How Biometrics Attendance System & Payroll Software, useful?

If you are still using paper and calculator to prepare the salary of the employees then you are wasting your valuable time and missing the benefits of biometric attendance systems. In this era of modern technology, monitoring attendance of each employee to payroll activity has become seamless.

The biometric attendance systems and payroll software are suitable for different kind of setups. Whether you are running a big or small company, a lot of data is generated for payroll processing. At the end of the day, it seems hectic to manage all the paper works and mind-boggling calculations. The manual processing of the time sheets is time killing and there always remains more probability of human errors. But, implementing the biometric time clock and payroll, it becomes quite easier to process the salary of the employees. Consuming lesser time than normal, you can generate different reports for record maintenance.

Biometric Attendance System

With Biometrics attendance system, you can easily manage the presence of employees in office for the work, while keeping track-record of arrival, departure, late arrival, over time and much more things for each employee. A detailed report is generated with a simple click of the mouse. While the payroll software helps to calculate the salary of an employee flawlessly. Payroll Software helps to provide the complete financial information of any employee with ease, including any kind of other benefits like EPF, TDS, ESIC.

Payroll Software System

Different sets of reports can also be generated depending on the requirements like Salary Summary Report, Overtime Payment Report, Taxation report, Yearly summary and other reports. Whereas salary-slips can be generated for individual employees detailing his salary break-up.

There are several benefits of using biometrics time attendance system and payroll software for doing different kind of works.

1. Reduces human error.

2. Reduces administrative cost.

3. Reduces effort.

4. Consumes less time.

5. Restricts buddy punching.

6. Data portability- import/export.

Additionally, these kinds of solutions and systems can also be customized according to the requirements and company's policies. Because some of the systems can easily handle hundreds of employees and some other have limited capacity. So think before streamlining your work force and salary processing methods.

With a minimal investment by implementing these systems in your company, you will definitely help you to streamline every process with ease. As these processes reduces the dishonesty and human error in the payroll process. In study, it has been indicated that companies save up to 4% of their annual payroll by adapting automated time and attendance systems.

How Star Link managed a huge workforce of SIS Security Services?

Star Link India has worked for many big names and accomplished the promising task with ease. We have already discussed many major projects we have completed and the result was outstanding. The major concern of Star Link's team is client satisfaction, as we want to make a long term relationship. Through this blog, I will focus on the problems and solutions given by us to SIS Security Agency. SIS is India's largest security agency that deals with manpower transfer, security services, cash transfer, and ATM security.

Since SIS employs huge number of employees across the nation, and it's pretty tough for them to manage the employees accordingly. So to streamline their workforce, Star Link India helped them by offering a solution. A device, namely Bio-LYNX has given to them, which worked on different modes like GPRS, Wi-Fi, Ethernet etc..

Initially, the major problem faced by them was the attendance of security guards deputed on remote location. This also included the data maintenance of each employee.

The security guards of SIS are deputed at different fronts, where there is no connectivity sometimes. Looking this factor, Star Link India provided the Bio Lynx device which works on GPRS mode. As the finger is punched into the machine his data are sent to the central server connected to the device. Data push technology pushes the data each time the punching is done.

The enrollment of new employees is done by the admin through the server. The list of the names of the employee is sent to the device and fingerprints are enrolled with each name. The list of the employees is sent department wise or machine wise. This helps to remove the manipulation with the records. Except admin, no any other person can enroll fingerprint or do anything. Also, suppose any employee left the job, if his name is deleted from one machine, then it gets deleted from other machines as well.

Other features which make our device more useful is -- 250+ machines are connected to the central server using GPRS, data push technology has been incorporated in the device to send the data immediately punching is done. The devices which are used to take the attendance are charged with chargeable adapter. There is no need of LAN or any wired connection to send the data.

The SIS employees are spread in longest dimension, so managing their attendance, now has been easier as the data is automatically sent to the central server. Star Link India has helped them to streamline their employees. Doing these kind of projects, we are proving our credibility and reliability amongst clients.

