Access to key figures at anytime

A thorough research process led Belgian Xedis to TimeLog Project, resulting in 24/7 access to key information and an improved business overview.

Xedis is a dynamic company, founded by experienced service delivery managers and project managers. They advise companies how to set-up, structure, and operate their IT services and their organisation. As other consultant businesses within the IT sector, their consultants work on many different projects, and need to be able to track time both in-house, and at clients’ locations.

A range of separate systems led to errors

An old, internally-developed database for time tracking with a handful of additional systems to manage project planning, invoicing, CRM, etc., made it difficult for Xedis to access correct, complete information, and that led to mistakes.

With that in mind, Xedis decided to look for a new system that would fulfill their requirement for remote access to time tracking, which also incorporated most of the business processes in a single system.

“We needed a more professionalised system, you could say, but not a heavy one, as we are not that large a company. We looked for a solution that made time tracking and invoicing possible, and as we do some project work, it would be useful if that was integrated into the solution too,” explains Geert Vansteenkiste, Managing Partner. He continues,

“We had a range of requirements, which we were looking to fulfill, but again, not to the degree that would get us a complex system.”

Few products made the cut

Xedis investigated products on the internet to see if a suitable system could be found, or if they needed to develop a system internally. “We found that only a few products were able to meet the needs for our type of business (consultancy projects, being a mix of fixed price and time and material projects). TimeLog Project was one of them.

Another decisive factor was the need for a tool which was easy to use, even for our contractors, and always available, even for consultants who are out of the country,” explains Johan Debruyne, Managing Partner.

A need for precise overview

Xedis’ previous system didn’t give an overview with correct on-time (even real-time) information, which Xedis needed for an accurate business overview at any time. It was important for Xedis that a new system was not too time-consuming for consultants. They needed a fast and easy way to register hours that also led to a nearly automatic creation of invoices based on the consultants’ registered hours.

Security – an important issue

Another important aspect for Xedis was the security of the system and the data it contained. The fact that data in TimeLog Project is secure but always available, even in the event of a system crash, was crucial.

“We wanted a secure system where we are constantly able to access data. We can achieve this with a web-based product like TimeLog Project”, states Debruyne.

Vansteenkiste continues, “We wanted to keep track of contact info, CRM, follow up, the sales pipeline, and other similar features. For those purposes, SAP is way too heavy for our company size, and the fact that TimeLog Project could accomplish this based on the registered data from time tracking was decisive for our choice to go with TimeLog Project.

A clear and improved business overview

Xedis’ business overview has improved since selecting TimeLog Project as their time tracking system. Today, Xedis’ consultants register every hour into TimeLog Project. Their time tracking allows Xedis to generate a large number of reports, and gain clear insight into the business overview.

For example, their consultants use timesheet reports as documentation for customers. Project and business managers can create and manage projects and work with consultants’ time using TimeLog Project. The Sales department uses TimeLog CRM to gain an overview of the sales process, and Administration creates each invoice in TimeLog Project, simultaneously confirming the consultants’ time spent at customer sites, and timesheets. They extensively use management reports to report on sales pipelines, opportunities, added value, and the total amount invoiced each month.

24/7 access to all key figures

“For Xedis, TimeLog Project is the core tool for our management and administration. Since we started using TimeLog Project, we certainly feel that we have access to all our key figures 24/7, and that they reflect our key information one hundred percent. This allows us to monitor and manage our company better and much faster than before,” states Debruyne.

“Compared to earlier, time registering is much faster and we get the the organisations’ forecast much quicker. It’s the same with invoicing – it’s faster, more effective, and efficient. TimeLog Project fulfills our current needs and we use it on a daily basis, which works out well. The main point is that everything is in a central system, we use it as much as we can, and if we run into problems we use TimeLog’s support, where we get the help we need,” Vansteenkiste adds, and continues,

“Overall, this means that our situation has improved considerably, since before using TimeLog Project. We also had no problems with the implementation process, even though it was a remote installation followed by a remote training session. TimeLog’s Service Department handled it well, and our latest upgrade went smoothly.”