How automated time tracking saved this company thousands of hours

Outlook Optics ™ doesn’t take long to implement, but there is some setup required (which Timewatch help you do). Outlook Optics ™ seamlessly integrates with Outlook, but it is a highly secure system, so there is some IT involvement. To get the best out of your analytics, there are some configuration options and decisions to make. Timewatch help you with all of this, but typically customers can be up and running in a matter of days, but implementation time of hours.

Outlook Optics ™ seamlessly integrates with Outlook to create automated time tracking. To achieve this it has to meet Microsoft’s security and privacy systems, so there is some IT involvement required to activate the system, which is achieved via your Office Administration system, which IT generally manages. The typical IT involvement is in the region of 20-60 minutes.

Both. There is a separate back end SaaS system that performs the automated time tracking functions and analysis. It is available in Timewatch’s Cloud, in a private cloud or as an on-premises solution.

There are also Outlook Plugins available: one for administrators to be able to access Outlook Optics ™ within Outlook as a button on the menu. There is also an end user app available should you as an organization want to add custom fields to Outlook appointments to enhance analytics – fields such as Customer, Project, Type of Work etc.

Yes, the system works with Office 365 and Exchange on-line as these systems support MS-Graph.

Yes. Outlook Optics ™ works with existing Outlook calendar data. It does not alter Outlook appointments, although there is a scheduling option should customers wish to edit or create appointments and meetings to schedule employees centrally.

Yes, you can analyze past appointments and meetings.

No, end users will not need training, unless you wish to change how users use Outlook, which sometimes happens to increase consistency amongst users.

We recommend that at least one administrator work with a Timewatch implementor / consultant so that they are aware of the full capabilities of the system so that the optimal configuration can be achieved. No other administrator training should be required, but this service is available if needed.

Outlook Optics ™ AI analyzes appointments and is able to find and group patterns, but the accuracy to which AI can achieve does depend on the quality of the data entered.

Yes. There are various editions available: Essentials, Pro and Corporate. Although the Corporate edition includes a specific analysis level for departments, offices or regions as well as customizable fields, the Pro edition includes a Tags feature which some customers use to group employees.

Which edition and which feature will best achieve your needs depends upon what you want to achieve.

Timewatch’s Outlook Optics ™ AI analyses appointment details, employee past activity, Outlook categories and definable groupings to find patterns and group appointments. This question is best answered by looking at the way in which your employees currently create their appointments.

The level of accuracy does depend upon the data entered. If for example people put minimal information in their appointments there is not much for AI to work on, but most people enter appointment details with enough information so that they can recognize easily what each appointment is for and who with. If employee calendars are intelligible, AI is generally pretty accurate and classifying appointments and meetings.

Yes you can, this is a feature included in the Pro and Corporate editions.

Using such a term will group appointments with that term unless there is more information provided, for example “Catch up – Acme Corp”, or perhaps with a category.

Yes, the more data that exists and is analyzed, the more the system is able of converge on consistent analysis.

It can as the system can recognize when a meeting is an external or internal meeting, but out of the box the analytics does not do this as not all customers want to do to this. Speak to your implementation consultant about this.

Standard analysis and reports include:

• Analysis showing all employee activity over past 5 weeks and future 4 weeks with drill down capability per employee per week
• Same as above but for meetings and for all appointments except meetings
• Analysis of future employee availability by day / week over a configurable date range
• Utilization, Productivity by person over a range of days / weeks
• Automated time tracking view, similar to a traditional timesheet grid
• Company / group Meeting analysis
• Appointment analytics tool with configurable groupings, drill downs and exports
• Availability search
• Optional Report Writer

Yes, there is an SQL based Report Writer, a Dashboard chart designer and a custom report writing services available as required.

Yes, metrics of time, meetings, availability, productivity and utilization by employee are available

You would need to be clear on how you quantify over or under serviced means, but as time can be analyzed by client this is certainly possible.

Yes, you can integrate with any system that provides and uses APIs.

All reports and analytics are real-time.

Customers that use Optics ™ for automated time tracking report have reporting savings ranging between 2 and 4 hours a week.

Measurable ROI includes the employee time saved manually categorizing appointments and meetings, time saved for administrators and IT staff extracting, collating, cleansing, correcting, arranging and analyzing data manually.

Immeasurable ROI items include the increased and improved access to meaningful analytics in a much more timely manner and the better decision making this provides.

Customers have reported that it helps the identify over subscribed meetings meetings through overly high / less targeted meeting involvement as well as under and overly engaged remote workers.

Yes, admin time is one of the direct ROI savings.