Snapshot of our Roller Coaster Journey: StarLink

Star Link India is a leading and pioneer company in Biometrics Attendance System and Access Control Solutions. The main motive of our team is to incorporate the recent technology with our device to make it more efficient. Till now we were presenting you our solutions and devices we have developed as per the trends and requirements. Few of the solutions like Canteen management system linked with Industrial Model with printer; then guard tracking system with industrial model and SMS module are few outstanding state-of-the-art technology. But always question arises in the mind of our clients that how we entered in the industry and what led us to reach at the top of the said industry (Biometrics Attendance System and Access Control Solution). Through this blog, I would let you know the journey we have covered till now to attain such position.

We have entered in the manufacturing industry in 1996, and we started manufacturing the calling equipments. We were the leading manufacturer as well as the first manufacturer of Conference Calling Equipment, which got a boom in the market trend. In 1998, Telecom Department of Government of India approved our product. This was the special achievement as Conference Calling Device from Star Link was the first approved conference device by GOI.

Later in late 2004 we entered in the field of Biometrics Attendance System and with our own research and development team we manufactured devices for attendance system. In 2005, we got the first and a major project at Maruti Suzuki. There we installed, an attendance device with card as a mode of operation. And till now the system at Maruti Suzuki, is running smoothly without any major fault. And, the very next year in 2006 we brought a fingerprint device on the market at lower cost, which brought a kind of revolution in the market.

As the time passed, it was pretty smooth for us to develop devices incorporated with new technologies. In 2008, 32-bit ARM processor was incorporated into our devices for better performance and efficiency. Between 2009-2011, we revived the technologies in our solutions and devices and presented to our clients according to their requirements. In the course of development, we developed LINUX based model with improved quality web interfaces and mail configuration (gmail).

In 2012, we developed the most advanced device, namely BIO-TRACK, a handheld device packed with every feature. It is featured with the touchscreen mode of operation, GPRS fro better connectivity from far off areas, Wi-fi, inbuilt camera and a SIM slot. A lot more advanced features were added to this product to match the client's requirements.

Collaterally, we developed solutions that served the purpose of our clients in a better way. Data capture software was designed to manage the data (fingerprint templates and employee details) of multiple machines with a simple click. Likewise, Star Time Office Software reduced the hassle of managing employees as it helped them to generate 100 types of reports, including late arrivals, over times, holidays, leaves etc, in .xls, .doc and .txt format. Later, Access Control System was designed that helped to control 15 x 8 doors with a single software, which was unique in its own way.

Then, Canteen Management System was developed that helped to reduce the gap between vendors and Management and easy handling of hundreds of employees within minutes.

And the most commendable solution developed is the Tea Garden Solution, which was designed keeping in mind the problems faced by a tea garden owner in his tea garden. This solution helped them to reduce the manipulation and cheating done during the work.

Our most of the software is a web based application, which allows user to use it from any part of the world. It does not require to be installed on systems. It can be used by multiple user at a time.

Simultaneously, working with different level of clients from different industry, we also made some amendments to serve their purpose effectively. We added a feature of Time Zone (or Time Limit) in our solution which limited access in a particular time period, employee wise/ department wise.

Also, incorporated the same in Vending machine to limit the usage employee wise. Car Track management was developed to check the availability of cars on the testing track. This helped to reduce the risk, also it generated the reports including all details.

Also, we made following amendments according to the client's requirements:-

・ Secure enrollment of employee in the machine in remote locations through the central server and voice guided message.

・ Birthday wishes to employees through biometric device.

・ Data transfer through USB, Wi-fi, GPRS.

・ Anti Pass back, to provide authentication door wise and employee wise.

・ Audio messages through different languages.

With the love and support of our esteemed clients, we have been able to reach at top position and achieve milestones. Our customers are the core of our business, and satisfying them is the precondition for our existence. We have been restless in our pursuit of the latest technology, the highest quality and the most user friendly products. We are passionate about exploring the latest that technology has to offer. Since the start, our products have pushed the boundaries of technology. With a uniquely independent R&D capacity, we design, develop, manufacture, market, and sell our products ourselves. We have full control over the entire supply chain, from our factories in the hands of our customers. This way, we can design for the end product in mind and ensure that only the best quality products reach our customers.

