SK Chilled Foods Ltd is a fast growing UK company specializing in the supply of own label ethnic meals and snacks. They also needed the system for its working. And they have installed Open Options. The system has paid for itself within six months; reducing the workforce by 14%; and realized a 40% improvement in unauthorized absences.

SK can now plan ahead to an even more successful future, confident that the Crown system will support its growing business demands. This is possible with a wealth of management and employee information now available at the touch of a button.

SK Chilled Foods Ltd is based in Cleveland. It has expanded at a phenomenal rate over the last years. The company was reliant on a manual clockcard system, which had been in place since 1986 and had become sadly unproductive at keeping track of overtime expenses and unauthorized absences.

Having to collect clockcards and enter individual attendance data into the payroll system manually was not only very time-consuming, but also often inexact because of human mistake. And that's why, producing reliable management information on a timely basis was then not possible.

"We are a very fast moving organization and we have to be able to respond and plan very cautiously and that includes people as well. As we could not react to events fast enough, we were losing time and money. The manual clockcard system was just a mechanism to pay people. And what we needed was a management tool that would enable us to generate reliable information in a timely manner," said Anne Yare, Human resources Manager at SK.

She also added that it was important for their business to have an entire approach to an overall site control and people management solution. With Crown's Open Options system they were allowed the full integration of their payroll and human resources planning systems. It helped with the difficulty of their site planning process. Then they planned their output around the rolling sales forecast, taking into account absences due to holidays and work time requirements.

They have discovered that the profits of the Crown system go beyond simply the business and users profits. Moreover, being Windows-based, staff found the system both easy to use and less stressful.

"I think we can say that everyone at SK is pleased with the Open Options system. And the success means they can now plan ahead and fulfill more of the features and facilities available," said Nicholas Kay, Corporate Account Manager.