Stromberg Products

Stromberg Success Stories » Seventh Mountain Resort

Industry: Hospitality
Employees: 200
Interface: Ceridian

Seventh Mountain Resort had a great view of the mountains. Stromberg provided a better view of their time and attendence records.

Located near Bend in Central Oregon, Seventh Mountain Resort has long been a popular destination for families, groups, and adventure-seekers. The resort is close to Mt. Bachelor, Oregon’s finest ski and snowboard area, and the celebrated Widgi Creek Golf Club. Visitors staying in one of the resort’s 246 condos can enjoy two excellent restaurants, convention and meeting space, and outdoor activities such as ice skating, whitewater rafting, and horseback riding.

Challenge: Fluctuating labor costs and outdated equipment

In the resort industry, business levels can change dramatically from day to day. Keeping a close watch on labor cost is critical. The resort had been using Kronos systems to collect time data via barcode time clocks for its employees.

“Collecting and processing hundreds of timecards twice a month was too time-consuming, and there is too much margin for error,” claims Karen Mayall, resort controller. “The time clocks were no longer being supported due to their age, and upgrading was going to be quite expensive.”

Solution: Stromberg Cyber Series Time Clocks for real-time data collection and analysis

The resort selected Stromberg for its strong support, product functionality, and service. “All of the systems we looked at did what they were designed to do, which was collect data,” says Mayall. “Implementation, training, and support were key, and we could only learn this after talking with other users of time and attendance software.”

The resort chose Stromberg’s Ethernet-based Cyber Series time clocks to replace its outdated equipment. Designed to withstand continuous, day-to-day usage by a large number of employees, this powerful, real-time terminal immediately sends punch transactions to the database for analysis, rather than using scheduled polling. It is the ideal solution for collecting time-critical information such as payroll, scheduling, attendance, and employee data.

“The system does what it needs to do: collect and report data. The greatest benefits are free upgrades, technical support, and online training,” explains Mayall. “A seamless interface with Ceridian payroll makes processing quick and error-free. Existing Stromberg reports are great, but it is also relatively easy to export data to Excel for custom reporting. We use both e-Timeclock and Ethernet clocks. About half of our staff has access to PCs, so this feature provided a big upfront savings by eliminating the need to purchase extra time clocks.”

The six-week implementation went very smoothly, with the system collecting data and exporting to payroll immediately. The biggest obstacle, according to Mayall, was getting file specifications from Ceridian to create the interface.

Better data means better decisions

“Monitoring labor daily and comparing it to revenue generated by the various business units helps us make informed decisions about staffing and business hours. With this information, we are better able to determine which retail facilities to keep open during the week,” states Mayall. “With Stromberg’s Excel Pivot Table Wizard, I’ve created a report that imports daily timesheet data, summarizes it in a pivot table, and compares it to budget and daily revenue. This report is distributed daily to all managers so that there are no surprises at the end of the month when financial statements are issued.”

Stromberg also offers features that can be an asset to any company. Automated pay rules, flex scheduling, and configurations can all help your business comply with complex labor laws.

Satisfied guests result in profitability

At the end of the day, customer satisfaction fuels the hospitality industry. Happy guests mean repeat business, which leads to profitability. A dedicated and effective staff can significantly impact guest satisfaction, whether it takes place in a hotel, restaurant, or entertainment venue. Positive and personal interaction with employees is what brings customers back.

Stromberg provides companies in the hospitality industry a way to manage their most valuable resource: employees. Optimizing the staffing mix can mean the difference between a disgruntled guest and a satisfied one. Stromberg helps managers distribute the ideal staff across a facility to ensure guest satisfaction.

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