On the right schedule; Software maker gaining clients, looking to grow
March 25, 2007 - Bob Farina is the first to admit that his company's business isn't exactly scintillating.
"People don't think of us as sexy," Farina says. "We're a niche provider."
So while it's true CyberShift isn't some Web 2.0 high-flier, the team at the Parsippany company is busy making products that can save a business time and money.
Broadly speaking, CyberShift's business falls into the category of software that companies use to manage their operations more efficiently.
Specifically, they develop workforce and expense management tools. This software does everything from handling time and attendance to employee scheduling.
Farina, who joined the company in 2002 after serving as CEO at two other software companies, explained the business basics that help a company's bottom line ? and drive CyberShift's top line.
"Employees are your No. 1 variable cost in a business," he said. "No. 2 is expense management."
CyberShift's programs, which the company sells to large enterprises, can accomplish a variety of tasks. Some clients, Farina explained, want to be able to figure out how many employees they need based on certain use patterns.
CyberShift's software can help a company learn when and where to deploy its staff.
Farina said they had a retail client concerned with how long its customers were waiting in line to purchase clothes. CyberShift was able to help figure out how to get the right people with the right skills available at the peak demand time.
"No large organization can afford to have people standing around waiting for something to happen," he said.
According to the American Payroll Association, companies have error rates on their time and attendance record-keeping of between 1.5 and 5 percent, which in a large corporation can add up to a significant amount of money.
Many customers come to CyberShift underestimating their own organization's complexity, said Farina. They might have, for example, time and attendance software in place but they don't realize that they have to comply with different sets of laws ? minimum wage, union contracts ? that can differ from state to state.
CyberShift employs approximately 130 people. Corporate headquarters is in Parsippany and it runs an operations center in Canada and has offices in England.
It also has an international pedigree.
CyberShift traces its roots to a Toronto company called BMI that sold time clocks and other hardware. In 1996, BMI was sold to a partnership called ABI, which was formed by Japanese-based Amano Corp. and a British company named Blick (now owned by the Stanley Works) both in the workplace management business. ABI moved its corporate headquarters to New Jersey in 1997 and changed its name to CyberShift in 2000.
The following year, a group of venture capital firms recapitalized the business and acquired control. Amano sold its position, but Blick still owns a stake in the business along with LLR Partners, NewSpring Ventures and Edison Venture Funds, as well as the current management team.
That move to bring in venture capital insulated the company from market turmoil and provided enough money to "reposition" the company, as Farina described it. They hired top developers to redesign the software programs to keep pace with changing network technology used by larger companies.
The investment was in the "tens of millions," Farina said.
CyberShift began to pick up a range of high-profile clients including 3M, Goodyear, and the New York City Board of Education.
In 2005, the company acquired Necho Systems, a Canadian-based provider of expense management software.
Most recently, the company signed up the North Carolina city of High Point as a client. High Point's population of 95,000 included a municipal workforce of about 1,500, approximately 550 of whom worked for the fire and police departments on various shifts year-round.
As CyberShift described it, the city has "complex scheduling and disaster recovery requirements" along with specific payroll rules and legal obligations. CyberShift's system for High Point automates the city's pay rules, work rules and accrual rules and supports labor management requirements such as family leave and exception time reporting.
Farina said the company has concentrated on keeping their software products simple and easy to understand from the user's point of view.
In all, the company has about 300 customers, including many banks and call centers.
As for the future, Farina said he's focusing on the rapidly expanding area of employee scheduling. In addition, the company is looking into the possibility of making some acquisitions.
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