Zavino owner Dodge & business partner O'Dea launch Schedule Cloud for restaurant and catering staffing management
Tom Paine
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| Zavino window / Zavino website |
Greg Dodge, a Gladwyne-based hospitality exec and owner of Center City's popular restaurant Zavino, and his business partner Frank O'Dea, who manages catering for major events, have worked with Pearl River, NY-based Superior Technology Solutions to create a software solution for the hospitality industry. Their new offering, Schedule Cloud, is a cloud-based, mobile app for workload and staffing planning designed specifically for the hospitality industry, although it may have uses elsewhere. Greg, founder of Philadelphia-based Brookwood Consulting Group, has served as the opening general manager of two of Stephen Starr’s Philadelphia restaurants; O"Dea was an executive with Wolfgang Puck Catering, and now operates his own firm with clients including Puck Catering, the Loews Hollywood Hotel, and the Honda Center.
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| Zavino's interior / Zavino website |
Schedule Cloud is being beta tested at Zavino and by several catering locations and events managed by O' Dea, mostly on the west coast.
Anyone who has work at or managed a restaurant understands the challenge of managing workforce planning, scheduling and expense tracking. Schedule Cloud increases productivity by streamlining the scheduling process and eliminating the need for multiple spreadsheets, numerous emails and phone calls. The tool allows employees to directly interface with the application from mobile devices (both iOS and Android) -- by entering their availability they are matched with upcoming events. The program also features business intelligence reporting and electronic event employee time sheets.
A single restaurant may be a (relatively) more stable, predictable environment for workforce scheduling and planning over time, but the type of large catered events O'Dea manages are more difficult to plan for. They involved bringing large amounts of labor and resources together quickly, often for one time events. So the potential benefits of Schedule Cloud may be greater for the event/catering business than for the single restaurant.
Superior is backed by CEO Wes Wyatt, a Haverford resident who is also CEO and President of DF Young, Inc, a Philadelphia-based logistics management firm. “We are excited to bring our expertise to work on this new venture. We spent significant time researching and understanding our client’s requirements; a fundamental part to the successful implementation of any project," said John Luludis, President of Superior Technology.
O'Dea told Philly Tech News Schedule Cloud is currently running on servers at Superior, but will probably move to Amazon Web Services as it scales. Among the locations Schedule Cloud is talking to about adding to its beta period is Philadelphia's prestigious Union League, O'Dea adds.