StarLink : Attendance System based on RFID

With the passage of time, new technologies are sprouting every day. Our responsibility is how we use it for making our daily life easier. The present era is an era of modern and advanced technology, i.e. Indirectly you can say, it is an era of wireless technology. Wireless phones, wireless devices, Wireless machines, wireless communication....Almost everything is wireless. The revolution in wireless technology eases and comforts our daily life.

Now, when it comes to recent technology, Star Link India is always front of the race in using recent trends in its devices. So, today we are going to discuss the method of marking attendance. This can be done by showing a simple card and that card is known as RFID card.

What is RFID?

RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. It is a generic term used for technology that uses radio waves to automatically (contact less) identify people or objects. This card contains microchip connected to an antenna. The microchip usually stores the data or generally it contains Unique serial number (UID), whereas antenna convert electromagnetic waves to electrical power/signal and receive waves from the reader.

The chip with antenna together is called RFID transponder or RFID tag.

How RFID works?

An RFID system consists of a tag, which is made up of a microchip with an antenna, and an interrogator or reader with an antenna. The reader sends out electromagnetic waves. The tag antenna is tuned to receive these waves. A passive RFID tag draws power from field created by the reader and uses it to power the microchip’s circuits. The chip then modulates the same waves using ASK (Amplitude Shift Keying) and reader demodulate signals and convert to digital data and in response reader modulates the same wave and tag demodulates. So in this way half duplex communication takes place on the same wave.

Types of RFID

There are basically two types of Tags or RFIDs – Read-only and Read-Write.

Read-only microchips have information stored on them during the manufacturing process. The information on such chips can never been changed.

Read-write tags usually have a serial number (UID) that can't be written over. Additional blocks of data can be used to store additional information about the items the tag is attached to.

How secure it is?

Whenever we use any technology, the security is the major concern that should be kept in mind. So in RFID a cryptography engine is used that prevents from illegal reading of information. Challenge Response Authentication is commonly used to foil repeated transfer of messages between tag and readers, preventing repeated transmission.

For reliability, CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) is used.

Standards and Protocols for RFID

Depending on the use and applications, a number of organizations have set a different parameters and protocols. These organizations include ISO, IEC, ASTM International, DASH7 alliance and EPC global.

Out of numerous protocols and standards we use ISO/IEC 14443. This standard is a popular HF (13.56 MHz) standard for HF RFID which is being used as the basis of RFID-enabled passports under ICAO 9303. The Near Field Communication standard that lets mobile devices act as RFID readers/transponders is also based on ISO/IEC 14443.

Frequency of RFIDs

Depending on the application, three major frequency ranges for RFIDs are there. They are Low frequency, High Frequency (HF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF).

LF are in the range of 125-200 KHz, HF-13.56 MHz and UHF - 850-900 MHZ.

But in our application of Attendance System and Access Control, we use LFIDs and HFIDs.

Now let us discuss, how we use this RFID tag and incorporate with our technology. Basically the information of the employee like the fingerprint template or other information are written in it. After that, any employee can use this card as his identity, only he has to show this to the device installed.

This method is very effective and efficient in the companies with larger employee strength. Helps the Management to save a lot of time and money as well.

 

Star Link - Serving Clients on Customer Oriented Policy

Till now we have discussed about our technologies used in our devices and solutions. Also, we discussed about our unique solutions that revolutionized the world of biometrics. But this time I am going to throw a light on our one of the major projects accomplished in our blooming days in 2009, when Biometrics Attendance System was germinating and spreading its roots in India. The project was done in YAMAHA India at Surajpur.

YAMAHA wanted to streamline their employees at work stations. Since the strength of workers is very large, it was very difficult and hectic to manage them. Due to the mismanagement of employees, they were facing administrative losses, financial losses and time losses. So, they wanted desperately to establish any system in their company premises, which can reduce all their losses and streamline the work force easily. In concern about this, they contacted Star Link India to provide a solution and system according to their requirements. And YES! We installed devices, according to their requirement, doing all possible customizations to fit their work criteria. And it's been almost 6 years and everything is running smoothly and flawlessly.

We have provided a card to each employee, including their Date of Joining, Date of birth. The card was unique to each employee, which was used to mark their attendance. If any employee misses his/her card, then his previous card is blocked.

