The University of Alberta is one of the top 100 universities in the world. It supports nearly 40,000 students from 151 countries and is home to 68 Rhodes scholars. With such a large student population - and great prominence in the community - it is critical that the university has a central IT organization that delivers and maintains secure, modern systems and provides exceptional service to its internal partners.
Using ClickTime, the University of Alberta Information Services & Technology team (IST) is able to increase productivity, better manage and allocate resources, and easily track employee time.
Before ClickTime, tracking employee time was labor intensive and lacked in-depth reporting. Employee time was captured via Excel spreadsheets, and different teams used different time management tools, making it difficult to analyze trends and understand performance.
"ClickTime has given us a new understanding of how employees spend their time," said Cheryl Earle, Director of Finance & Administration, IST for the University of Alberta. "With ClickTime, we're able to better analyze operational and project costs, and work more effectively toward our goals."
“With ClickTime, we're able to better analyze operational and project costs, and work more effectively toward our goals.”
— Cheryl Earle, Director of Finance & Administration,
Information Services & Technology University of Alberta
IST has a diverse set of internal business partners who require a wide range of deployments and technology upgrades. IST is constantly managing multiple projects while simultaneously juggling operational and support activities. ClickTime has empowered the department with actionable insights that allow for more effective planning and scheduling of employee time.
"We're undergoing a significant shift in how we understand and prioritize work," said Earle. "ClickTime is helping us improve operations and make more informed decisions about how we manage our team. We're better equipped to prioritize the work we do and be more productive with the resources we have."
As the central IT group for the university, it's essential that IST is able to build agile teams and quickly create solutions that drive business goals. Hiring is a key driver for success, and ClickTime has given the team powerful data to make more effective staffing decisions.
"When managers request additional staff, we can now use the data from ClickTime to analyze how resources are being utilized and justify new hires," said Earle.
"ClickTime is easy to use, and we were able to roll it out quickly," said Earle. "It's web-based, and the look and feel is constantly improving."
Even with complex union overtime and payroll rules, ClickTime has made it easy for IST to verify that time is entered accurately and completely.
"ClickTime significantly reduces the amount of time we used to spend verifying time entry and payroll. It's made our lives much easier — and it's helping us create a more data-driven culture," said Earle.