News

Yahoo is to cut 2,000 staff, the company announced today (Wednesday). The internet giant said the redundancies were part of efforts to make it “smaller, nimbler, more profitable”. The company expects its cost-cutting programme to save £236m a year. Severance pay is expected to amount to one-third of its annual savings, although this is a one-off figure. The affected employees will be notified later today. It is the struggling web firm’s sixth round of redundancies in the last four years. Tensor plc are acknowledged as class-leading suppliers of efficient Time & Attendance systems and products. Contactless key fobs as well as smart cards are used to operate your Time and Attendance system. The fobs operate using well-proven Radio Frequency technology. An inbuilt aerial made from copper and iron is embedded into your key fob, allowing it to be scanned by your office system. Fobs can be supplied in a grey plastic shell made from implant quality glass, similar to those used in the identification of pets.  

Protesters are about to be evicted from areas surrounding the building of an Olympic training venue. People are objecting to the east London Olympic development since they say no proper analysis of its environmental impact was made. Attempts to oppose the possession order during an hour-long hearing were frustrated because no-one was willing to be named as residing at the camp. Therefore they could not legally be considered defendants and could not be allowed to oppose the making of the order. If your firm is having problems with trespassers at your site then Tensor can help with its gates, barriers, and turnstiles. Tensor access control barriers are the number one solution for controlling vehicle access to your site's car park and road entry points. As well as an effective method of security, car park barriers are a way of monitoring the amount of vehicles travelling through any given access point. Optional extras include: a folding arm mechanism, impact release mechanism, and hanging racks or barrier skirts.  

Scrapping bank holidays would boost annual output in the UK by £19 billion, says the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). The CEBR wants these holidays to be more spread out over the year to stop businesses “losing momentum”. CEBR founder Douglas McWilliams told the BBC: “About 45 per cent of the economy suffers; the offices, the factories, the building sites where people tend not to go to work on bank holiday.” Tensor has the solution for any offices, factories or multiple sites needing working rules over bank holidays or any other special circumstances. Beginning with WinTA Start, our Time & Attendance software contains the Groups function which is used to define sequences of shift patterns. Rolling Groups repeat a block of shift patterns. The block can contain any number of days or weeks. AutoSelect Groups have multiple shift patterns available per day. Each group can be set up to override the normal pattern and use a specific shift on public holidays.  

The fact that the 158th Boat Race was halted by a lone swimmer has led to an Olympic official admitting events could be disrupted. The weekend race was delayed midway through when a protester began swimming next to the boats. British Olympic Association chairman Colin Moynihan said all efforts will go to protecting athletes, and commented: “You can never get it perfect unless you remove all the crowds and nobody is going to dream of doing that.” Give your company a sporting chance of preventing criminals from breaking into your property with a Tensor digital CCTV system. Digital CCTV uses the most advanced compression technologies to bring you the highest picture quality and video performance. Bullet cameras are cameras mounted in a cylindrical or ‘bullet’ casing. This makes them easy to install when pointing them in the right direction, and keeps the case compact. The cameras’ small size and inbuilt lens make them ideal for situations where space and price are key issues.  

Bank boss Bob Diamond’s pay has come under scrutiny. A think tank says the Barclays chief should not be awarded his latest annual bonus due to the fact that the financial giant’s shares are trading far below net asset value. Shareholders group Pensions and Investors Research Consultants commented: “We cannot think of any circumstances in which a chief executive who was part of a team when the bank got into that predicament should be receiving any bonus at all.” A Time and Attendance system from Tensor handles all payroll and hours calculation methods. The system allows you to create a series of shift premium rules that enable employees to earn bonus payments under special circumstances. A Tensor WinTA system has the ability to export information to the payroll system. Tensor has worked with all of the major payroll packages and WinTA has a wide range of configuration options to extract payroll information in exactly the correct format. It can share or receive information from third party applications.  

More than 20 firefighters battled a rush hour blaze at a south coast cemetery yesterday (April 11, 2012). The crews were called just before 5.30pm, and arrived at the scene in just three minutes at the cemetery in Weymouth. It is understood that a structural engineer has been called in to assess the damage at a chapel which has been gutted. Nearby residents were advised to close windows due to the plume of smoke caused by the fire. Tensor is the number one choice for any safety-conscious employer as our security and Time and Attendance technology can be integrated with fire roll call software. The clever PC based network will automatically generate a report in the event of a fire or other emergency situation. As your workers assemble at their fire roll call points, they use their proximity read smart cards or key fobs to record their presence. If employees have not brought their cards, they can be checked off manually using the report.

