Wellington County has awarded a contract for the provision and implementation of scheduling software for Wellington Terrace to Kronos Canadian Systems Inc., of Mississauga at the proposed amount of $309,223 plus HST.
The Kronos bid was one of eight submitted in response to a request for proposals for a system to replace the long-term care facility’s current staff scheduling and time entry system, which was implemented in 2005.
At report from county manager of purchasing and risk management services Mark Bolzon indicates the existing system provides basic staff scheduling functions but can’t handle advanced functions such as verifying that employees have enough vacation banked before booking time off.
“Additionally, the ministry mandates the number of PSWs and RPNs required in each neighbourhood based on the medical requirements of our residents, but our current system cannot accurately maintain the number of staff providing resident care in situations where employees are scheduled for mandatory education,” explains Bolzon in the report. As a result, he notes, a considerable amount of work is done outside the system, on paper.
The report indicates benefits of the new system include:
– improved access for staff to their schedules and updates; changes will be available in real time from their home and work computers, as well as self-service touch terminals that will be installed at the Terrace;
– reduction of over 1,600 hours per year in staff time required to produce, maintain and enter paper schedules, time sheets and request forms; and
– reductions in the amount of paper required to support scheduling, time sheets and request forms.
The cost of the system includes $73,197 for software and licensing, $8,276 for equipment and an estimated $227,750 for professional/education services. The proposal also includes annual costs of $16,975 for systems support for software and equipment maintenance.
The report notes the system has the potential to be expanded to county staff should that be required in the future.
“Based on a high level review of the requirements for each department, the additional cost to expand this system county-wide is estimated at $500,000 for additional licensing, equipment and professional services. The net increase to annual support would be approximately $25,000 per year,” Boulzon states in the report.
At its April 24 meeting, Wellington County council approved a recommendation from the information, heritage and seniors committee to accept the proposal from Kronos.
“We haven’t had an update of that particular program since 2005 so in terms of software … usually software after a number of years it sort of goes out, we’re talking about 13 years,” committee chair councillor Shawn Watters told county council at the meeting.
