SWAT Team to the Rescue for Timekeepers
Executive Summary
Timekeepers, an armed security company, approached Division 42 with a unique situation. As they grew, Timekeepers hired some outside finance professionals who identified some areas of growth.
While the company size was relatively small, they had healthy revenue north of $5m. They primarily serviced the Texas oil fields and ranches with areas leased for drilling sites, providing gate guards and various other related services. However, these guards were performing more than 10,000 gate transits per month, all on documented on paper.
Division 42 strategized, designed, and developed a customized digital software solution to remedy the outdated recordkeeping.
New Revenue
transactions digitally recorded
Results Overview
Division 42 seamlessly integrated into an in-progress phase of the needed tracking software and both mediated between Timekeepers and the old developer and moved production forward to the finish line. The old process of paper reporting was replaced by a refined dashboard that enabled guards to document all entries and exists electronically in real time, viewable by Timekeepers clients at their leisure. As a result, this capability allowed Timekeepers to win a $3M contract and the software, dubbed “TKGateTracker,” became a cornerstone of their offerings. Timekeepers went on to secure their place as one of the top security service providers for oil companies in Texas.
Earlier versions were built based off of inherited software
Newer version built from the ground-up in later years
TKGateTracker won Timekeepers a $3M contract
Challenges and Process
Initially, an exhaustive search was performed to purchase a solution, but one that fit their needs didn’t exist yet. Timekeepers did attempt to develop a custom software solution themselves to digitize the paper-tracking process that was typical for the industry. Even after spending $300,000+, they were not close to having a working solution. The company and the original developer had grown mounting resentment towards each other at this point and this halted production.
Division 42 entered the scenario. We managed to recover and reuse a large amount of the pre-existing code. Since this was a server-based solution, we set up more reliable hosting with scaling capabilities. We deployed thin client interfaces for the company and its guards and in a later version, for its clients. Only a browser was needed to use the software. This enabled the guards to document all entries and exits electronically for the first time.
The old process of paper reporting that they used to do, having to transcribe by hand, was now automated and self-served to Timekeepers’ clients in real time. Clients could now see entries and exits as they occurred along with essential details and context.
This new capability also allowed TimeKeepers to win a $3M contract and became a cornerstone of their offerings. It was dubbed, TKGateTracker. Over the time since we have continued to add features and capabilities to TKGateTracker.
TKGateTracker … The software that Frank and his team built for us is fantastic. We could not be happier. It really has made the difference for our company and has been a critical part to our winning new business.
About Timekeepers
TimeKeepers has been around for a very long time. The founder and CEO, Shawn Fluit’s family had a long history in the business, culture and community of Texas ranching, and his connections across Texas are strong. TimeKeepers provides armed and unarmed security guards, primarily to the oil companies. Oil companies lease land from ranches and the ranches require gate guards to control and monitor all entries and exists as well as ensure that ranch rules are adhered to. Documenting all of this and disseminating the often urgent information is critical and moving to a connected and digital platform has become critical to success.
Lessons Learned
- Always seriously explore the options to buy software before you take the step to build it.
- Document things. Document what you want and how you want it. Make diagrams and flow charts to help make sure that you are clear yourself on how things should function and flow.
- Do Source Code Control. If you have source code it needs to be stored in a safe repository not just on a developer’s computer.
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