FlexiTime, Ltd. Case Study

FlexiTime, Ltd. chose WebORB for .NET to get its payroll, time tracking and billing software (FlexiTime) to market faster.  This not only enabled FlexiTime to start generating revenue earlier, but created real value for businesses by making paying employees a simple one-step process.  Download PDF>

Business Situation

Many payroll, time-tracking and billing solutions are known to be bulky, complex and time-consuming.  In fact, FlexiTime’s own founder, Robert Owen became so frustrated with re-keying information into three different software packages that it prompted him to go out and build a solution.  Furthermore, the dissatisfaction with installable applications meant the application he set his developers out to build had to be an online application that was easily updatable, rich in functionality and   simple to use.  

Application Description

FlexiTime is a payroll Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) used by New Zealand small businesses. But more than just a payroll application, FlexiTime integrates rostering, time entry, job tracking and time billing functionality. It is the perfect payroll and time recording solution for businesses that have remote, casual or flexible employees.  It is also perfect for growing small businesses that have full-time workers.

Solution

According to Sam Newton, Director at FlexiTime, “Coming across WebORB was a revelation. The simple WebORB data management, mapping between the data model/business logic in the SQL Server database and the Flex front-end, was exactly what we needed and the WDMF gave the full CRUD functionality our team required.“

Subsequently, the FlexiTime team has further explored the capabilities of WebORB and found other incredibly useful features such as being able to expose SQLServer stored procedures. 

Benefits

Increased Development Velocity  -  The speed with which WebORB was implemented allowed the development team to focus their energy where it was required most - on delivering a high quality user experience and a resilient data model.

Easier Data Management - Enhancements to the data model are incorporated into the Flex application and deployed with ease. According to Sam, “The FlexiTime team love simplicity and their implementation of WebORB is just that - beautifully simple.” 

Simpler Integration -  There was a whole layer of code developers did not have to write, because WebORB automated a lot of the integration.  According to CEO Robert Owen, “WebORB is pretty cool.  It removed a whole layer of complexity. I just wanted to get to our data and WebORB made it easy.” 

Faster Time to Market -  It took two developers less than one year to take FlexiTime from an idea to a respected SaaS product used for payroll, time-tracking and billing.

Better Customer Satisfaction – The Flex client interface and the responsiveness WebORB provides helps ensure customers are satisfied with their FlexiTime experience.

Easy Updates – Since FlexiTime is an online application, software updates are made easy and WebORB supports loose coupling, which means that updates can be localized without having to do major rewrites.  Furthermore, the client synchronization features WebORB supports mmeans that any changes in the database can be instantly updated on subscribed clients.

Server Environment

  • Single Dell 2950 dual Xenon processor
  • Windows Server 2008
  • 4 GB RAM