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Kronos Customer Profile: Agri Supply Agri Supply is an agricultural supply company headquartered in Garner, North Carolina.
The company operates seven retail stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia,
and Georgia, in addition to its mail order business and wholesale division. Serving
commercial farming operations, small weekend farmers, and homeowners, Agri Supply
offers Something for Everyone from among more than 23,000 items for the farm,
shop, and home, including products for agriculture, landscaping, and lawn and garden.
For years Agri Supply had been using a combination of in-house and outsourced systems
for human resources, payroll, and time and labor, a cumbersome arrangement that made
it difficult for the company to share accurate information between systems, and even
resulted in delayed delivery of employee paychecks. The cost of outsourcing payroll was
a significant expense, and was coupled with poor customer service that often led to
errors and additional work for Agri Supplys staff.
In 2003, Agri Supply turned to Kronos for a comprehensive solution for its human
resources, payroll, and time and labor needs. Following a speedy implementation, Agri
Supply has a newly integrated and streamlined process for managing its workforce that
has helped the company save time and money, improve decision making, and gain
increased control over labor budgeting and overtime.
Struggling with a costly, unreliable system
Prior to moving to Kronos Workforce Central
�
suite, Agri Supply outsourced its payroll
process. The company experienced a number of problems and many members of the
staff were frustrated with the arrangement. We had no control, says Carol Wagoner,
director of human resources for Direct Distributors, Agri Supplys parent company. If
we missed a deadline, we just missed it there was nothing we could do. And more
than once our checks werent delivered on time because of factors outside our control,
such as the weather.
Another problem was the cost of outsourcing. We found that we could do anything
we wanted for a fee. And we werent getting the level of customer service we needed.
We would call three times with the same question and get three different answers. It
even caused us to process things incorrectly.
With its employee information in a separate human resources system, Agri Supply was
also faced with the challenge of sharing data across disparate technologies, a process that
often proved time-consuming and unreliable.
Looking for a one-vendor solution
Agri Supply selected the Workforce Central suite including the Workforce HR ,
Workforce Payroll , and Workforce Timekeeper applications to manage human
resources, payroll, and time and labor. A six-month implementation was carried out by
just two employees. Wagoner notes, Because were a small company, were used to
getting things done aggressively and making the most of our resources. Wagoner also
credits their Kronos application consultant with helping them implement the solution
so quickly.
Agri Supply
Business Type:
Agricultural supplier
Employees: 350
Locations: 9
Products:
Workforce HR, Workforce Payroll,
Workforce Timekeeper
The biggest positive impact
has been the control the Kronos
solution puts in our managers
hands. It allows them to make
better decisions with more
information. As a management
tool, its phenomenal.
Carol Wagoner
Director of Human Resources
Direct Distributors
Customer Profile
Retail
Agri Supply Cultivates Increased Control, Better
Decision-Making with Kronos Solution
With Kronos, I like that there are different features I can add,
says Wagoner. As our company grows, and our needs change
and evolve, I can go in and add features like compensation
management or performance management. Whatever the need
may be, with Kronos, its flexible and cost-effective to add to
our existing solution.
A ringing endorsement
The response from Agri Supplys managers has been over-
whelmingly positive, according to Wagoner. The store managers
love Kronos it has completely changed how they go about
budgeting. Today, Agri Supply store managers can get a daily,
even hourly, look at how stores are performing against budgets.
Before the Kronos solution was in place, this information wasnt
available until the following month, when it was too late to do
anything about it. All managers could hope for was to try and
make up lost ground in the next month.
With a clearer, real-time picture of labor costs, Agri Supply
has been able to reduce its overtime to almost zero. Now that
managers can quickly access labor data, they can see which
employees are clocking in early, and take appropriate steps to
stay on budget. Kronos has also helped the company deal with
market fluctuations. We had a period of slow sales, and one of
our store managers was able to cut $10,000 off his payroll one
month to compensate for the lower revenue, says Wagoner.
Without Kronos at his fingertips, he would have been in
the red.
The Kronos system gives Agri Supply a better look at employee
attendance, helping the company control absenteeism. You
dont have to sift through time cards or six months of calendar
notes to see how many days an employee has missed, says
Wagoner. Kronos clearly shows us tardies and unexcused
absences. The information has also come in handy in controlling
unemployment costs, says Wagoner. If we have to terminate
someone because of their attendance and they file for unemploy-
ment, I can prove our case by simply running a report that
shows how many times they were late. Its safe to say that
weve saved thousands of dollars this way.
Plans for the future
Agri Supply is upgrading to Workforce Central 5.1, and has
plans to implement a number of enhancements to its Kronos
solution. Wagoner is looking forward to increased integration
with the version 5.1 upgrade, as the company eliminates its
last two imports. Other improvements will include employee
and manager self-service, allowing employees to access their
benefits, print forms, and request time off. Agri Supply also
plans to implement applicant tracking, using an in-store kiosk
to manage recruitment.
Saving money and gaining control with Kronos
Customer service was an important consideration for Agri
Supply, and the company was diligent in communicating its
expectations to the Kronos team. According to Wagoner, the
expectations have been met. The customer service at Kronos
is great. We get a quick response whenever we call. Someone
is always ready to help us and they really know what theyre
doing. We have a lot of trust in Kronos.
In evaluating the Kronos solution, Wagoner found that by
switching to Kronos and bringing the payroll process in house,
Agri Supply would save $100,000 over five years. While this
impressive cost savings convinced the companys president to
approve the purchase, Wagoner has found that the increased
control over labor costs has convinced managers of the solutions
value. The biggest positive impact has been the control the
Kronos solution puts in our managers hands. It allows them
to make better decisions with more information. As a
management tool, its phenomenal.
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Agri Supply