Major Food Manufacturer Sold On Tensor

Fenmarc is a large supplier of a wide range of quality fresh and prepared produce to major supermarkets. It employs over 500 people at its 3 factories — 2 within 10 miles of March and another 70 miles away at Swinderby.

Six years ago Paul Bower, IT Manager, was asked to find a new system to provide an accurate way of recording employee clocking and also access control. Paul says,"As the company expanded we went through several migrations from mechanical clock, a barcode scanning system and finally a TimeTrack system."

"The TimeTrack system was not to bad, but when it became part of Blick the service level decreased. We did not want to upgrade with Blick and sought alternative systems and companies. We looked at Miterfinch and others and decided on the Tensor because we liked the idea of their Smart Cards and the possibility of expanding the system to include job costing"

"Another reason why we liked Tensor was that we could add a payroll link to export the clocking info directly to our payroll software."

Fenmarc's head office is in March where it has 4 Tensor Smart Card Time & Attendance units with 4 additional Access Control points. Each site is operated separately with its own WinTA system and is run independently. However, data is collected centrally for payroll services at their March headquarters.

The WinTA operator at each site is in charge of the day-to-day running of the system. They add new employees, correct missed clockings and send the data to the head office.

The 500 employees who use the system for clocking in and out find it very easy to use says Paul. "The good thing about Tensor's Smart Cards are that they are simple to use and far better than the barcode badge system that we had previously"

Tensor Access Control is used to provide secure access control to the office during out of office hours. The main factory has access control readers for the offices and also the computer room.

Paul says "We bought WinTA for its flexibility and are looking forward in taking it to the next level when we migrate to the SQL version."

Fenmarc is a major supplier of quality fresh and added value produce and is constantly striving to improve the service they offer. Fenmarc are the largest independent supplier of fresh produce, supplying a significant proportion to a major UK multiple.

The passion within Fenmarc comes from the top and is felt at all levels. Management belief in the company's potential is so strong -they bought the business. So with this kind of commitment at board level, you can see how avidly everyone is committed to the future.