Ichiban UK is a food manufacturing company specializing in producing its own-branded sushi in the UK for use across retailers and supermarkets. Currently Ichiban employs roughly 350 staff at their main site in Earl Stonham just outside Stowmarket in Suffolk.
Ichiban installed Tensor’s Time & Attendance, Access Control and HR system back in 2008, Our reporter spoke to Andrew Lambert, the HR manager of Ichiban to find out how Tensor’s systems have adapted to their company, Mr.Lambert tells our reporter “I’ve been here for 12 years and the system was installed before I arrived”. He added “From what I’ve seen from old paperwork, the system was installed with the purpose for Time and Attendance Capturing and Access control”
Asking about the training Mr. Lambert received from us at the Ichiban site, he said to our reporter “I’ve had half a day’s worth of training from Tensor, it was quite some years ago but from what I remember it was good”.
Mr.Lambert tells us that Ichiban over the years have been using Tensor “for keeping employee records, Time & Attendance, Access Control and holiday management through the Self Service Module”. When it comes to using Tensor.NET Mr Lambert tells the reporter that he found the system “relatively easy to use”. When it comes to using the system to its full potential he said “Some the things like configuring work patterns and a few other aspects were self-taught, but if I understood it better I could get a lot more out of the system”
Mr. Lambert tells us that his favourite part about the Tensor system was “The Holiday Management from the Self-Service Module” he added that “The self-service module has been great for us! It’s streamlined our holiday management process”
The Tensor Time & Attendance and Access Control system installed at Ichiban use biometric fingerprint authentication. In terms of how well the biometric systems have worked at Ichiban, Mr. Lambert told us “it has worked 99% well, we’ve got the occasional person where the biometric system does not work for them” however should the biometrics fail Tensor smartcards can be used with the readers as a backup. He told us that the Tensor smartcards worked “fine” but explained “We tend to only issue them to staff whose biometrics don’t work”
We asked Mr Lambert how he found our helpdesk service, jokingly he replied “it depends who’s on” but clarified to the reporter that “generally the service has been good”. In terms of the operations team repairing their system he said “over the years, we have had some repairs and the service was good”.
When we asked where Tensor could improve it’s services for Ichiban Mr Lambert said “updates, sometimes you guys could assist us better with them”. Our reporter then asked if Ichiban were considering to extend their system to which he replied “not at the minute, we’re quite happy”
Summing up we asked if Mr. Lambert would recommend Tensor to other companies and he replied “yes I would” and overall he said that Tensor from a Time & Attendance point of view “it’s a reliable service”.
