The Associated Students at California State University, Chico (AS) uses seven Schlage Handpunch time and attendance readers at employee entrances throughout the student union and dining facilities to track the attendance of approximately 1,200 student and career employees. Readers are used at the student union, student services on campus, dining and food services. The AS is an independent student-directed corporation that provides a wide range of services and programs for Chico State students, faculty, staff and alumni. It is the largest employer of students on the Chico State Campus.
“Some of the employees had become very clever in the way that they had friends clock in and out for them,” explains Matt Norby, IT director for the AS. “Some of these areas were high volume, which made it quite difficult for the manager to track such ‘buddy-punching.’ As a result, we decided to use hand geometry readers to track time and attendance reporting.”
For time/attendance/payroll use, AS employees use the keypad on the HandPunch reader to enter their ID number and then place their hand in the hand reader. The reader simultaneously analyzes more than 31,000 points of the hand's length, width, thickness and surface area to instantaneously record more than 90 separate measurements and verify users.
“Being so used to computers and other electronic gear, the student employees accepted the hand readers without question,” adds Norby. “Only a small group held the inaccurate perception that biometric information could be stored for law enforcement or the government. When we explained that only a mathematical equation, an algorithm, created from the 90 points was stored in the hand reader, they were satisfied.”
At Chico, the HandPunch reader connects with TimeCentre software which feeds into the AS internal payroll system SunGuard Integrated Financial and Administrative Solution or IFAS.
"We didn't see anything in the Kronos solution that wasn't also part of the TimeCentre product. Not only was the software and implementation of a web-based Kronos expensive, the hardware requirements were quite, well, huge... Thankfully, a healthy-sized TimeCentre implementation runs great on a modest SQL server." – Chico State University
"Aside from the occasional need to wipe fingerprints from the biometric hand platform, the clocks are essentially maintenance-free. There haven't been any instances of failure (knock on wood) at all and people are very pleased with the ability to clock in without a card on the biometric units. We tested the biometric units for nearly a year before going 100% live and we were never able to "sneak in" a punch with a hand that didn't match the preceding ID number." Chico State University
About California State University… California State University, Chico is the second-oldest campus in the California State University system. It is located in Chico, California, about ninety miles north of Sacramento. Chico State is known for academic excellence in engineering, science, computing, business, technology, environmental studies, Theatre Arts and communication.