LightPole: Oceans Apart

About the Client

LightPole (lightpole.net) was founded in January 2007 to make it easy for content owners to participate in the mobile economy by helping them distribute location-specific information to mobile devices. LightPole leads the charge into the location-based technology frontier by using familiar tools that help bring the web to mobile devise in a way that is as easy as blogging and offers a truly individualized, dynamic and location-relevant experience. For content owners with a desire to participate in the mobile economy, but discouraged by the technical limitations and economic barriers facing such a transition, LightPole's location-aware content network provides the tools necessary to easily and cost-effectively reach their customers no matter where they are or what they're doing.

The Challenge

With its corporate headquarters in San Francisco and development center in China, Lightpole found it difficult to sync development time and processes. Lightpole's developers were an ocean and 15 hours apart, so Lightpole needed a solution that could keep the main offices consistently up-to-date with the development processes in China.

"When someone is away from the office, the question becomes the same for someone a block away and someone 12,000 miles away—can you get their time, can you get it accurately, and can you get it on time so that you can do your reporting and payroll," says Marcus V. Colombano, Chief Marketing Officer.

The Solution

Colombano, who had previously used ClickTime at a different company, introduced it to LightPole. "Personally I've been using ClickTime for nine years now. It is extremely easy to use and I really appreciate the level of detail in the reports that it can generate," says Colombano.

"Using an online timesheet frees us from the worries of having to actively manage something. The other tools either require syncing or accessing the internal network, and ClickTime's software as a service (SaaS) model is different. As opposed to in-house software, which we'd have to install and maintain on each machine and grant access to the central database, ClickTime's SaaS model helps keep the system distributed and allows people to record their time no matter where they are."

The Results

Today, LightPole's employees in China easily track their time as it occurs and the company's workflow has greatly improved. "Employees in China appreciate that ClickTime is there. They appreciate that it can be used on a mobile device and that it can be used easily to keep track of their time and of the tasks," says Colombano.

When asked how employees in the United States like ClickTime, Colombano comments, "Remember that with a system like this, people don't necessarily worry about being able to record their time. What they do, however, is complain when they can't—and nobody has complained. So the number one thing is that there has never been a complaint and that it is really easy to use."

Colombano has two favorite features of ClickTime: "First thing is the mobile interface—the iPhone interface is really nice, and being able to keep track of time that way is really helpful. And the second thing is from an organizational point of view—the ability to submit timesheet for approval is really useful."

ClickTime helps LightPole save both time and money, "It saves me about three hours per month per payroll. It saves other people's time as well—it saves about an hour per employee per month and that easily translates into big bucks," says Colombano.