Restaurant workers get schedules on the fly with
Raleigh firm's product

Triangle Business Journal - by Frank Vinluan
Friday, June 6, 2008

RALEIGH - Schedulefly, a startup software company, is betting that it can offer restaurant managers more of the one ingredient always in short supply - their time. Although restaurants typically set employee schedules weekly, schedules can change daily as business luncheons or other events arise, requiring more labor. Schedulefly automates what has been a time-consuming process of pen and paper scheduling. With the company's technology, employees are alerted to changes via text message or e-mail, and managers can oversee the entire schedule through a secure Web site. "It's just much easier if you can do that over the Internet," says Tyler Rullman, Schedulefly's chief operating officer.

Schedulefly has been in business for one year, and Rullman says the company is not currently seeking outside financing. Software development is not capital-intensive, and much of the work has been done with contract workers. The company ran beta tests of its software in Triangle restaurants last year. Now that the technology is in place in more establishments, the company is targeting chain restaurants as part of its growth strategy. Rullman says revenue is in the "six figures." He says chain restaurants will be key to growing the company into a $15 million to $20 million a year business.

Schedulefly was founded by Weston Aiken, a software programmer who also worked as a scheduling manager in a restaurant. Aiken brought on board Rullman, the former vice president of corporate development for First Research, a Raleigh research firm that was acquired by Dun & Bradstreet in 2007. Rullman says the software is a good fit for restaurants with at least 40 employees, though he notes that one customer has just nine. Caffe Luna in Raleigh was one of Schedulefly's earliest customers. Restaurant manager Brent Thompson says that for years, he kept the schedule on paper with columns and rows for the days of the week and the 15 to 20 employees on the roster. That one copy of the schedule was posted at the restaurant. When changes were necessary, Thompson left phone messages with employees that might be returned hours later, even the next day. With Schedulefly, Thompson says schedule changes take a fraction of the time. "If I put out a text message, I hear back in two, three minutes time," he says.

Brad Beran, a hospitality professor at Johnson & Wales University's Charlotte campus, says a growing number of restaurants are looking at technology applications as a way to make their operations more efficient. But he says the industry as a whole has been slow to change, partly because technology typically requires substantial investment. Beran notes that Schedulefly's software, which is delivered over the Internet via a monthly subscription, overcomes that hurdle. Subscriptions are priced according to number of employees. Restaurants with one to 19 employees are charged $29.95 per month. Big restaurants, those with 60 to 79 employees, pay $59.95 a month.

Schedulefly is hardly alone in its space. Austin, Texas-based HotSchedules has placed its scheduling software with several national chains. CrunchTime, a Boston company, offers scheduling capabilities with other applications that manage the supply chain. Schedulefly employs three, and Rullman says growth in business could lead to the hiring of sales representatives. He says the company is eyeing other applications for its technology in the long run. The retail industry, which has staffs with constantly changing schedules, could also use the software. Making the software retail compatible would require only "a few tweaks here and there," Rullman says.