Prominent workers' rights NGO Tenaganita today questioned whether the BN-led government's sudden urge to introduce the biometric system for migrant workers is a ploy for political funding. "The question arises whether the whole amnesty programme is a way to make money? "Who will make the money and for what purpose?" Tenaganita executive director Irene Fernandez (right) asked at a press conference in Petaling Jaya. Fernandez also questioned the identity and criteria for selection of the 300 approved biometrics registration agents, asking whether they were really qualified companies or otherwise. www.malaysiakini.com
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The Best Business Laptop For Your Company
The little notebook computer or laptop is tailor made for business.
It's the perfect communication tool. It's the perfect record keeping
tool. It's the perfect presentation tool. And if that wasn't enough,
all of the above is neatly packaged into a small portable machine
that can be taken anywhere and everywhere.
For any size business, small to medium to jumbo, the notebook
computer is fast becoming an essential tool for business.
Savvy business people know acquiring the right tools is an important
factor in determining the success or profitability of any company.
Therefore, along with the regular outfitting of your company or
business - equal consideration should be given to choosing your
notebook computers.
Business owners should be aware that notebook technology is changing at
a blistering pace. Every two years or so, there is a whole new generation
of notebooks and notebook technology to consider. Notebooks are getting
smaller, faster, and better connected. They are also offering performance that
is matching or almost matching their desktop rivals.
Major reasons why, for the first time in history, notebook computers
are outselling their bigger cousins, desktop computers. Business
buying, no doubt, plays a significant role in all those sales. Large
corporate organizations are buying notebooks for their companies, sales
people and employees. It makes for a more competitive company in a very
competitive world.
But how do you pick a good business notebook computer? What's the criteria
for judging a good machine? What's the right laptop or notebook for your
company or sales staff?
Here are some important factors any business should consider when buying
a notebook computer or laptop for their company. General factors that
determine a good business notebook. Consider these...
Portability
Perhaps, the most significant factor and the main reason you're buying
a notebook computer is portability. You can take it anywhere. You can
take your records, reports, presentations or products where ever they
need to be. For the business traveler or 'road warrior', the notebook
computer is an essential tool for their business.
When buying their notebook of choice, these 'road warriors' look
at the portability of their notebook. Size and weight are very
important. They want something that's light and small, yet powerful
enough to do the job. They will probably look in the Ultra-Portable and
Thin and Light classes of notebooks to make their choice.
Notebooks in those categories are usually well under 5 pounds, around
10 by 14 inches in size and approximately an inch thick. Small enough
to throw in a briefcase or tuck comfortably under your arm. They won't
drain your energy even if you have to lug it around all day!
Battery Life
You also have to look for a notebook computer that will last long
enough to get the job done. You want sufficient battery life for those
long plane trips. Fortunately, battery life is increasing, you can now get
up to 5 or more hours on high quality notebooks. Buy the highest
numbered cell battery, and buy any optional built-in battery extras
that will increase battery life.
Connectivity
You want something that's easy to connect to the Internet
so connectivity is another important factor. Being in constant
contact with all your employees can be a determining factor in your
choice of notebooks. Communication is vital. Most high quality
notebooks come with Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) connections,
many have a tri-mode 802.11a/b/g wireless system.
Some newer models, like the Sony's New Ultra-Portable VAIO VGN-T350P,
are raising the bar, it has the world's first 'Built-in Cellular
Modem'. You can use your cell phone to connect to the Internet. This may
be a great advantage since finding a 'Hot Spot' in some parts of the world
can still be difficult.
Performance
You need to consider the performance level of your business computer.
Can it handle all your company's demands, can it handle heavy graphics,
charts, diagrams, spreadsheets, etc. Check out the RAM -- higher RAM will be
better for graphics and video. It's generally agreed that you need at least
256MB for Windows XP and Mac OS X. You will only need 128MB for other
operating systems in Windows or Mac.
Most notebooks come with plenty of storage space, 60-80 GIG hard drives
are common. External drives are also available if you need extra
space.
Other tasks may be important to your line of business. For example, if
you need to take notes in the field, i.e. real estate agents, engineers,
doctors or medical personnel -- then a slate or a convertible tablet
may be a better choice for your company.
Sturdiness
This is important if you want a notebook for a lot of road work or
business traveling. Your notebook should be sturdy or ruggerized to
be able to take a good pounding. Many notebooks have some novel
sturdiness features such as IBM's Active Protection System which is
designed to protect the hard drive from falls and spills for those
accident prone notebook users in your company.
Security
Living in today's world we need safeguards and security measures
in place to protect your company records and files. Not to
mention, to guard against the theft of your notebook computer itself.
Along those same lines your notebook computer should have advanced
security features. Many notebooks such as the IBM/Sonoma ThinkPad
series include an integrated fingerprint scanner for biometric
authentication that uses an Embedded Security Subsystem and Password
Manager.
