Answers to questions about Ascent Technology solutions for workforce optimization, workforce planning, workforce scheduling, and workforce management

Workforce optimization occurs when you know what work needs to be done, when you have the opportunity to decide which work gets done, when you schedule your workers to do the work efficiently, and when you empower your workers to manage their own schedules.

We often describe workforce optimization as having the right workers in the right places at the right times to meet your customer needs and expectations at the lowest possible cost.

When you optimize your workforce, you use your workforce to greatest advantage.

While the description is simple, the process is not. Workforce optimization requires highly sophisticated mathematical optimization and scheduling algorithms that automatically generate and analyze millions of possible ways to connect your workforce to the work that needs to be done.

The Ascent WorkZone workforce management system uses a combination of embedded artificial intelligence algorithms, which can consider millions of possible solutions, and optimization algorithms, which can provide mathematically optimal solutions. They work in tandem to provide the best possible solutions within given time limits. Like two independent researchers, the algorithms report progress to each other periodically, revise strategies based on each other's results, and continue working until the solution is reached.

I think you'll see why I believe the breadth and depth of the functionality in the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system surpasses that of all other workforce management products on the market.

However, what the list of features doesn't show is that we are nimble, that we listen carefully to our customers so we develop the products they want, and that we pride ourselves on being able to meet our customers' needs quickly.

That's why I also believe it's important that you know who we are and how we work.

We are world-class technologists, system designers, and problem solvers. We bring together the best artificial intelligence, computer science, and mathematical optimization research and technology, domain resource management expertise, and design skills to provide the functionality our customers want and need. We harden that functionality into robust solutions our customers rely on around the clock, day in and day out. Our solutions successfully manage human and physical resources in a wide range of domains, from mission-critical military deployments to schedule-critical airlines and airports to service-oriented multi-property resort casinos.

We design our products to meet our customers' needs because we believe our customers know what they want and need much better than any vendor can. This has been true since we started Ascent Technology in 1986.

Over the years, we've found that when one customer asks for an additional feature, chances are pretty good that other customers will also find the feature useful. When we implement a feature for one customer, we make it available to all our customers, typically as a standard software maintenance service.

For example, when the U.S. economy hit a brick wall in 2008, many of our customers had to cut costs as quickly as possible. Many reduced head count because labor costs make up such large parts of their operating budgets.

One of our customers, a large resort casino, looked at the problem differently. This customer wanted to lower labor costs through wage reductions, not layoffs, because it wanted to retain valued workers it had worked hard to recruit and train. The customer asked if we could modify the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system to enable the customer to decrease work hours equitably, while complying with seniority rules and other company policies, labor agreements, and statutory regulations.

We got to work immediately. In just a few short weeks, we developed, tested, and delivered a modification that enabled our customer to reduce work hours fairly across departments, worker types, and hire types; that met lowered labor budget mandates; and that ensured our customer could continue to meet the expectations of its own customers. Our customer was able to preserve jobs and to retain valued workers.

We provided the modification to all our customers as part of our standard maintenance and support services. Now, all our customers can both increase or decrease labor hours fairly as demand increases or decreases.

I toured the galley on a cruise ship recently. When I entered the galley, I passed the executive chef's office, which was a small interior space with large windows so the chef could watch what was going on in the galley while seated at his desk.

The chef was busy working on a laptop, apparently with great concentration as he didn't look up when I walked by. Being the curious sort, I peered through a window to see what he was working on. Was he composing the evening's menu? Was he dreaming up new recipes? No. The chef was using Microsoft Excel to create a spreadsheet that contained a weekly work schedule.

The work schedule had days of the week across the top and dozens of worker names in a column down the left side. There were shift start and end times in the rows under each day of the week. As I watched, the chef selected each worker's name in the first column and erased it. One by one, he erased all the workers from the schedule. Then, after consulting some handwritten notes on paper, he entered a new worker's name into each row in the column, to create the new schedule.

After my tour finished, I joined the tail end of next tour. Sure enough, as I passed by the chef's office again—nearly an hour later—the chef was still working on the weekly schedule.

I was surprised that anyone would attempt to use a spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel to schedule so many workers. And, I was amazed to see an executive chef spending valuable time creating a schedule manually, rather than dreaming up tasty new ways to delight hungry guests.

What did using the wrong tool to schedule galley workers cost the cruise line?

It probably did not cost much in terms of labor because the executive chef was salaried: perhaps four hours of the chef's time each week to enter the names of the workers into a table and to adjust the schedule when workers are too sick to work, join the ship, or leave the ship.

It probably cost a lot in terms of lost opportunities to control costs and increase revenue: spending four hours to create a weekly work schedule means that for more than 200 hours/year the chef is not managing the galley workers, controlling food costs, developing new menus, and making sure food served to guests is prepared properly. Well-prepared food increases revenue from the sales of alcohol and extra-charge menu items, increases tip income for servers, and encourages passengers to return for additional cruises. Poorly-prepared food decreases revenue from alcohol and extra-charge menu items, and it decreases tip income for servers, which creates problems with worker morale and retention. It discourages passengers from taking another cruise on the ship and from recommending the ship to friends.

The chef probably prepared his weekly schedule based on a schedule that seemed to work all right in the past. But, because Microsoft Excel does not store and analyze historical data like the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system does, the chef could not know if his model schedule is the most efficient schedule he could use. Because Microsoft Excel is not a workforce optimization tool like the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system is, the chef could not calculate the optimal number of galley workers or the optimal start and end times of shifts, analyze and forecast labor utilization rates, or determine the benefits of using dual-rate workers or shared workers from other departments based on the number of passengers on board. Because Microsoft Excel is not an intelligent workforce management system like the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system is, the chef could not create work schedules automatically and could not adjust work schedules to reflect actual conditions at the push of a button.

