FirstBank Stops Buddy Punching, Limits Overtime With Ingersoll Rand Recognition Systems Biometric HandReaders
100+ HandPunch Terminals Help Puerto Rican Bank Get Grip on Unauthorized Overtime, Employee Timecard Fraud
January 28, 2004
FirstBank Stops Buddy Punching, Limits Overtime With Ingersoll Rand Recognition Systems Biometric HandReaders
100+ HandPunch Terminals Help Puerto Rican Bank Get Grip on Unauthorized Overtime, Employee Timecard Fraud
CAMPBELL, CALIF. – January 28, 2004 – Ingersoll Rand Recognition Systems, the biometric time & attendance component of Ingersoll Rand’s (IR) Security Technologies' Electronic Access Control Division (EACD), today announced that Caribbean-based FirstBank Puerto Rico is currently using 108 HandPunch terminals in 100 FirstBank locations, including bank branches, corporate headquarters and affiliated businesses in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Tortola to eliminate timecard fraud and limit unauthorized overtime for its 1,700-plus hourly employees, recording over 10,000 transactions per workday.
The HandPunch terminals eliminate expenses associated with employee badges and fraud caused by buddy punching. Instead of filling out or punching timecards, employees simply place their hands on the HandPunch. It automatically takes a three-dimensional reading of the size and shape of the employee’s hand and verifies the user’s identity in less than one second. Hand geometry technology is the most commonly used technology for time and attendance and access control, according to Frost and Sullivan’s “World Biometrics Report 2002.”
"FirstBank needed to reduce or eliminate buddy punching throughout its organization, and it wanted to gather more accurate information on employees," reports Juan Ignacio Gomez, director of sales and marketing for Interboro Systems Corporation (ISC), the Puerto Rico-based dealer that installed the HandPunch units. "Also, it was very important to be able to restrict the timing of the punches. The HandPunch is a good fit for FirstBank."
Before installing the HandPunch units, employees would often clock in up to a half an hour before their shifts started, Gomez said. By law, they had to be paid for that time, even if they did not work. Now, the HandPunch terminals do not allow FirstBank employees to punch in before their shift starts. "This results in a tremendous savings for the company," he emphasizes.
Employees now clock in at the beginning of the day, clock in and out for lunch and breaks and then punch out in the evening. They swipe their badges through the HandPunch’s integrated bar code reader and place their hands on the unit to confirm their identity. Supervisors can make manual adjustments to the system when employees forget to punch in or to record sick leave, vacations or authorized overtime.
"Before 1990, we were using an honor system so we did not have any control over employee attendance and no data available to deal with absenteeism and tardiness. In 1990 we began using a bar code-based identification card," reports Aida Garcia, first vice president and director of human resources for FirstBank. "That was good, but employees began punching each other in and they would claim to forget their cards to avoid clocking in. It was hard to maintain control."
When Garcia saw a demonstration of the HandPunch, she immediately evaluated and then recommended the system. "It was the solution to our problems," Garcia says. "As I told the employees, there are no excuses with the HandPunch. Your hand is your credential. You can forget a card but you cannot forget your hand."
“Hand geometry is the most reliable biometric technology available,” Gomez asserts. HandReaders can handle any population volume with ease while providing impeccable reliability. With dramatically lower false reject and failure to enroll rates than fingerprint technology, the value of HandReaders grows as the number of users and/or transactions increases.
Employee response to the system has been "excellent," Garcia adds.
The HandPunch system has allowed FirstBank to decentralize attendance functions from payroll to individual company units, turning over responsibility and ownership of the system to supervisors and employees. That has reduced the workload for the payroll department significantly.
The terminals are connected to the bank's Windows-based network via an Ethernet connection. The HandPunch system is also compatible with Cyborg, FirstBank's human resources application. ISC built middleware to link the HandPunch terminals with FirstBank's Kronos Workforce Central Suite web-based time and attendance software.
FirstBank is growing quickly, and anticipates adding more HandPunch units and upgrading its system in the near future.
About FirstBank
FirstBank Puerto Rico is the second largest commercial bank in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. With more than 2,000 employees and assets surpassing $9.6 billion, FirstBank currently operates a total of 92 financial facilities throughout Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, including its subsidiaries Money Express and First Truck and Car Rental. It operates 55 full-service branches, including 12 offices in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. In addition, the FirstBank Insurance Agency operates six sales offices within FirstBank branches.
About Ingersoll Rand Recognition Systems
With over 75,000 hand geometry units throughout the world reading millions of hands each day, Ingersoll Rand Recognition Systems, founded in 1986, is the pioneer of hand recognition technology used in access control, time and attendance and identification applications. The company is the world sales leader of biometric verification devices and serves an international clientele from its headquarters in Campbell, Calif. The hand geometry website is www.handreader.com. Phone is 408-341-4100. Recognition Systems is the biometric component of Ingersoll-Rand Corporation’s Security Technologies' Electronic Access Control Division. The Ingersoll Rand website is www.irco.com.
