Scheduler’s view of the work schedule, including overtime, training, court, and more.
When the InTime scheduling solution was developed 25 years ago, the target market was security companies. But the InTime company’s marketing team quickly noticed that the software was picking up interest from public safety agencies, especially law enforcement.
Realizing they could cultivate a new market, company representatives contacted law enforcement agencies and asked what they needed in a digital scheduling tool. “The scheduling processes and rules of law enforcement agencies can be very complex,” says Derek Warburton, InTime’s vice president of sales. “So the company engaged with police leaders to better understand their challenges. Over the years we’ve developed and refined enhanced offerings that are now largely focused on law enforcement.” InTime is now in use by 500 public safety agencies, primarily in law enforcement, according to Warburton.
One of the features that makes InTime particularly useful for law enforcement is that it considers all of the union rules and unit readiness rules the agency must follow, regarding officer hours and fatigue, officer qualifications, and overtime, when assigning shifts.
For example, if an officer wishes to switch shifts with another officer, the software determines if the two officers have the requisite qualifications based on the ranks and skills needed to cover the shift’s responsibilities while ensuring compliance with fatigue and overtime rules. Supervisors receive notification if the shift switch raises red flags, and the supervisor has final approval. All parties are notified about the supervisor’s decision over their phones, usually by SMS text or InTime’s Mobile App notifications. “If you get a shift switch wrong, it can jeopardize the agency and the community,” Warburton says.
Notifications on InTime Mobile alert employees about changes in their schedule.
When schedules and assignments do change, InTime lets agencies send that information to their employees immediately. “Scheduling can change every day,” Warburton says. “People are off training, people take bereavement leave, or they get sick, or go on vacation, so being able to deploy changes and communicate them to everyone on staff simultaneously is very important.”
InTime also tracks overtime assignments and expenditures. Its analytic features let agencies know if all the overtime is being assigned to too few officers. The software also codes overtime spending so that schedulers can track the reason for the extra hours. Warburton says it facilitates reducing the total number of overtime hours by helping schedulers see the exact number necessary to meet agency
responsibilities.
“We’ve seen scenarios where they only needed a half day of overtime from an officer when they were assigning a full day. That can add up,” Warburton explains, adding, “Agencies that use InTime have told us they have been able to cut their overtime costs by as much as 30%.”
InTime is designed as a modular solution. All customers use the core scheduling tool, which provides scheduling, overtime management, extra duty event management, dashboards, and reporting. They can also add other capabilities as needed. Expansion modules include shift bidding, training management, court and subpoena, timekeeping, and asset management. All of the modules integrate seamlessly with the core scheduling software, according to
Warburton.
InTime is a cloud-based SaaS (software as a service) solution. Annual subscriptions are priced according to number of employees in the agency. Each additional module is priced separately and can be added at any time. In addition a one-time implementation fee covers setting up the software to meet the customer’s requirements and training for the users.
Implementation is facilitated remotely via Web meeting by law enforcement experts. “What’s unique with us is that our implementation experts are former police officers with 25-plus years of experience in police administration. They’re all former InTime customers. They have experience with complex police processes and with InTime,” Warburton says.
