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Tom Sowa, staff writer
November, 2002
MANAGERS AT THE NORTH DIVISION ONION used to spend more than eight hours a week planning the work schedules of 70 employees. Most of the restaurant workers are full- or parttime students. Nearly every one has different preferred days off. Many want to change their hours week by week for trips or entertaining.
It's very complex trying to match all employees' needs with the work requirements," said Kara Lucio, the restaurants general manager. But thanks to software developed by a Spokane company, the restaurant has cut its scheduling time to an hour and a half.
The software - carrying the working title of Scheduler for now - sprang to life this spring at Maplewood Software. The Spokane-based company builds Web applications that give companies control over complex databases. Using a Web-based interface, an Onion manager can now easily make changes in the database. For instance, some table bussers may not be free to work this weekend. Or, four out of five waitresses or greeters may need to take off for a vacation. Meanwhile, some employees may be looking for extra hours. After all the changes are indicated in a set of fields, Onion managers sign off the Web application. Within several minutes, the Scheduler produces the next week's schedule, matching skills available to shifts needed.
"Workers love it. It's removed any decision-making by individuals. The employees feel better knowing the schedule is done by a computer," said Lucio. The downtown Onion hasn't started using the system yet, said Lucio. Two other companies, Tomato Street and the Spokane Valley Players and Spectators, are testing the product. "No doubt wed be ready to spend money to use this product," said H.T. Higgins, president of Players and Spectators, which has nearly 50 workers for its casino, bowling, restaurant and banquet business. "It's been taking us 14 hours a week to manage this kind of task," said Higgins. If the beta-test of Scheduler proves successful, he plans to buy the product.
Maplewood, based in downtown Spokane, has been in business for three years; it has eight full-time developers and sales representatives, said company President John Janzen. "We were sitting around last winter and began asking, What need can we help take care of?'" Janzen said. The software group realized big companies can buy very expensive versions of such resource-management software packages. "But there's nothing at the second tier," said Janzen, and that prompted Maplewood to push the idea.
Last winter, the company used a Gonzaga University business class to test the products value. The class teacher, Ron Bertolucci, learned that plenty of companies in the area - and nationwide - would use the product. If anything, the class of seniors and MBA students encouraged Maplewood Software to think bigger. "They found that interest went beyond just restaurants. They found strong interest among the bigbox stores like Wal-Mart," clothing retailers and the supermarket industry, said Bertolucci.
After releasing the first version in February, Maplewood has fine-tuned Scheduler. It's looking at ways to market the product nationwide, said Michael Kennedy, vice president for sales and marketing. Janzen said Scheduler could generate revenue of more than $20 million a year.
Maplewood sees a number of ways to license the product. It could sell monthly subscriptions, giving the customer access to the database, which would be hosted by Maplewood on its own servers. For large companies, Maplewood could sell a full license to the product, allowing the company the option of managing and hosting the application on its own site, Janzen said.
More information on Scheduler is available at www.maplewoodsoftware.com.
© 2002 - The Spokesman-Review
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