Berwyn Fire Dept. (IL) Increases Efficiency by Switching to Online Crew Scheduling by Aladtec
Berwyn, IL (PRWEB) August 08, 2013 -- Anyone who has used a paper calendar to schedule staff, shift trades and events knows the drawbacks: error prone, inefficient, hard to keep current and you must re-print and re-post the calendar with every change.
Deputy Chief Paul Gardner Jr. of the Berwyn (IL) Fire Department was scheduling a staff of 80, at three stations, with one paper calendar. “Every shift day, we had to look at the calendar on the wall in our central firehouse to try and figure out who went where. If a mistake was made on the calendar (trading between types of days - Kelly for Vacation), it may not be found until the end of the year during the audit. If the printed wall calendar ever disappeared, the department would be in turmoil,” explains Gardner. “For trades, individuals would have to fill out a trade sheet which was then signed by both individuals and turned into the Shift Chief. The Shift Chief would have to go through the calendar to see if the trade could be made. The Assistant Chief kept the trade sheets on file which last year were over 300, yes 300!”
Aladtec’s FIRE Manager is accessed through the Internet so it is viewable, and changeable, from any computer, smartphone or other mobile device 24/7/365. Once a change is made, it is instantaneous for all to see. Shift trades are requested through the FIRE Manager system and administrators can then review and easily accept or deny the trade request. Administrators can run a report on any data entered in the system, so trade information is easy to track for any day, week, month or year. “We can now run reports to see who was working on any given day, see how many times someone has acted out of rank, and what overtime looks like; before, the majority of this had to be done by hand,” shares Gardner.
Other FIRE Manager features include a member forum, event calendar and a mobile web app. Users have access to the system from any computer, smartphone or other mobile device with Internet. “FIRE Manager’s Event Calendar has also been a great help to us. We now have all our public education on the calendar along with our training schedule. In the past, a lot of paper was used to print this out with updates coming almost every day,” adds Gardner. “And, I believe all our fire department members use the mobile app to be able to see their days off, work, and receive text messages about trades. Lastly, payroll has become a lot easier. I’m told that over two hours worth of work for payroll has gone down to forty-five minutes using reports from the FIRE Manager system.”
About Berwyn Fire Department: This fire department serves 58,000 residents within the city of Berwyn which covers nearly four square miles. Berwyn is also an active participant in a mutual aid group known as MABAS Division 11. Through a mutual aid box alarm system, Berwyn and their partner communities share resources and manpower for emergency incidents. This network provides organized responses to incidents that might overwhelm a single community.
About Aladtec, Inc: They are a proud provider of web-based software solutions for online employee scheduling and workforce management applications. The company’s flagship products, EMS Manager and FIRE Manager, are leaders in the public safety sector. Together with their newest product, Zanager, they serve over 1,000 EMS agencies, fire departments, police departments and other businesses. Over 60,000 employees use Aladtec’s online employee scheduling and workforce management products. Aladtec is headquartered just outside the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area in Hudson, Wisconsin. For more information, visit http://www.aladtec.com.
Contact Information:
Aladtec, Inc.
906 Dominion Drive
Hudson, WI 54016-4538
(888) 749-5550 Toll-Free
(715) 690-2300 Phone
(801) 406-5550 Fax
mellissa(at)aladtec(dot)com
info(at)aladtec(dot)com | http://www.aladtec.com
Mellissa Dahl, Aladtec, Inc., http://www.aladtec.com, +1 888-749-5550, [email protected]
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