late changes to their rosters. Upon entering changes, the software quickly provides the user with:

This module utilises the same powerful rules based engine as used by the Work Rule Interpreter. The module controls the calculation of the hourly rate to be paid to an employee. It detects whether the work area, task being worked or the award of the particular employee working determines the actual hourly rate to be applied to the shift worked or roster (schedule) to be worked.

The telephony module has dual functionality as it serves both as a Time and Attendance collection device, and as a method of passing messages to remote based employees. The module utilises computer based telephony cards to integrate with the public telephone infrastructure. The employee can then dial a central number and ‘log in’ using both a pin number and pass number. Once logged in the employee is guided by computer generated prompts to record either additional information about the job (task) he/she is performing. If there are any messages for the employee he/she is then prompted to play these messages. This system provides true ‘on-line’ capability for time reporting which works extremely well with both the Time & Attendance and Alerts module.

The Business Alerts and Audit module provides a number of different functions. Essentially it is the module that captures and independently processes ALL processor-based events within the application. With this available data the module provides the capability of writing an audit trail on absolutely every transaction of any description within the product. With this same data the module has an application that allows each business to establish ‘alert’ rules based on these transactions. These alerts may be:

When an alert is generated it is then transmitted in whatever format required. That is, an email, SMS message, telephone page or whatever other method is required may be sent to the supervisor or manager responsible.

This module provides multiple functionality. The operator can create the ‘work load’ for a particular external or internal Job Order and assign resources to the shifts. This module can also be used to create a profile for repetitive ‘events’ so that they can be recalled and applied to a new job order. This module and the data it creates interact with the costing and billing modules so that precise costs can be charged back to event ‘hirers’ etc.

This module utilises the functionality of the Award Interpreter engine to calculate the cost to be charged to a particular client. When either a client or a Job Order is ‘set up’ in the e-tivity product one of the attributes attached is the ‘contracted charge out rates’. This effectively is the rate to be applied to the results of the employee’s timesheet in billing the client. The billing module will link various ‘job orders’ and/or client sites to provide one bill when a client requires this approach.

This module has been specifically built to address many clients wish list. This module provides a ‘one stop’ module to view and edit shifts, to record shift acceptance and to make ‘late changes’ to the displayed shifts. The following screen shot is indicative of the look and feel of this new module.

Product at a glance
Product type	Application
Target Industry Sectors	Aged Care Ambulance Services Conferencing facilities Corrective services Entertainment complexes Fast Food Ferry services Fire Brigade Fun Parks Hospitals Manufacturing Police Services Professional consultants Retail
Fault tolerance	Restricted
Innovation indicators	All indicators flagged Business Advantage Breaking new ground Earth shrinking Expanding horizons New Business New Technology Quality of living Social change
Contact for more information	Phil Jones Managing Director
Performance indicators	All indicators flagged Quality system Customer support Standards and codes compliance Fully supported product Professionally executed design Real world design Beta tested User benefits New benchmark
Contact for more information	Phil Jones Managing Director
Potential indicators	All indicators flagged Wide agency support Structured for growth Global design Identified potential markets Award recognition Successful track record International collaborators
Contact for more information	Phil Jones Managing Director

Positive adopted the Microsoft.Net® technology for the development of the e-tivity® suite of modules. The decision for this adoption of technology was largely due to the benefits that the Client would reap as a result of using .Net whilst giving Positive additional flexibility in the design of the application resulting in a more powerful and extremely high performing application.

The fact that the technology has opened the door to a process called "remoting" means that we can deliver the product anywhere in the world via the internet.

e-tivity® can be delivered to any Internet based device, notebook, pc, PDA, mobile phone anywhere in the world. We are empowering employees with the ability to act on vital information anywhere and at anytime, from any smart device.

The significance of the innovation within the e-tivity® product is easily seen when this product is compared to all others in this market space. Positive are not aware of any other product that provides the diverse methods of time collection and we certainly do not know of any other product that offers the flexibility or processing capability that the Work Rule Interpreter and other engines offer.

The e-tivity® product offering utilises XML technology. Linked to this product solution is the telephony development that captures employee work times via the telephone.

Positive has developed the e-tivity® product so that time data applicable to an employees work can be collected by any number of time collection methods. These time collection methods include, but are not limited to:

Positive consider that the innovation within the e-tivity® product is both in the use and delivery of the Microsoft .Net® technology and also with the multiple methods of time collection and the Work Rule Interpretation engine.

The e-tivity® product is an enterprise level product that significantly outperforms all competitive products. The combination of the e-tivity® engines, the organisational structure and the Alerts module brings a software solution that is unique in today's market place.

Positive has delivered the e-tivity® award interpretation module to Manpower International, out of Brussels. Manpower is using this product to carry out the Award Interpretation aspect for the whole of the European and UK Manpower market (some 30,000+ employees each week).

Another measure of performance is our implementation of the e-tivity® product into the business of a well known Australian services company (Name withheld due to contractual conditions). This company employs approximately 26,000 employees in over 5000 sites throughout Australia. This particular implementation can have up to 5000 users utilising the system at one time. It is delivered from Macquarie Corporate Telecommunications data centre in Sydney.

Positive products are developed according to proven software design and project management principals that are used throughout the project life cycle. We develop principally in the Microsoft .Net languages of VB.Net and C#.

Positive are also in the process of implementing a Quality Assurance program that continually reviews current processes to ensure that we maintain a Quality Standard. We employ a dedicated quality manager. It is our intention to be ISO 9000 and 9001 accredited by June 2004.

During the testing Phase of the Development Life Cycle, rigorous alpha and beta testing are carried out - not to mention - performance testing, load testing etc. With all nominated technologies now successfully proven in the global marketplace.

The e-tivity® suite of products is targeted at major corporations, which require a centralised solution that could be delivered to their many sites around the country (or even the world) through either their intranets or via the internet.

One aspect of the product offering, that alone has huge international market appeal, is the e-tivity® Work Rule Interpreter. This particular module processes work rules applicable to any country anywhere in the world. It takes an XML input from any type of time data recording, processes the rules applicable to the data and provides an XML output capable of being the input data to any payroll product.

The e-tivity® suite of products significantly outperforms all competitive products, hence on a very limited marketing budget, we have been able to sell into major corporations against our competitors who have marketing budgets many multiples of ours. The Manpower Inc sale has highlighted huge international potential for the product. Another transaction currently underway has potential of millions of dollars in the export market.

The e-tivity® product was the winner of the Information Technology Award for the most outstanding IT Product at the 2003 Western Sydney Industry awards.

e-tivity® has a rich inheritance being the fifth workforce automation product developed by the team at Positive IT Solutions Pty. Ltd.

Previous versions of this product are currently installed in over 2000 sites worldwide.

e-tivity®

Phil Jones
Managing Director

Positive IT Solutions Pty Ltd

Level 2, 18 – 20 Ross Street

North Parramatta NSW 2151

(02) 8838 2200

www.positive-it.com.au