With access to enhanced analytics of employee activity Optics ™ provides the tools for your organization to recognize the need for behavioral changes and the tools to monitor change, acting as a tool to facilitate change and perhaps even a catalyst for change.

Yes, and Timewatch is ISO 9001 and 27001 certified, all software is PEN tested with an A rating.

Yes.

The system does not access Outlook email data. When authorizing our App to communicate with Outlook Microsoft Office 365 Administration system states exactly what the app requests access to. Email access is not requested so Microsoft Office does not allow access. Only calendar access is required.

Data is hosted with AWS, but can also be hosted in Azure, in a private cloud or on-premises (larger Corporate customers only).

Yes. You can control the users, groups, views, reports and analytics users can see.

This depends upon how your organization explains it’s use of the system. To some extent all employees are monitored in their work, but when the company need for better analysis of work done is explained and insight provided that the alternative to AI analytics of Outlook calendars is for users to have to track time manually, users tend to see this is in a positive light.

It depends upon how your organization explains it’s use of the system. When the need for better analytics of work done, time in meetings etc. and that the alternative to AI analytics is for users to have to track time manually, users tend to see this is as tool that saves them time and admin effort.

This is a decision each of our customers needs to make for themselves. As a default users do not see their own analytics as this would require access to the system, but information could be provided to users via reports.

We specifically chose not to provide such analytics as the performance metrics could differ greatly from customer to customer. Should this be a requirement for your organization, you could create such analysis via the Report Writer – or if you can clearly define your metrics and rules, Timewatch could create a report or dashboard for you.

This is something our implementation specialists can assist you with.

The system fully supports recurring appointments.

Canceled meetings are handled exactly as they are in Outlook, except that they are available for analytics and reporting with Outlook Optics ™.

It depends upon how you use Shared calendars.

Shared calendars are designed to be used as a way to share common appointments with a broad community, but often companies use Shared calendars as a way to schedule future work and then assign them to people either by inviting them as an attendee or by typing their name into the Subject or allocating a category with the person’s name, but there are other ways people use shared calendars.

If you use shared calendars, you have no doubt hit a limitation in Outlook that you are trying to overcome, and we can help. Contact us to discuss your specific needs, how you use shared calendars, the limitations you are experiencing and what exactly you want to be able to do.

The system works with all Outlook users irrespective of whether they are in office, hybrid or remote.

Yes, it works with all Outlook usage, from PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, Browser.

If you book meetings with people outside of the company that don’t use Outlook, they are still included in meetings.

The price depends upon the number of active calendars you want available to include in analysis, the number of users that access the system for analytics and the edition you choose: Essentials, Pro, Corporate or Enterprise.

Yes, there is a practical minimum of around 10 employees, however smaller, growing businesses that recognize the need for accurate analytics have started with as few as 5 employees.

We get asked this a lot, but when we explain that the system needs to be configured to and AI needs to be trained for your business, and we point out that a trial would integrate with live employee Outlook accounts people soon realize something different is needed.

Instead we ask if what is wanted is a way that you can see the system in operation? For this we recommend we setup a system with some trial Outlook accounts so you can see it working with a handful of calendars and see the analytics and automated time tracking features in action.

Unfortunately this depends upon your objectives and the way your company and your employees use Outlook. It can be very quick, from hours or simple implementations to days for more complex ones.

We include human based implementation assistance for when customers start up. In time support tapers off and most support is covered via our on-line system, but you always have access to human support if it is needed.

Yes, this is something many customers like to do.

Yes, click here to arrange a demo personized to your organization.

In some cases very quick, for others it may take a number of demos with differing groups of people, but we like to limit demos to about 30 minutes initially so that we can each see if there is enough to warrant digging deeper.

Yes. Although there is an extensive library of existing reports, charts and analytics that can be drawn from to customize the analytics you have, there is also a Report Writer that allows custom reports, charts and dashboards to be created specifically for your organization.

Yes, but it probably works a little differently to the usual do it yourself trial. We understand the need for people to be able to experience a system first hand to see if it works for your organization, however as there is configuration and AI training required for a system to work for your organization a free DIY trial is ineffective as the system is not tailored to your business.

To provide a trial experience customers need, we provide hands on test drive drawing from similar systems that have similar functional requirements and demonstrate how configurability and training can meet your needs. And yes, it is free.

Any company that uses Microsoft Outlook and feel that the data contained within employee calendars holds information and answers to questions that you want to access. There is no limit to the industry or size of organization that can take advantage of Outlook Optics ™.

Yes, this is something many customers like to do.