SEATTLE, January 13, 2009: Dexter + Chaney ( www.dexterchaney.com) has launched the Resource Scheduling module for its Spectrum(R) Construction Software that enables construction companies to more efficiently utilize their equipment and employees. Companies use the Resource Scheduling module to ensure that equipment and employees are available when and where they’re needed and to schedule the movement of heavy equipment. The module also automates employee schedule notifications and time entry.

“The Resource Scheduling module addresses one of the major obstacles to maintaining company growth and profitability: the complex task of scheduling equipment and employees to jobs,” said John Chaney, Dexter + Chaney president and co-founder. “With Spectrum Resource Scheduling, companies can maximize the productivity of those expensive assets, while avoiding the high cost of unnecessarily hiring temporary workers and renting equipment.”

FAMILIAR SCENARIOS
Spectrum Resource Scheduling is a response to equipment and employee scheduling scenarios familiar to many construction companies.

“For many companies, it’s common to have a job slow down or even come to a stop because necessary equipment or employees are unavailable,” Chaney noted. “Or perhaps a project manager has requested a piece of equipment—only to learn that it has been checked out to another job, where it is being held until needed. While the company-owned equipment sits idle, the project manger rents similar equipment for his job. This is a ‘double hit,’ because job costs are increased at the same time that company assets go under-utilized.”

Chaney noted that many construction companies use a white board to manually assign equipment and employees to projects, with the dispatcher constantly manning the phone to find and assign resources to projects. Other companies simply guess. In either case: when the company can’t find the resources they need for a job, they rent equipment and hire contract employees—hurting the bottom line for that job and for the company.

A BETTER WAY
Spectrum’s Resource Scheduling module features a scheduling board that provides a graphical representation of the location of the company’s equipment and personnel. Dispatchers can use the scheduling board to create new assignments of resources, schedule equipment moves and make changes to existing assignments. Assigning colors to jobs simplifies identification of resources for a particular job.

Project managers employ Spectrum Resource Scheduling to schedule equipment and employees to arrive at an individual job on a specific time and date. Resource Scheduling then automatically sends e-mails to notify employees and vendors with schedule information. That includes date, time and location of jobs and where equipment is to be picked up and delivered. As an option, the e-mail message to movers can include the estimated duration of the move.

Collecting time for crews and equipment is streamlined. Field personnel enter hours into Spectrum via Resource Scheduling, using a Quick Time Entry screen. As they enter the date, crew and job information, Resource Scheduling prompts them with default phases and hours. Information selected there defaults for every crew member assigned to the job.

FOR INFORMATION
For information about Spectrum Resource Scheduling and Spectrum Construction Software, contact Dexter + Chaney at 800-875-1400 or 206-364-1400; fax: 206-367-9613; e-mail: Email Contact; http://www.dexterchaney.com.

ABOUT DEXTER + CHANEY
More than 1,000 construction companies throughout the United States use Dexter + Chaney’s Spectrum Construction Software. Spectrum includes 30 integrated modules that handle project management, construction accounting, equipment management, human resources, document imaging, service management, remote connectivity and data sharing tasks. Contractors who use Spectrum report they have improved profitability and have grown their businesses more than 300 percent without adding financial staff.

More than 7,500 total users make use of Spectrum’s Document Imaging software, which addresses a typically painful problem for construction contractors: giving management, office staff and project managers the fast, electronic access they need to important documents like contracts, change orders, time cards, invoices and others.

For more information about Dexter + Chaney or Spectrum, contact Brad Mathews, Vice President of Marketing, Dexter + Chaney, 9700 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115-2347; phone: 800-875-1400 or 206-364-1400; fax: 206-367-9613; e-mail: Email Contact; http://www.dexterchaney.com.

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