Employees don't answer pages because they've left the office without telling you. Staffers occupy the human resources department with questions about their vacation and sick leave. If you want to check your people's availability while on the road, you're out of luck.

Until now, that is. To solve these and other administrative headaches, Affiliated Resource Group introduces KnowNow, the corporate management and human resource solution. Using this Intranet framework, a company can enter its employee information once, then deploy it across its business operations. The Intranet assures access even if departments use different processors or are geographically separate.

In KnowNow, a staff enters all scheduled and call-in absences into a record that the program uses to generate a monthly calendar and daily report. KnowNow e-mails these reports at a specified time to whoever needs to see them. Employees can verify their vacation balances on-line, then request additional time off and have it automatically routed to their managers for approval.

With KnowNow, staff members can submit weekly timesheets for consolidation and billing purposes on-line, eliminating the need for printouts and faxes. The software offers on-line forms for simple requests such as address changes, and downloadable forms for more complex tasks such as expense reports. A Web-based e-mail function gives employees secure access to the KnowNow Intranet from any Internet access site.

At Affiliated, the KnowNow Intranet site works directly with ADP's payroll service. KnowNow also provides access to the company's benefit plans. Employees can verify balances in a 401(k) plan or switch their money between funds. Managers can query KnowNow to get an overall picture of their plans' demographics and finances.

On KnowNow's "Front Porch", you can introduce new hires, notify staff about clients and projects, and post an on-line newsletter with the latest developments. KnowNow empowers you to oversee all these functions by shaping the Intranet to your company's particular needs. You can send special reports to department managers, poll associates about urgent decisions, and brainstorm with any cross-section of staff.

More than half the Affiliated staff uses KnowNow in-house at least once a day. Almost 100% of our staff use it more than once a week. We recommend it to others because it helps us make fast, informed decisions.

An advisory board of Hr experts guides KnowNow�s development. This assures that KnowNow will keep expanding and evolving to meet your management needs. Arriving in 2000, new versions of KnowNow will offer some or all of the following:

• More HR reporting information
• More benefit balance information
• More integration with ADP and other payroll application software
• The ability to maintain and update the Intranet Web
• Education and training tracking and planning
• On-line job postings
• An on-line skill inventory program
• On-line inquiry and feedback areas

Smaller organizations can install KnowNow as-is and get up and running immediately. Larger organizations may want to modify and integrate it with their installed base of systems. Either way, Affiliated�s staff can help install KnowNow, train users, and support the Intranet environment.

Base versions of KnowNow range from $3,000 to $25,000 based on the number of planned users. Affiliated provides integration and consulting services on a separate, per project basis.

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