Image/Style
At first glance this may seem like a superficial buying point, but
not really. In today's business world, image or style does count and
contribute to your button line. Sad but true! You want a notebook
computer that matches the image of your company.
There is one to fit your needs, you have a whole range of styles
of notebooks to choose from, whether it be conservative black or
blazing race car red. Most businesses are ultra-conservative (nature
of the beast) and should pick a notebook along those conservative lines, other businesses may want to promote a sharper or cooler image
such as in fashion, creative arts, music industry...
Price
Economy or Deluxe. Similar to the style, another major buying
factor is price. You can go from inexpensive notebooks
to luxury models. It all depends on your company's resources
and the image you want to project.
You can choose from the relatively inexpensive but very capable
DELL notebooks...all the way up to notebook manufacturers like the
UK based Rockdirect notebooks which offers upper end products that
can be custom made to your specs. You can even choose your own color!
Like any company purchase, especially if you're buying in bulk,
getting a good special volume price may play a role in your choice
of notebook. Always check with these notebook companies for a
group or company order -- you may be pleasantly surprised at the
savings.
However, don't sacrifice performance for a special price, make sure
the notebook computer you're buying has all the desired qualities:
portability, performance, battery life, connectivity, security and style,
-- all the features you want in your company's notebook computer.
If you consider all these factors, your next business notebook computer
purchase should just be a little bit easier.
There's no reason why you can't put this little modern workhorse to work
for your business or company. Used properly, the business laptop can
make for a well organized and cohesive work force that will pay big
dividends down the road, delivering a great return on your initial
investment.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
CheckPoint.S Real-Time Facial Biometric Surveillance
CheckPoint.S is the ultimate covert surveillance solution, automatically scanning faces, checking identity and signalling action alerts. CheckPoint.S uses patented techniques to implement light immune technology which means it will operate accurately and robustly in any lighting conditions, from pitch darkness to sunlight and everything in between. CheckPoint.S is the ideal solution for positive real-time identification. Not only can it be used to identify wanted people but it can also be used to identify subjects with special privileges such as employees, security cleared personnel or, in different applications, VIPs. For read more about CheckPoint.S please go to www.omniperception.com
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Upgrading Your Clocking-In Solution to Prevent Buddy Punching
The 'buddy punch' is something that most companies have hoped would have gone away by now, but unfortunately it is here to stay. For those who aren't aware, it is simply the process of someone else (an employee's 'buddy') going through the door and clocking in with their card too. It'd quite simple and very effective in a large company where the cards are taken as an accurate view of employee attendance.
Trouble is, it's open to fraud.
Some companies have taken some quite drastic measures to stamp this sort of activity out, ranging from security guards on the door to CCTV cameras above the clocking-in machines, however these are expensive options and in some cases (in the case of CCTV especially) can cause consternation amongst staff. One thing you really shouldn't do if you want to keep a happy workforce is give the impression that 'Big Brother' is watching them - this will cause many more problems than it solves.
If you speak to HR companies, they will tell you that the carrot is far more effective than the stick in these situations and that one of the best ways to combat buddy punching is to simply make it an easy option not to want to do it. For example, make people responsible for their own clocking in procedure by ensuring they look up to their peers and let the staff self-regulate.
This is obviously easier said than done and so luckily, for those who want a technological answer to the problem and not an HR one (which let's face it - sounds OK unless you're actually working for the company that has the problem), there are many ways to combat it.
Technology to the rescue!
Luckily there is a particularly easy way to eliminate buddy punching altogether and it comes in the form of 'biometric' clocking. Anything with the word 'biometric' in it may sound a little bit scary, but all it means is that it uses some form of recognition that is based on the body parts of the person using it. You may well have seen a lot of it in the press where the iris or fingerprints are used to recognise a person, although it has also met with a lot of consternation and resistance from many quarters - mostly the human rights contingent.
Although these methods can be seen as a little over the top, there are other ways that seem to be an ideal compromise. One of these is to use a system that recognises the person's hand shape and along with a PIN will clock the person in. This is an extremely easy system to implement and it is also incredibly quick to use. One of the big technological problems with biometric systems in the past has been the issue of processor power. Consider the complexity of the iris or fingerprint and you can quickly see that when you've got any decent number of staff in your company that very quickly you are going to need some pretty powerful computers to handle the search and give a positive when someone logs in.
Again, by giving a combination of hand punching together with a PIN, the problem is solved. The PIN finds the record and then the hand print simply confirms it.
This solution in conjunction with an effective HR policy can ensure your staff is happy as well as keeping your HR records accurate.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Advantage of Integrated HR Solution With Payroll, Leave, HR Functions & Fingerprint System
Introduction:
Having a proper HR solution is a key task for the HR executives to manage their employees.
