Thinking Software installed Rota Horizon in 2008, and as William admits, it
wasn’t an instant success. “We hadn’t anticipated all the planning problems
we’d face, but lucky for us, the trainers and developers at Thinking Software
stayed with us and solved the problems as they arose.
Rota Horizon has now been implemented across our whole 10-acre site, and it
gives us the tools we need to plan and model shift patterns to make sure
they’re within budget and represent the right mix of staff. Our rosters can be
planned up to 2 years in advance, and give us both a predicted and actual
cost.
William was also positive about the hardware installed as part of the Rota
Horizon solution – “The swipe readers used to capture the in’s and out’s of
staff activity are located in the entrance to the office, and our employees
find them reliable and easy to use — all they have to do is select whether
they’re coming or going and put their card through the reader. It’s easy to
see where team members have forgotten to swipe.
As for reporting, Rota Horizon gives us a full reconciliation of actual
versus expected hours and cost. Once we’ve dealt with exceptions and errors,
we used the system’s automatic payroll interface to do the input for both
casual and monthly staff.
Our overtime bill is now a fraction of what it was before, and since our
reporting is done by anomaly and exception, it doesn’t take long to correct
every week. Rota Horizon also allows us to monitor most of our HR Department’s
requirement for reporting holidays, sickness and repeat incidences of
lateness.”
Rota Horizon is integral to the budgeting and day-to-day management of our
business — it makes us plan better, and in a more cost effective way. On top
of these benefits, the support we get from Thinking Software really puts them
on our top supplier’s list — they’re always so helpful and nothing seems too
much trouble. They’re quick to respond, and happy to work with us to provide a
perfect solution for our needs.
My favourite reports are the “Year View” and the “Contracted Hours Status” —
both of these are easy to navigate and give a fast picture of employee
working-time issues.
When we asked William to summarise his experience, he was quick to focus on
ease-of-use and customer support as two of the main attractions of the Rota
Horizon system. “The software is very easy to use and people pick it up
quickly, probably because it’s quite pictorial and has the ability to show you
the whole story on a page. It’s simple to highlight issues and problems, track
trends and give managers meaningful information on their staff.”
William Brannan Customer Services Administrator Glasgow Science Centre
