Alcon clutches Tensor for Time & Attendance, Access Control

Alcon Components was established in 1984 by engineer and sports car racer John Moore in order to make brakes for Audi Sport's Group B Quattro rally cars.

Today, the company employs over 80 people based at its HQ and factory in Tamworth, UK, and at customer service centres in the USA and France, supplying some of the world's most prestigious marques including Audi, Bentley, Brabus, and Jaguar Land Rover, as well as some of the most extreme applications such as the 900bhp/tonne Ariel Atom 500 and the 225mph Noble M600.

The company also specializes in developing bespoke brake and clutch solutions for VIP armoured protection vehicles, military vehicles, hybrid supercars, zero-emission municipal trucks, low-carbon taxis, etc., and is actually experiencing rapidly growing demand for its capabilities in this sector.

Tensor and Alcon Components have quite a long history behind them stemming back decades. Alcon was looking for a faster, more modern solution to replace its aging access control and time and attendance system.

Mrs. Gemma Gee is an Accounts Payable Manager with Alcon Components and remembers that the company was looking for a solution designed to allow the HR department to "check people's whereabouts and activity" in a very effective manner.

Despite going against 3 other competing solutions, the Tensor system was ultimately chosen, due to the superior price/performance ratio it provided.

The Tensor WinTA Enterprise solution, complete with the Tensor Personnel software and T&A package, was installed at the Alcon Components HQ back by Tensor engineers. Both the hardware and the software installation processes went quite smoothly.

The WinTA.NET Enterprise Edition is Tensor's flagship time and attendance product, offering total control over the creation of working rules, Access Control, Job Costing, and System Security. It represents a complete smart card time and attendance system including European Working Time Regulations checking and reporting, while also delivering a strong and reliable access control module.

The solution also delivers absenteeism & lateness reporting, as well as a plethora of extra features set to meet the needs and requirements of any organization, regardless of its size.

When asked by the Tensor reporter whether Alcon Components personnel was trained on using the Tensor systems, Mrs. Gee answered "Yes". She also described the quality of the training as "very good".

When asked whether Alcon Components uses the Tensor system at its full potential, Mrs. Gee's reply was a confident "Yes". Gemma also explained that, as far as Alcon is concerned, the best thing about the Tensor system is that "it allows us to manage absences in a very effective manner." Plus, "department heads can always check attendance and see who's on-site at any given moment".

She also mentioned that the "system is generally very easy to use", but it does "require a bit more attention from the user, especially when dealing with in-depth settings".

The Alcon Components employees are quite happy with the Tensor Smart Cards as well, since they are "very easy to use" and offer a very good range. "I don't even have to take the card out of my handbag and I can still clock in", Gemma revealed.

Quite recently, Alcon Components has decided to add a Fire Roll Call feature to their existing Time and Attendance system, benefiting from the faster print-out times enabled by the latest-generation high-speed Brother jet printers. Luckily, apart from the usual test fire drills, the Fire Roll Call system hasn't been triggered in a real-life emergency situation.

The Tensor systems installed at Alcon Components worked very well, so it's no wonder that, as Mrs. Gee revealed, "we rarely had to call the help desk". However, when problems did occur, "they (the help desk operators) were always very helpful". In fact, when questioned by our reporter, Mrs. Gee replied that Tensor's overall service is very good: "Everything works well, so I really can't see where things could improve".

When asked whether Alcon Components would recommend the Tensor solutions to other companies, Mrs. Gee's answer was "Yes, of course".

Summing up, Gemma told the Tensor reporter that their company is "very satisfied with the system. The after-sales department is also very helpful, so everything is looking good."

Customer information

Alcon Components Limited

Apollo

Lichfield Road Industrial Estate

Tamworth

Staffordshire

B79 7TN

Website: https://www.alcon.co.uk/