-30-
For more information…
Bill Spence Tom Brigham
IR RECOGNITION SYSTEMS BRIGHAM SCULLY
408-341-4100 818-716-9021
bill_spence@irco.com tbrigham@brighamscully.com
100+ HandPunch Terminals Help Puerto Rican Bank Get Grip on Unauthorized Overtime, Employee Timecard Fraud
CAMPBELL, CALIF. – January 28, 2004 – Ingersoll Rand Recognition Systems, the biometric time & attendance component of Ingersoll Rand’s (IR) Security Technologies' Electronic Access Control Division (EACD), today announced that Caribbean-based FirstBank Puerto Rico is currently using 108 HandPunch terminals in 100 FirstBank locations, including bank branches, corporate headquarters and affiliated businesses in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Tortola to eliminate timecard fraud and limit unauthorized overtime for its 1,700-plus hourly employees, recording over 10,000 transactions per workday.
The HandPunch terminals eliminate expenses associated with employee badges and fraud caused by buddy punching. Instead of filling out or punching timecards, employees simply place their hands on the HandPunch. It automatically takes a three-dimensional reading of the size and shape of the employee’s hand and verifies the user’s identity in less than one second. Hand geometry technology is the most commonly used technology for time and attendance and access control, according to Frost and Sullivan’s “World Biometrics Report 2002.”
"FirstBank needed to reduce or eliminate buddy punching throughout its organization, and it wanted to gather more accurate information on employees," reports Juan Ignacio Gomez, director of sales and marketing for Interboro Systems Corporation (ISC), the Puerto Rico-based dealer that installed the HandPunch units. "Also, it was very important to be able to restrict the timing of the punches. The HandPunch is a good fit for FirstBank."
Before installing the HandPunch units, employees would often clock in up to a half an hour before their shifts started, Gomez said. By law, they had to be paid for that time, even if they did not work. Now, the HandPunch terminals do not allow FirstBank employees to punch in before their shift starts. "This results in a tremendous savings for the company," he emphasizes.
Employees now clock in at the beginning of the day, clock in and out for lunch and breaks and then punch out in the evening. They swipe their badges through the HandPunch’s integrated bar code reader and place their hands on the unit to confirm their identity. Supervisors can make manual adjustments to the system when employees forget to punch in or to record sick leave, vacations or authorized overtime.
"Before 1990, we were using an honor system so we did not have any control over employee attendance and no data available to deal with absenteeism and tardiness. In 1990 we began using a bar code-based identification card," reports Aida Garcia, first vice president and director of human resources for FirstBank. "That was good, but employees began punching each other in and they would claim to forget their cards to avoid clocking in. It was hard to maintain control."
When Garcia saw a demonstration of the HandPunch, she immediately evaluated and then recommended the system. "It was the solution to our problems," Garcia says. "As I told the employees, there are no excuses with the HandPunch. Your hand is your credential. You can forget a card but you cannot forget your hand."
“Hand geometry is the most reliable biometric technology available,” Gomez asserts. HandReaders can handle any population volume with ease while providing impeccable reliability. With dramatically lower false reject and failure to enroll rates than fingerprint technology, the value of HandReaders grows as the number of users and/or transactions increases.
Employee response to the system has been "excellent," Garcia adds.
The HandPunch system has allowed FirstBank to decentralize attendance functions from payroll to individual company units, turning over responsibility and ownership of the system to supervisors and employees. That has reduced the workload for the payroll department significantly.
The terminals are connected to the bank's Windows-based network via an Ethernet connection. The HandPunch system is also compatible with Cyborg, FirstBank's human resources application. ISC built middleware to link the HandPunch terminals with FirstBank's Kronos Workforce Central Suite web-based time and attendance software.
FirstBank is growing quickly, and anticipates adding more HandPunch units and upgrading its system in the near future.
About FirstBank
FirstBank Puerto Rico is the second largest commercial bank in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. With more than 2,000 employees and assets surpassing $9.6 billion, FirstBank currently operates a total of 92 financial facilities throughout Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, including its subsidiaries Money Express and First Truck and Car Rental. It operates 55 full-service branches, including 12 offices in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. In addition, the FirstBank Insurance Agency operates six sales offices within FirstBank branches.
About Ingersoll Rand Recognition Systems
With over 75,000 hand geometry units throughout the world reading millions of hands each day, Ingersoll Rand Recognition Systems, founded in 1986, is the pioneer of hand recognition technology used in access control, time and attendance and identification applications. The company is the world sales leader of biometric verification devices and serves an international clientele from its headquarters in Campbell, Calif. The hand geometry website is www.handreader.com. Phone is 408-341-4100. Recognition Systems is the biometric component of Ingersoll-Rand Corporation’s Security Technologies' Electronic Access Control Division. The Ingersoll Rand website is www.irco.com.
-30-
For more information…
Bill Spence Tom Brigham
IR RECOGNITION SYSTEMS BRIGHAM SCULLY
408-341-4100 818-716-9021
bill_spence@irco.com tbrigham@brighamscully.com