Software solution providers struggle to keep up with the pace of emerging IT trends. Some legacy solution providers can modernise their solutions – many more will go into sunset mode. Maintaining a leadership position requires a clear strategy and ambitious investments in development with focus on user experience, functionality and ability to fit the IT landscape.
More than ever before in this age of disruption businesses are spearheading a vast array of complex IT initiatives. Common focus areas are Cloud Computing and Virtualisation, Big Data and Machine Learning, Internet of Things (IoT), Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) as well as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and many other emerging trends – all while delivering on the growing day-to-day IT needs with the same amount of resources and shortened time to market.
Software solution providers struggle to keep up with the pace of these changes. Some legacy solution providers can modernise their solutions – many more will go into sunset mode.
So how do you balance investments and scarcity of resources, while moving forward with the IT initiatives? Initially, you must get every benefit from the technology investments you have already made or are about to make. You must ensure that the investments are being fully adopted and fully leveraged by your organisation and that the solutions truly support and keep up with the changing requirements ahead.
ProMark is at the forefront of meeting workforce management requirements – now and in the future. With a track record of more than 40 years fully focused on workforce management solutions, we have the knowledge and solutions to remain a future-proof solution provider.
Maintaining our leadership position with our flagship product ProMark, requires a clear strategy and ambitious investments in development. We deliver on this promise by focusing on 3 strategic areas:
- Modern user experiences
- Value-driven functionality
- Fit the IT landscape
Modern user experience is licence to play
With a wide range of user generations – Gen Z, Millennials or Gen Y, Gen X and Baby Boomers – in the workforce, a consistent and modern user experience is key for user adoption whether it is business to consumer, business to business or business to employee.
To deliver such user experience across all these generations, ProMark has adopted the most widely recognised user experience on the internet: Google’s Material Design Theme concepts. These design concepts deliver consistency familiar to users outside of a business application context and have been created on large-scale user feedback, research and development efforts.
Web-based applications and mobile apps are a precondition for modern workforce management solutions. Thus, ProMark is continuously expanded with valuable use cases supported by these interfaces. Mobile apps are available on the major app stores of Google and Apple and are continuously updated as is expected from modern apps.
Another very important user interface within workforce management is hardware terminals. Even with mobile apps emerging, hardware terminals offer a separate value proposition as regards security aspects as well as for stable operations in e.g. harsh physical conditions.
We provide the right, future-proof terminals from dormakaba (Kaba) – a global market leader in workforce management hardware solutions – deployed with a modern, Android-based app to deliver a consistent user experience across all ProMark interfaces.
So with ProMark, companies can select the optimum user experience for all employee groups across all devices and, irrespective of choice, get simple, consistent and intuitive interfaces.
The right functionality means more value
Managing the complexities of time and attendance (T&A) is licence to play within workforce management but modern workforce management solutions must also comprise absence management, scheduling and task management.
Being able to offer ever more advanced functionality within these areas is the key to delivering even more value for customers. Through user conferences and user groups, we gather ideas and requirements for new functionality, and we involve customers in product preview processes to ensure that what we develop is in line with their needs. This is – and will always be – an important driver for delivering maximum value.
Modern absence management demands functionality to keep up – and comply – with different regulations, local agreements and policies regarding holiday and sickness. With an increasing diverse workforce with work/life balance requirements from both temporary and flexible workers, the gains of digitalising the processes related to absence management are huge.
Similarly, to manage the modern workforce efficiently, real-time scheduling capabilities are essential. Planning processes are undergoing changes with newer generations demanding more flexibility and empowerment. ProMark addresses these needs by delivering modern planning experiences that manage business demands and the available workforce including real-time deviations. In addition, we also offer employee self-service flows to empower the workers to help define the most optimal plan by enabling them to sell, swap and take over shifts to meet the business requirements.
ProMark delivers significant value with its ability to validate the data captured in real time and guide the employee in providing consistent, validated feedback. Not only for T&A and absence management purposes, but ProMark also supports task management by enabling gathering of critical production data directly from the manufacturing shop floor or from project activities within service organisations.
By sharing the various data captured with other business systems like HR, payroll and ERP through standard integrations, valuable data becomes available when needed – regardless of whether the customers have chosen SAP, Microsoft or another technical platform. This not only increases transparency but also provides a factual basis for follow-up and cost optimisation.
Within all these functionality areas, ProMark brings knowledge and experience to the table to ensure we deliver the vital business outcomes resulting from workforce management:
- Compliance with rules and regulations
- Cost optimisation through optimised use of employee resources and reduced overtime
- Increased worker effectiveness through efficient and fair work schedules supporting work/life balance
- Stronger employer value through embracing modern tools and offering transparency in own data
Fit the IT landscape to maximise the investments
Many ProMark customers are exploring how cloud technologies can enable their digitalisation strategies. However, the term ‘cloud’ represents many different business objectives depending on which stakeholder you talk to, and topics like security and privacy are quickly added to the discussion.
ProMark is offered as a cloud offering but fitting into the customer’s IT landscape takes more than just the technical hosting of the software. In recent years, we have worked closely with our customers to align the service offerings to ensure that ProMark is a great fit into cutting-edge cloud offerings.
Integration is key when customers strive for optimised user experiences and speed of innovation. This is easily observed from the large providers of business system cloud platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics and SAP which are heavily focused on openness and integration options. It is a well-known fact that best-of-breed solutions are vital in delivering a truly optimised end-to-end business solution. New technologies allow for such integrations to be seamless for users as regards user experience, security and data analysis capabilities.
ProMark is a best-of-breed solution. Thus, integration is at the core of our offerings, whether it is real-time data integration, seamlessly embedded user experiences or pre-packed integrations to common business systems to lower implementation efforts.
Security is also a key aspect of our offerings. Thus, ProMark is GDPR compliant and we have adopted modern security mechanisms like single sign-on. Also, we have undertaken an ISAE 3000 certification to ensure that ProMark and our service offerings are a great – and secure – fit into a customer’s IT landscape.
Service offerings must match where each customer is. That is why we have a number of additional services that can be adopted as needed. The services range from more technical services like hardware service where we ensure that the company’s terminals are up and running, sparring with our consultants related to optimisation and superuser services where we act as the superuser of the customer’s solution and support with day-to-day operational tasks as well as continuous knowledge-sharing.
A future-proof Workforce Mangement platform
ProMark stands on a 40-year foundation of deep workforce management knowledge gathered in some of the most complex labour agreement markets in Europe.
By running all customers on a standardised, but highly configurable solution, ProMark has been able to make the journey into the new cloud IT landscape by offering secure and easily adoptable user experiences, underpinned with the right services to ensure smooth business operations.
With ProMark’s extensive, yet focused, functionality areas, open APIs and standardised integrations with other business systems, ProMark is truly a future-proof workforce management platform, enabling customers to evolve their workforce management capabilities as a natural part of their winning digitalisation strategies.