But, one of the major problems they faced was that, it was uncertain for them or a time consuming task finding the number of workers present at the work station in a particular department. So the production delayed as casual workers were having to take place of absent employees. Until and unless the exact number of designated workers are not present, they cannot start the line; this created a lot of problem and LOSSes as well.

Star Link India installed device with 25000 finger templates, to record the attendance of the employees. And, within 3 minutes of the start of the shift, a report of absent employees is generated. This helped them to designate the casual workers without any delay in starting work on the production line. The generation of the report in 3 minutes helped them to reduce the losses, which they faced earlier due to delay in starting work.

Then we did customizations in our devices to fulfill the requirement of YAMAHA, and that changes were commendable in 2009. Almost none of the companies were providing any kind of such customized features, but we did. Following are the few major customizations done in our devices to resolve their persisting issues:-

・ If any group of employees were late for a certain indispensable reason, then we introduced an option of REASON, which included different types of reasons like bus late, heavy traffic, weather problem or others.

・ An error report is generated which shows the reject list of the employees who attempted to enter without having their name in the card list. You can say in other words, a report is generated by employees who attempt unauthorized entry.

・ The validity of the cards of the employees was designated for a certain period of time for particular type of workers.

・ Other customization done was, Finger BY-PASS. The by-pass was done to reduce the chaos of the employees. For an instance, if the number of employees increases at any time, then finger bypass is done and employees are allowed to get the authentication, through showing cards only, irrespective of card and finger both. This took less time and helped to wash out the crowd of employees easily in less time.

・ When new employees are registered, the masking is done on every machine at a single click.

・ Also, when any employee is deleted, it can deleted from every machine with a single click. Multiple employee/ Multiple machine addition or deletion option is there.

・ Whenever any new machine is replaced by an older one, the masking is done easily without any hassle.

・ To reduce the manual punching, the machine is restricted to accept the manual punching.

・ And one of the interesting feature is that machine wishes HAPPY BIRTH DAY to a particular employee on his particular birth date.

・ Multiple card entry at a single time is prohibited, as employees used to do proxy punching by showing multiple card. This has been done by fixing a time interval between 2 card punching.

Additionally, many other customizations have been done at certain levels of requirement. But these were unique in 2008. After passage of time, we also installed 8 door access control in YAMAHA India and coffee vending machine solution is installed, which limited the usage according to the level of employee. And also our machines are installed in YAMAHA, Chennai.

At last, I want to acclaim that StarLink India always focused on customer oriented service delivery. We are always ready for customization our machines and solution according to the requirement of the clients, not only YAMAHA but we did this for many other clients. But since it was done in that time, when it was considered as a commendable task to accomplish. Now, for many of the clients, StarLink has become a reliable source of the biometric attendance system and access control solutions. So in a nutshell, if you are also looking to manage and streamline the workforce at your office premises, STAR LINK INDIA is the best service provider. Think upon, choice is yours!!

How Fingerprint Recognition Technology Works in Our Devices ?

Biometrics have taken a long flight in the attendance system in this rapidly growing era of technology. Biometrics is the identification of a person based on his intrinsic characteristics, such as voice, fingerprint, iris, face and hand geometry, etc. But the most famous biometric characteristics used in attendance devices are fingerprint recognition. Fingerprint recognition is one of the most popular biometric techniques used in automatic personal identification and verification.

The use of biometrics has revolutionized the technology and level of security, wherever the biometric devices are installed. But in the course of design and development of biometric devices, the use of fingerprint recognition technology is used.

StarLink India uses the “Fingerprint Recognition Technology"StarLink India uses the “Fingerprint Recognition Technology” for verification process in its devices. During this matching process we use minutiae matching for finger verification with its template. But again the question arises, how does the template is formed? And what is minutiae matching?

Let us discuss all about the process of fingerprint template formation and minutiae matching. May be the step will seem very complex, but this whole process takes place in milliseconds.

The fingerprint is captured through optical sensor, which takes the mono-chrome image of finger print in 8bit-grayscale. Then, the 8 bit grayscale images are converted into 0&1 depending on the permutations & combinations of the nearby pixels. This is decided by running an algorithm.