If every department on board the ship used its own makeshift scheduling system, rather than the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system, the cruise line could be wasting more than 200 hours/year of management time in each department on manual schedule preparation. Assuming the cruise line manages 12 departments (and the rest are outsourced), more than 2,400 hours/year of management time could be wasted producing inefficent schedules.

But it doesn't end there. Managers at the cruise line's headquarters would not have accurate and timely information about labor utilization for each department, or for each ship, or for all ships the cruise line operates. They would not have a central data repository to use for reporting and analysis, for measuring performance, and for developing goals to enhance future performance company-wide.

The cost of using the wrong tool for the job snowballs quickly.

You will lower your labor costs.

You will lower your cost to manage workers, create schedules, and administer schedule changes.

You will improve your customers' satisfaction by ensuring that your workers' efforts are wrapped around your customers' needs and expectations.

You will improve worker morale, productivity, and retention by enabling your workers to have more control of their work lives.

You will uncover hidden revenue opportunities as you improve worker and facility utilization.

You will have a rich central repository of data that can be used for reporting and analysis, for measuring performance, and for developing goals for future performance at all levels of your organization---group, department, company, and corporate wide.

Many smaller organizations do not have a workforce scheduling problem. Workers work the same hours each day and the same days each week from a single location. Both workload and customer demand are fairly constant. If your organization usually manages just fine using pencil and paper or a schedule drawn on a whiteboard, it is unlikely that using a product like the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system would be cost effective for you.

Typically, the organizations that reap the greatest benefits from the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system experience fluctuating customer demand and workloads that vary by time of day, day of week, and season of the year. Typically, the organizations have more than 100 workers. Most operate around the clock. Many operate from more than one location. All have a workforce scheduling problem or complex operational environment that cannot be captured with pencil and paper or in a schedule drawn on a whiteboard.

I suggest that you discuss your organization's needs with a member of our Sales and Marketing team, who can provide additional information that can help you to determine if the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system is right solution for your organization.

Your capital cost can be zero if you subscribe to our hosted service for a monthly fee.

If you prefer, you can run the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system at your facility, licensing and installing the six product modules incrementally as you need them. Or, you can license and install the six product modules all at once.

You can purchase a license directly, or you can finance the purchase.

To learn more about the options, speak with Windler L. Schweer, our Vice President of Sales and Marketing. He's really quite creative.

The Ascent WorkZone workforce management system is web-enabled. You can deploy it quickly to planners, managers, and workers throughout your organization via a standard web browser.

If you are in a hurry, we can install a simple, free-standing version of the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system for you in our hosting center or at your location. This will enable you to plan optimal schedules quickly, so that you can begin to see labor cost reductions within a month or so. We can install the remaining modules soon after, if you have no special requirements.

Most of our customers prefer to integrate the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system with one or more of their existing human resources, accounting, payroll, compliance, and time and attendance systems. We provide a connectivity standards document to guide your IT staff or a third party of your choice with the integration work. Alternatively, we can develop the connectivity software for you. We recommend that you set aside six weeks to develop and test each feed you need. You can, of course, develop more than one feed during the same six-week period.

When the systems are integrated, information flows between them without manual re-entry, which saves considerable time and prevents costly re-keying errors. Data are readily available for reporting and analysis and for measuring performance, so you can forecast headcount and skills requirements based on actual historical information.

During installation, our knowledge engineers work with you to identify your business rules and to enter them into the system. The size of your organization determines the amount of time needed for knowledge engineering. For example, for smaller organizations, knowledge engineering takes only a week or two. Then, it usually takes a few more weeks to test and fine tune the system to ensure it operates the way you want it to.

The size of your organization also determines the amount of time needed for training. For smaller organizations, training usually takes a week or two. We can train your staff, or we can train your trainers, who will then train your staff.

You can integrate your existing time and attendance system with the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system, or you can use the intelligent time and attendance module embedded in the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system. In either case, the system supports real-time feeds and batch transfers.

If your existing time and attendance system is an older system, we often recommend you use the Ascent Technology time and attendance module, which provides exceptional flexibility and relies on the knowledge embedded in the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system. For example, because our system knows when and where each worker is assigned to work, it can prevent workers from clocking in too early or too late and it can issue an alert or refuse to accept a clock-in from a worker who is at the wrong location.

The information collected by our time and attendance module drives graphical displays within the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system that enable you to see worker status, such as which workers are early, late, or missing, in real time. You can also view the information on Android tablets and other hand-held devices.

To learn more about options we offer for time and attendance data collection, reporting, and management, I suggest you get in touch with a member of our Sales and Marketing team.

For example, the system stores all information in a single secure database, from which information is readily available to all modules in the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system and to external systems connected to the Ascent WorkZone workforce management system. Your planners, managers, administrators, and supervisors enter information once, and the information is almost instantly available throughout your organization, decreasing information-entry time and eliminating re-keying errors.

The Ascent WorkZone workforce management system creates optimal schedules automatically, enabling your planners to produce the best schedules to fit your organizations needs quickly.

The Ascent WorkZone workforce management system can automatically assign and reassign workers and work in response to actual conditions, such as absent or missing workers, broken equipment, schedule changes, higher or lower than predicted demand for services, and other unanticipated events. The system automatically identifies which workers should be offered early outs or additional hours and sends appropriate SMS text message and email notifications.

In addition, the system automates many actions that involve both administrators and workers, such as making and approving work trade requests and leave requests and managing and participating in work schedule and vacation bids, which frees up administrators and workers for more productive work.