Frome Livestock Auctioneers are a livestock auction market in Standerwick, Somerset, specialising in the sale of calves, pigs, sheep and cattle. They have been trading since 1990 and are one of the leading livestock markets in the Somerset region.
With only 28 employees, Frome Livestock Auctioneers installed Tensor's Time and Attendance System, WinTA.NET Lite with the T32xx clocking terminal, back in 2019. Our reporter spoke with their finance controller, Jackie Smith, to find out more about how our system works for them.
"We needed to regulate hours better because back then we were relying on paper timesheets which proved to be inaccurate as we had to go off with what staff wrote on a piece of paper," Jackie explained. "I wanted something which calculated the hours accurately, as we have a lot of employees on flexible hours."
Jackie recalls speaking to competitor companies before making a final decision: "We consulted other companies, can't remember whom, but the main reason why we chose Tensor was the price and the way it handled the hours."
When asked about the quality of training she received, Jackie replied, "We received basic training when you came to install our system on our site. From what I remember, it was quite good!" In response to whether they use the system to its full potential, she said, "Probably not, we are very happy with the way it works out our hours for pay."
The Tensor T32xx clocking terminal allows users to clock in and out of work using smartcards, key fobs and fingerprint biometrics. Jackie told us that Frome Livestock use both fingerprint and key fob options: "Generally, it [fingerprint scanning] works well. We do have a few older people, and fingerprints don't work too well with them, so we gave them key fobs. The key fobs are easy to use too."
To gauge how easy our system is to use, we asked Jackie to give it a rating out of 10. "8/10. It's easy to use and it's great at generating reports."
As our systems are modular by design, we asked if there were plans to expand their system. "We have talked about adding the fire roll call system, but we haven't expanded because our team is small enough where we could just go off by who is present in the car park."
Discussing her experience with the helpdesk, Jackie stated, "We had a problem with our connection, which took a while to get sorted, but we got there in the end." She reassured us that "Overall, the service is ok."
Always looking to refine our services, we asked Jackie if there were any aspects she felt we could improve on. "No, we're quite happy with what we got." But would she recommend us to other companies? "Yes, we would. Funnily enough, we recommended you to an IT provider who asked us about the system, and we told them about how well it has worked for us."
To summarise her experience with Tensor in just a few words, Jackie concluded: "It does the job; the system does what we need it to do."
Frome Livestock Auctioneers (https://www.fromelivestock.com/)
Frome Market
Standerwick
Frome
Somerset
BA11 2QB
+44 1373830033