Custom-Tailored Scheduling Software

When moving from sticky notes on a hunk of painted plywood to automated scheduling software it’s easy to get caught up in all the possible features of a canned, out-of-the-box, off-the shelf package that seems to do everything you need and then some. It appears to have everything you need, it definitely appears to have everything your manager wants it to have, and there are a ton of things in there you might be able to take advantage of in the near or distant future.

Not so fast …

Think about that for a moment. Why are you considering paying for features you might use in the future? What if you don’t use them? A better question should be, what about when you don’t use those features at all?

Take a good look at the office software you have; The word processor, the spreadsheet generator, the presentation package your boss uses for every meeting and puts pretty picture in with his notes. Have you ever even looked at that database thingy that came with it? What about the templates and macros in the stuff you do use? Do you even spellcheck??

Now take another look at that canned, out-of-the-box, off-the shelf scheduling package that seems to do everything you need and then some. How much of it is going to end up a complete and total waste of hard drive space?

Custom-tailored scheduling software, built specifically for your company’s needs and culture, is much easier to use than a canned system simply because it’s built the way you and your company needs it to be built.

I once knew a blind couple who designed their own house. The architect set them in front of a pegboard with some pieces of wood dowel. Each gap between holes in the pegboard was meant as a single foot of distance. The couple layed out the pegs to create their floorplan, which the architect glued together for them. He then developed the blueprints from the pegboard, which the blind couple continued to study with their fingerprints. When the couple walked into their new house for the first time, they knew exactly where everything was.

That’s what custom-tailored scheduling software can do for you.