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The Challenge: Manual Shift Scheduling Across Nearly 100 Employees
Operating in Lääne-Virumaa, Vihula Manor's hotel, luxury spa, and restaurant belong to Unique Hotels Group together with four hotels and five restaurants in Tallinn. For years, the company struggled with the manual registration and tracking of nearly 100 staff members. In the hospitality sector, staffing needs fluctuate rapidly based on banquet bookings, wellness guests, and unexpected group arrivals. Because wages are calculated directly on actual hours worked, accurate time tracking is critical. While Fujitsu Persona had been used for personnel management since 2016, department heads still relied on fragmented spreadsheets, requiring hours of tedious compilation before payroll runs.
Testing WebLock Hardware: Clean Contactless Cards and Keypads
Prior to WebLock, Vihula tested biometric fingerprint readers, but kitchen and spa staff frequently had wet or flour-covered hands, leading to recognition failures. In autumn 2020, management implemented WebLock's cloud access hardware. The setup is remarkably straightforward: one intelligent WebLock controller connected to two code panels / card readers at the staff entrance — one designated for 'Entry' (recording shift start) and the second for 'Exit' (recording shift end). Employees tap their personal contactless card or enter an assigned numeric PIN code, instantly registering their timestamp in the cloud.
Fujitsu and WebLock Interface: Automated Synchronization with Persona
Fujitsu Estonia developed an automated API interface linking WebLock's access timestamps directly with Persona's work schedules module. As Kristo Palo, developer at Fujitsu Estonia AS, explains: 'Unit managers plan staff shifts in Persona's scheduling module. When employees tap their WebLock badges upon entering and exiting, the interface automatically imports actual timestamps into Persona, comparing real hours against planned shifts.' Department heads can review side-by-side deviations, approve adjustments, and export verified timesheets directly to payroll without re-entering a single number.
Proven Results: 3 Days Saved Every Month and Full Payback in 2-3 Months
The automated interface revolutionized operations at Vihula Manor. By replacing manual spreadsheets with synchronized WebLock hardware, verification time for each of the 9 department heads shrank from 2-4 hours down to merely 20 minutes per month. This saves more than 3 full working days of administrative management time every single month. Payroll accuracy reached 100%, overtime and holiday rates calculate automatically, and the total financial investment in equipment and integration paid for itself within 2-3 months.
“In the past, each department head spent 2 to 4 hours a month on manual entry of working hours across our 9 managers. It now takes about 20 minutes. We save at least 3 full working days every month, input errors disappear, and the investment paid for itself in just 2-3 months.”
