Q:chi develops Work Time Management Solution for Leading Car Manufacturer
Q:chi are pleased to announce the live release of a sophisticated software solution, developed for the Research and Development department of one of the world's leading vehicle manufacturers, to enable slick capture and reporting of Working Time
The Brief
To deliver absolutely simplicity for end-users in order to minimise the amount of time it takes for them to enter their daily working time, whilst enabling them to allocate time accurately to specific projects. It was stipulated that an end-user should be able to enter a breakdown of all time for a single working day in less than 5 minutes. It was imperative that users didn't find the system tedious or feel it was wasting their time.
From a management perspective, one of the main objectives was to enable the management team to be able to easily produce accurate reports to support claims for tax credits from HMRC for research and development work undertaken, including clear association with specific projects.
The Solution
Q:chi produced a sophisticated, Domino-based web application with an incredibly slick and easy to use homepage, which brings together data from a number of sources including the user's calendar, but which loads quickly ready for use. All working time can be entered from this start page and Q:chi utilised sophisticated "web 2.0" techniques to support dynamic data exchanges with the Domino server without requiring page refreshes. This saves time, but also prevents unnecessary user frustration. The software solution automatically calculates each user's standard working hours and whether work was performed in overtime. Q:chi delivered a compact but highly visual calendar area and used simple icons to show users what they had and had not completed; and what types of information they had added - this type of visual approach is a typically Japanese concept and was well-liked by the client. Data was submitted by AJAX calls to ensure the user could add and delete entries without navigating away from the page, yet the calendar area updates with new entries in place.
Reporting output enables direct integration between the browser and Microsoft Excel, including applying exported data directly into Excel chart objects.
Despite the challenge of a compressed schedule and tight budget, the solution was delivered on time and exactly on budget