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OCTOBER 2002 STAR-Intech
Clocking in with the e-finger
By
Charles F. Moreira
Paying
attention to what customers’ wanted and responding to feedback
prompted local biometrics solutions developer Bktronics Sdn Bhd to
locally develop its e-finger time management system.
The e-finger uses fingerprints
for identification when employees are clocking in and out.
Bktronics launched e-finger
about two months ago. According Bktronics manager S.H. Robertson Ong
the company has already shipped 100 units to its distributor and
dealers.
With a recommended retail
price of RM5,999, the e-finger package comprises a biometric reader
device, which connects to a PC through a USB port, and the
user-configurable Windows-based e-finger data capture, control,
management, reporting and administration software.
Ong claims that e-finger is a
high-tech time management solution at a medium price. A basic
electro-mechanical cardpunch clock typically costs around RM3,000
while a high-tech time management system can cost as much as RM8,000
a piece.
The reader was designed by
Bktronics and assembled using imported parts while the software was
fully developed by its subsidiary BKsoft.
The e-finger is said to
support up to 120 employees and each e-finger installation can be
implemented on a PC in different departments and linked together to
a master PC over a LAN. The e-finger software lets companies
set security threshold and reader sensitivity levels, register
fingerprints, enter employee particulars, contact numbers, as well
as photographs and can also perform simple overtime calculations.
The biometric reader has nine
buttons – one for clocking in, one for clocking out and the others
are user-configurable for functions like “out for lunch,” “in from
lunch,” “out to see client,” and “out to seminar.”
“The e-finger prevents
employees from ‘buddy punching’ that is, clocking in their colleague
on his or her behalf,” said Ong.
The e-finger software keeps
track of employees who come late or leave early and the system
automatically informs
employees that they are late or are leaving early.
It lets companies configure
holidays, shift times, enter particulars of each employee’s leave
days, type of leave taken, sick leave, days when they are outstation
or overseas as part of their work and it lets administrators
graphically view each employee’s attendance or non-attendance for
every month or year.
It can also generate 18
different types of reports including employee, department, shift,
holiday and exception reports, report on employee’s record of coming
late, leaving early, absenteeism, incomplete clocking in and
clocking out and so on and it lets administrators correct for
irregularities.
It can also export the data in
text file format with a choice of delimiters so that it can then be
processed and analysed by third-party software.
So far, e-finger is designed
and targeted at office environments but Bktronics plans to come out
with an industrial version with more rugged registration terminals
based upon embedded “DiskOnChip” PCs and connected by LAN to a
master PC for data consolidation, recording, management and
administration.
Bktronics has appointed DMG
Technology Services Sdn Bhd as its e-finger distributor for
Peninsular Malaysia and is currently evaluating potential
distributors for East Malaysia.
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