inovex GmbH

Time recording and project management with ZEP at five locations

Since the beginning of 2010, the IT service provider has been using the time recording and project management software ZEP at all five locations - Pforzheim, Munich, Cologne, Münster and Karlsruhe.

"Through individual extensions of ZEP, we were able to optimally adapt the product to our needs."

Decision for the time recording software ZEP

Before using ZEP, the company worked with an in-house solution that the software developers and technology consultants had designed themselves. Over time, the consultancy expanded its locations and the number of projects increased. This development also increased the demands on the internal time and project recording software. The existing tool could no longer cope with the growing complexity. Thus, inovex GmbH was faced with the decision of either upgrading its own software or looking for a new external solution. "We then became aware of the modular ZEP solution at the CeBIT information technology trade fair."recalls Patrick Thoma, who was concerned with the selection of suitable software. "The external time recording software ZEP immediately seemed professional and suitable for our requirement".Thoma, who has been Head of Solution Development at the company since 2003, says. "We decided to buy the software and, because of the good price-performance ratio, we also decided to buy ZEP straight away."reports the IT expert.

User-friendly tool convinces employees

The introduction of the approximately 100 employees to ZEP took place through a web-based seminar and took about five man-days. The employees were already convinced of the user-friendliness of the ZEP tool during the introduction. "ZEP is simple, logical and self-explanatory, so that we rarely need the manuals and programme help. Only new employees resort to this help in the beginning".says Thoma. Thoma also rates the service of the ZEP support team as impeccable. The quality and accessibility of the Ditzingen consulting experts is rated as "good" by inovex.

ZEP runs stable

Another plus point is that the IT service provider has not yet experienced any programme crashes or data loss during ZEP use. "The consistency of the data and the stability are very good, as is the user-friendliness - ZEP has completely convinced us in these areas."says Patrick Thoma.

Mobile data acquisition

Due to the company and project locations throughout Germany, mobile data collection was important for the medium-sized company. In addition, this data should be centrally retrievable and controllable. The web-based tool solved this requirement: "With ZEP we have a very good overview of our company and project locations throughout Germany"praises Patrick Thoma.

Mobile data collection is also possible with ZEP: "Employees can access their travel time, hours and project recording via laptop at any time and from any location."says Thoma. At the same time, the web-based application has reduced the amount of time staff have to spend on data entry. "In the future, we also plan to record the data via iPhone. This will make data collection even less complicated for our employees.explains Patrick Thoma.

Tailor-made concept

The full-service provider uses ZEP Professional with the additional modules "Department", "Holidays, Absences and Overtime", "Document Generator" and "Invoice". "Thanks to individual extensions from ZEP, we were able to optimally adapt the product to our needs".adds Patrick Thoma. In addition, the provantis software is used to exchange data in PDF and CSV formats. "It would be desirable to exchange data with other programmes via a defined programming interface (API)".says Thoma. In addition to this API, detailed improvements in invoicing are recommended, for example, for settlements on collective transactions.

Patrick Thoma sums up: "We are very satisfied with this holistic concept and would definitely buy the ZEP tool again. Improvements in detail are always possible."