An internet organisation boasted on its blog about climbing the summit of one of the highest buildings in Europe. The intruders scaled the 309m tall Shard skyscraper, which dominates the skyline near London Bridge, and posted photographs on the Place Hacking blog. The blog reported how the trespassers dodged security: “We waited for the guard to finish his round and go into his hut,” adding about reaching the peak: “We were so high, I couldn't see anything moving at street level.” Tensor can quickly put in place easy to use Access Control Software to improve security and ward off trespassers at all sizes of premises, whether tall or small. The WinACnet software creates alarm messages when predetermined actions take place, or if a forced entry occurs. The speech output delivers clear English spoken alerts when pre-defined ‘flagged’ actions take place – for example, when a specific door is opened by a specific individual. The system includes real time (near) graphical display showing doors being opened or those undergoing forced entry.

The man dubbed the ‘behaviour tsar’ says parents should pay if their children persistently skip lessons. Charlie Taylor pointed out in his report that of the 127,000 penalty notices issued to parents since their introduction in 2004, around half were unpaid or withdrawn. He added: “Recouping the fines through child benefit, along with other changes to the overall system, will strengthen and simplify the system. It would give head teachers the backing they need in getting parents to play their part.” A means of fighting regular absenteeism from school is to install an entry-level attendance recording system from Tensor. PC Clock is a simple computer based booking system that allows pupils or employees to accurately record their own individual clocking data. PC Clock’s analysis module consists of a scaled-down version of Tensor's acclaimed WinTA Lite time and attendance software. With many of the features of WinTA Lite included in PC Clock, it remains the best product on the market for small-scale time and attendance monitoring.  

An independent TV production company has been hit by theft of specialist equipment. The break-in is believed to have taken place at its offices in the north-west of Wales on Saturday (April 14) night. The missing expensive kit contained one tape but no original creative material was lost. The Gwynedd-based company, Cwmni Da, said it expected to rent similar equipment and added that it still aims to hit its production deadlines. Tensor takes a starring role in providing companies with a range of security devices, including Visitor Management Systems (VMS). The computer based network controls, records and monitors the arrivals and departures of an organisation’s visitors and contractors. VMS can print different styles of pass documentation depending on the type of visitor or contractor. These can be produced in advance of a scheduled appointment or impromptu on arrival. Visitor appointments can be pre-booked either directly on the system or through the online Appointment Planner. Thus visitor reception can be handled with minimum fuss.  

Heartless thieves targeted a host of schools during the Easter break. In one of these episodes books and more were ruined by rain because lead roofing was stolen. Most of the books were sodden beyond repair at the Tonyrefail school in South Wales. Headteacher Clair Jones said: “We were squelching along the corridor with some parts of the ceiling fallen down. The staff and children work really hard and to see it ruined is devastating to me as a head.” Biometric scanning is just one security measure which can be installed by Tensor for use in all sorts of public or commercial buildings. All biometric scanners are supplied complete and are ready to accept power and data connections. A biometric scanner adds high security, dermal fingerprint checking to your access control system. Mounted alongside your clocking station, the T3400 can be installed with a new system or retro-fitted to your existing clocking stations. The device has handy illumination for accurate finger placement.  

A new twist in the saga of fuel tanker drivers came yesterday (Wednesday). Driver representatives have rejected a deal aimed at resolving the dispute over working conditions, but say they are not going on strike. It is believed the main sticking points on an agreement are pay and conditions. The Unite union’s Diana Holland said proposals negotiated with company bosses last week did not go far enough, but reassured motorists that they will not go on strike, adding: “Do not panic.” Tensor supplies to all types of businesses clocking systems that provide a highly secure way of monitoring your employees’ time and attendance data. WinTA Lite is designed for smaller companies and handles Time & Attendance, EU Working Time Directive, multiple shifts, flexitime and job costing. The supplied T32xx Clocking Station has an illuminated keypad for ease of text input and use. It works independently of the PC, if the PC is switched off or fails. It has digital outputs to control door locks, wall clocks, etc.  

Police took part in a day-long swoop on metal theft in the Midlands. Officers stopped and checked passing vehicles as part of their clampdown. Metal theft has become a growing problem in the area, as well as nationally, with churches around the Daventry district among the buildings targeted. Police were happy to report that on this occasion they did not see any metal theft-related offences. Nevertheless, they plan on doing a day of action every month at a different location. Tensor’s durable gates are an example of our access control devices and PC-based systems which improve security at a site. Working alongside Tensor’s smart card and access control products, your gate can be used to monitor the throughput of an access control point as well as reporting on staff’s time and attendance. The gates cope with high traffic volumes, and perform to strict security standards and under severe operating conditions. Pictured here are swing gates, one of a number of different styles your organisation can choose from.