Initially the image of a fingerprint that is captured by optical sensor accompanied by the CMOS sensor is in grayscale, which is not so clear. The image is filtered based on FIR (Finite Impulse Response) is used to convert the gray scale images into single thin line and as a result sharp image of fingerprint pattern is formed. Undirected lines are removed and each cut marks and unwanted marks are removed and the ridges are joined for the perfect pattern.

After this process, Gabor filter is used, which forms the 4X4 block of pixel. Then, points are marked on valleys, ridges, bifurcations and deltas. Then its 15-20 minutiae are marked in X-Y axis, including the direction of the minutiae. A unique pattern is formed by matching minutiae with its directions. Thus, the image formed is a final fingerprint template which is an array of minutiae of 240x320 pixels in the range of 200-500 byte.

Now templates of fingerprints are stored in the memory of the device. After the storage of template, whenever anyone punches, the templates stored is matched with his fingerprint. The matching is done on the basis of “matching score”, which is fixed by the admin. We have to take care while deciding the Matching score, because the FALSE ACCEPTANCE RATE increases with decrease in security score, whereas FALSE REJECTION RATE increases when security score increases.

The fingerprint matching is done in Our Devices on the following methods:-

1:1 matching: In this method, employer shows their attendance card (which holds it details), then a message comes off “Put finger”. So when he shows the ID, the finger template is stored against his name is matched with the fingerprint he is punching. And after which message of success or failure comes. It is very fast matching method which takes less time; and this method is perfect for the workplace of more than 1000 employees.

1:N matching: In this method, the employee punches and his fingerprint are matched with the total number of templates stored in the device and depending on the matching score, the success or failure rate is decided. This method is perfect for the work place of less than 1000 employees as it takes more time than the previous one.

All this process is handled by a dedicated DSP (Digital Signal Processor) running at 400 MHz speed in StarLink's Devices.

Although it may appear to be a simple process, fingerprint recognition involves the state-of-the-art technology in hardware, for the readers, and software, to process the fingerprint images and templates. But due to the effort of our hardware and software team, all this complexity is hidden and fingerprint technology usage is nowadays as simple as touching the reader.

StarLink has expertise in manufacturing and designing the fingerprint system according to the requirements. So if you want to consider this technology and want a flawless operation of your biometric devices, then StarLink will certainly help out with best device. 

Limit The Usage of Coffee Vending Machine

Star Link has achieved many milestones in customizing every kind of solutions running any corporate offices; may be access control, canteen management, visitor management or time office software. But this time I am going to let you know about the customization done in "Beverage Vending Machines" or  "Coffee Vending Machines".

There are many companies where certain rules are made for use Coffee Vending machines. These rules vary from level to level, like different for HR, Employees or other staffs. So looking at the same condition, Star Link has customized the solution by authorizing the number of times it can be used. This permission can be given to the employees based on their department, profile or may be individual type. The Admin of the solution is required to allow, the permission though the software.

Each employee is issued a card, which includes his details. Whenever he goes to use the coffee vending machine he have to show the card for identity verification. Like wise the same process can be repeated whenever anyone goes to get the coffee, the number of times he/she is allowed.

The major problem was related to the workers or employees who are employed on contract basis in the companies; for them the companies pay for every service. Though some company faces the problem related to the unauthorized usage of canteen facility or coffee vending machine. Keeping in mind this prevailing problem, Star Link provided a solution which solved it easily.

As we recharge the Metro Smart card with a certain amount which allows us to use the service uninterrupted till there is balance, likewise the smart cards which are issued to casual workers or employees on contract basis, will be recharged with a certain amount for using coffee vending machine or canteen services, paid by employees themselves. After recharging they can use the vending machine; which will automatically reduce the fixed amount of coffee every time it is used.

 

                       

The above solution helped a lot to restrict the over-usage of services. The recharge of the card can be done by the Admin who is responsible to control all these solutions. This will help to maintain the balance record as well.

So if you are also looking to synchronize your canteen services or coffee vending machine, employee wise or department wise; you hit the nut shell. Just browse Star Link India and ask for this solution. It is going to reduce all your additional costs and other extra human efforts.