Customer Overview

Home Hardware was founded in 1963 by approximately 120 independent hardware dealers who needed an improved cost effective distribution system to allow them to compete, remain profitable and provide one-stop shopping for their customers. Today Home Hardware has over 1,000 independent hardware, building supply and furniture members across Canada who are 100 percent dealer owned.

As they grew in size, Home Hardware realized they needed a cost effective and flexible solution to keep track of their employees’ time and attendance information. Turning to ITR, they were provided a comprehensive, but user-friendly solution in TimeZone. With over 250 supervisors using modules spanning their operational needs, Home Hardware has been able to move away from manually keeping track of employee time and benefits to an automated solution that is flexible enough to grow with them as their business succeeds. In addition to the base TimeZone™ product, Home Hardware is using the following modules: Benefit Accruals, Auto Disciplinary Letters, Scheduling, and Department Allocation. This variety allows them to effectively address all aspects of their operation as it relates to their workforce.

“We are an organization of over 2300 employees. We moved from a labor-intensive paper time collection system to an automated one with ITR. Their project team was incredibly attentive to our unique culture and needs. No need was too great nor too out-of-the-ordinary to consider. They met them all. We are extremely pleased with the project conversion, the product and the service provided by ITR.”
J.J., Compensation and Benefits Manager

STAPLES Business Depot is Canada’s largest supplier of office supplies, business machines, office furniture and business services to small business and home office customers. With over 15,000 employees in more than 270 retail locations, Staples Business Depot first entered the Canadian business market in 1991 armed with the goal of introducing the “office product superstore.” This was dependent on controlling costs and passing the savings onto the consumer. One of the first areas to control was payroll by utilizing automated time and attendance. The result is an efficient partnership between Staples Business Depot and ITR that has withstood the evolution of technology over a number of years and contributed to the effectiveness of Staples Business Depot’s low cost operator philosophy.

Staples continues to expand in rapid fashion across Canada, and requires a partner that is able to implement a time and attendance system quickly in each store to start tracking its associates even before the stores open their doors. Through the early years of data collection terminals and manual reporting, to the current ITR workforce management software systems employed at Staples Business Depot’s head office, ITR and Staples Business Depot have grown together over the years and continue to solidify an effective partnership. As Staples Business Depot’s needs change through IT infrastructure development and continued expansion, ITR will be there each step of the way with evolved technology to assist them in the future.

“Having a company you can depend on 100% makes a big difference. You have to know unquestionably that your vendor will be there for you when you need them. I wish all my partners were like ITR.”
D.H., Director of General Accounting

The Nuance Group operates 370 airport shops in 19 countries, including about 30 stores in its North American division. The automated time and attendance solution they implemented several years ago was not meeting their needs, was difficult to use, and did not provide store managers the information they needed. In order to staff stores appropriately, better control labor costs and identify attendance-related trends that could have a negative impact on business, The Nuance Group turned to ITR.

Now installed in 45 stores to date, and servicing over 1,000 employees, the system utilizes magnetic stripe data collection terminals, interfacing to ITR’s TimeZone™ workforce management software running at corporate headquarters on a Citrix server. The system makes payroll easier and more accurate, and allows supervisors to review information and punches gathered during the pay period, then transmits a consolidated data file to a third party payroll processing firm via the system interface.

“In the past, all of our time and attendance data was checked at corporate headquarters rather than by the managers themselves. This, combined with the lack of any interface with the payroll processing company, meant we needed to have four people in the payroll department. Now we’re down to one person in payroll, and mistakes aren’t a problem any more.”
N.N., Payroll Manager, North American Division

Since 1972, Norelco Cabinets has been designing and manufacturing quality cabinets from their plant in Kelowna, BC, providing superior products and exceptional service to customers throughout Canada and the U.S. When they were looking to implement an automated time and attendance solution, the sales and implementation team in ITR’s Western region was there to assist. As with any small business, time wasted tracking employee time manually was costing the business, and Norelco was looking for a way to ease the burden of doing manual calculations of employee time for payroll.

Ideal for small businesses with 100 employees or less, ITR’s Clock in the Box seemed an ideal fit for Norelco Cabinets. Coupled with their ITR 760 TCP/IP data collection terminal, Norelco was able to save a great deal of time in capturing employees’ punches, and allowing the software to perform the necessary calculations for payroll with minimal edits required by supervisors.

“I would like you to know…how pleased I am with the whole experience of implementing the [ITR] software. From the start when I was deciding between your product and that of a competitor I found the staff at ITR to be very helpful, keen to do business, and willing to work outside the guidelines in order to give me exactly what I needed. I love how the software works. It reduces my work load, enables me to keep very accurate records, and thus will financially benefit the company.”
N.B., Assistant General Manager