The primary job of HR manager is to manage employees daily attendance, i.e. the employees every day Time IN & Time OUT. There are various ways for it. Traditionally the companies using manual punch card machine, later proximity card system / bar-code card system was in place. But still there was a problem of buddy punching (making proxy attendance for other employees). To address the issue Biometric Fingerprint system has introduced which is very fast / accurate & efficient.
Once employees TIME IN & OUT timing captured by any type of machine then it has to be linked to a Time Attendance Software to generate the useful attendance reports. Those calculated attendance details needs to be linked to payroll software for the employee salary calculation. In addition to that there is a need to maintain employee leaves like annual leave, medical leave, unpaid leave, etc...
If a HR manager has all the above solutions with different vendors / different platform then it will be very difficult to maintain and operate. There will be lot of hiccups to integrate the different software and more importantly being the database is not integrated the newly join / resign employee details need to be entered multiple times in different software.
So it very efficient and cost effective to have an integrated HR solution which comprises of fingerprint time recorders (preferably), time attendance, leave, Payroll & HR software.
Fingerprint Time Recorder:
It is very efficient to have a fingerprint time recorders to track the employees attendance instead of having manual punch card. The biggest advantage of using the fingerprint system is the employees can not do the buddy punching (making proxy attendance for other employees).
Usually in most of the fingerprint time recorder, Up to 3 fingers per employee can be registered. While doing attendance the employee can use any one of the finger to do clocking. The purpose of registering 3 fingerprints is if any one finger has problem due to injured / cut / dirty then the employee can use alternative finger. So it is better to have a fingerprint time recorder with higher capacity. Usually the time recorder will have the capacity of 1500 / 3000 / 5000 fingerprint templates.
It takes about one second to verify the employee finger, once verified the employee id, Date & time will be recorder into the device internal memory. Also it is good to have a device which can store more records. In general most of the fingerprint time recorder can store 20,000 / 30,000 / 50,000 records. Once the records reach the limit the new record will automatically overwrite the very first record. Those records can be downloaded to the Time Attendance Software via built-in Network card or via Thumb Drive.
Time Attendance Software:.
Information from fingerprint time recorder can be transferred to the Time Attendance Software which will calculate the useful information like Lateness, Overtime, allowances, etc...
A good time attendance software should have the option for different shift patterns, Supports unlimited rotation duty roster, Auto-shift feature (System auto-assign working hours group based on IN time), Flexible working hours feature, Scheduling working hours group feature (No fixed working pattern)
Companies are paying daily allowances like shift allowance, meal allowance, transport allowance to the employees based on some conditions. For an example a company may like to pay for night shift workers or a company may like to pay who is working more than 5 hours of overtime. So the time attendance software should have all the above features.
A good software should come with nicely designed useful reports like Daily attendance report, Individual attendance report, consolidated reports which consolidates the Late comers, Early Leavers, Absents & missed out punching, Lateness summary report and Working hours summary report
Payroll Software:
Payroll software is the one which computes the employee salaries. A well written payroll software should have the below options.
The employee may be paid by hourly rate / daily rate/ monthly fixed basis. Other than the employee basic salary, the employees overtime, daily allowances needs to be linked from the time attendance software. The employee may have some additions or deductions like advance payment, medical claim, special allowance, etc... And the employee unpaid leave, lateness & early leaving needs to be deducted from his salary.
Different countries have their own computation for taxation & provident funds. So the payroll system should comply with the local government regulation for salary calculation.
Finally the payroll should able to generate a pay-slip for individual employee with all his salary details which can be printed in an A4 size paper or sealed pay-slip paper.
And payroll software must have useful reports like, Monthly Salary Summary Report, Overtime Payment Report, Taxation Report, Yearly Summary Report, and Monthly Reconciliation Report.
Leave Module:
A leave module either can be built in with the payroll system or it can be a separate Electronic Leave Application Portal.
Leave Module built-in with payroll system: The HR Executive needs to update the employees Annual Leave, Medical Leave, Unpaid Leave, Maternity Leave, etc in to the system manually.
Electronic Leave Module: The employee can apply their leaves electronically online via web browser. Those applied leaves can be approved by respective approving officers via online. This is paperless, convenient fast & easy.
A good leave system should have the option to set Leave Eligibility for different group of employees and the Annual leave & Medical Leave earned until today should be prorated automatically.
There must be an option to carry forward the balance annual leave to the next year. And the leave module should have the useful reports like Leave History & Leave consolidate report to view all kind of leaves taken.
Conclusion:
Instead of having the above system in different platform / with different vendors, having an integrated HR solution will be easier for maintenance & cost effective.
Friday, December 2, 2011
The Gambia Biometric Identity System- GAMBIS
The Gambia Biometric Identity System (GAMBIS) project is the world's first integrated Biometric Identity Management System. Through this system, the Government of The Gambia will capture biometric details for all citizens and aliens in the country.
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