To keep Canadian Bloods Services (CBS) networks of 3,500 Windows PCs running smoothly, its National Service Desk is staffed by 22 Client Support Analysts (CSAs) at 19 stations in two locations. National Service Desk management devised nine service shifts covering five days a week, 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM Eastern Time. Off-hours callers reach an on-call service CSA accessed by pager. To efficiently maximize coverage during highest traffic hours, shifts are weighted heaviest during mid-shift.<\/p>\n
Besides scheduling staff, the scheduler manages CSAs\u2019 scheduled time off, and must constantly compensate for unpredictable late arrivals, sick days, family issues, and shift-swapping. A co-worker then tracks employees\u2019 exceptions to their schedules and creates comprehensive reports.<\/p>\n
Gilles Pinard, Client Support Analyst Team Lead, says, \u201cWe previously used Microsoft Excel for shift scheduling, but that consumed 12 to 14 hours a week in scheduling and changes. I was forever copying and pasting, deleting, and republishing. Excel offers no reporting capability in this field, so my co-worker would spend three or four additional hours every week doing reports.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReviews for rostering software suddenly occupied a lot of my time,\u201d says Mr. Pinard. \u201cI looked at many offerings, then installed trial versions to test of Snap Schedule Premium, Easy Schedule Maker, ClockIt, and Schedule it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn comparing shift schedulers, my biggest surprise was that only Snap Schedule could auto-generate individual schedules based on a custom-created shift pattern template. Today, with Snap Schedule Premium, after I create our schedule and work in the changes, each person will receive an individual shift schedule by email. Then I publish a report outlining the complete employee schedule on our department web site. I can\u2019t imagine shift scheduling software working any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n
To learn Snap Schedule Premium, Pinard chose a sample database from the many that come with Snap Schedule. Software deployment was straightforward. \u201cThese databases allowed us the functionality to create our own shift pattern template. We auto-generate shift schedules based on the user\u2019s choice from over 30 shift patterns offered at BMSCentral.com,\u201d says Pinard.
\nSnap Schedule Premium’s familiar Microsoft Windows\u00ae and Microsoft Office\u00ae look and feel helped make learning intuitive and easy for first-time users.<\/p>\n
Role-based access control ensures that only authorized users perform specified functions, and that sensitive data is visible only to authorized people. Snap Schedule Premium uses Microsoft SQL Server for data storage and works with on-premise Microsoft SQL Server, Web-hosted SQL Server platforms, and Microsoft SQL Azure in the cloud.<\/p>\n
The Benefits<\/p>\n
\u201cDrag-and-drop scheduling,\u201d Pinard says, \u201chas reduced my previous 14 hours of scheduling time to 8 hours\u2014even including our constant changes. That\u2019s 6 \u2018new\u2019 hours I have to help users and coach staff in technology and customer solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur biggest time savings, however, is that we can now create, publish and email our work schedules and on-call lists. It\u2019s all done within minutes!\u201d
\n\u201cBesides that, our previous four hours of reporting time has shrunk to less than 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saved 40 percent on staff scheduling time, and my co-worker saved 90 percent on reporting time because Snap Schedule Premium\u2019s built-in reports do just about everything you can think of. They\u2019re configurable and automatically detailed.\u201d Individual and combined overall shift schedules are available online through a secured Web site Mr. Pinard set up.<\/p>\n
Pinard credits Snap Schedule Premium features for the department\u2019s new efficiencies:<\/p>\n
\u201cSnap Schedule Premium even gives us an easy way to compare schedules to actual attendance, so we can keep payroll accurate,\u201d he says.\u00a0Pinard adds, \u201cAnd we continue to be very impressed with tech support at BMS. It\u2019s fast and responsive. We actually see our suggestions appearing in the next software version.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"