QAD Partners with Tugboat Software to Offer Software Configuration Management to its Customers
Roundtable® TSMS Helps QAD Customers Control Their Entire Software Lifecycle
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., SEPTEMBER 1, 2011 — QAD Inc. (NASDAQ: QADA. QADB), a leading provider of enterprise software and services for global manufacturing companies, and Tugboat Software, a change management solutions provider, announced today a partnership agreement to offer Tugboat’s Roundtable® Total Software Management System (TSMS), a software configuration management (SCM) solution, to QAD customers.
Tugboat’s Roundtable TSMS helps QAD customers deliver enhancements to QAD Enterprise Applications in shorter development and deployment cycles, while also managing the cost, quality and compliance of their customizations over the entire application lifecycle. Additionally, customers are better able to audit and demonstrate control of their internal IT systems, to meet compliance requirements, such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX).
“We’re pleased to offer this solution to our customers,” noted Gordon Fleming, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for QAD. “In today’s economy, many manufacturing companies are operating with fewer IT resources. This solution aligns with QAD Enterprise Applications to help our customers focus more on their core business and less on their software.”
Tugboat’s Roundtable SCM solution enables QAD enterprise customers to set a clear, standardized structure for the development and deployment process, maximize efficiencies in this process (with change and impact analysis), and manage each change in the process to ensure compliance with operating procedures.
“We are very excited about this partnership,” said Patricia Schilling, president of Tugboat Software. “Roundtable TSMS is a natural fit for QAD customers and complement to QAD Enterprise Applications. Both products are built using the Progress® OpenEdge® enterprise technology, giving QAD customers a competitive advantage by delivering greater efficiency, precision, and control over the development and deployment of customized applications.”
To learn more, visit QAD’s Tugboat Roundtable TSMS informational page.
QAD Announces Partnership Agreement with Tugboat Software
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., JUNE 28, 2011 – QAD Inc. (NASDAQ:QADA, QADB), a leading provider of enterprise business software and services for global manufacturing companies, today announced it has signed a partnership agreement with Tugboat Software, a workforce scheduling solutions provider, to help QAD customers optimize their production planning processes with automated and more efficient work force scheduling.
Global manufacturing companies have workforces with complex and highly functioning skill sets. Matching the right worker to the right job at the right time – every shift, everyday – is mission critical. Yet, for companies relying on legacy workforce scheduling methods such as spreadsheets, this task can be cumbersome and prone to human-error. Moreover, workforce scheduling rules, policies and regulations can vary from one facility to the next, even within the same company.
By integrating Tugboat’s Scheduling Optimization Software (SOS) with QAD Enterprise Applications, QAD customers now can automate workforce scheduling and ensure that work orders are executed at peak efficiency and use only the least required and most appropriately matched human resources for the job.
“It’s important that labor scheduling and its associated, time-sensitive challenges, such as worker availability, are addressed during the planning process to avoid production schedule changes or disruptions,” said Patricia Schilling, president for Tugboat Software. “With Tugboat’s Scheduling Optimization Software and QAD’s work order functionality combined, QAD customers can improve operational efficiency and save money by eliminating labor waste, such as unneeded overtime.”
Tugboat’s labor scheduling solution fills a labor roster that begins as a QAD work order. These work orders are converted into a Labor Demand, including jobs with start and run times over shifts and days. Then, depending on the available human resources, and rules, the SOS fills the roster with optimized job assignments, providing companies increased visibility and control of their planning cycle.
“We’re very pleased about this partnership,” said Craig McKay, senior director of alliances for QAD. “This solution is a logical extension of QAD’s core functionality that provides valuable savings and competitive advantage for our manufacturing customers.”
About QAD
QAD is a leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications for global manufacturing companies. QAD applications, including SaaS ERP provide critical functionality for managing manufacturing resources and operations within and beyond the enterprise, enabling global manufacturers to collaborate with their customers, suppliers and partners to make and deliver the right product, at the right cost and at the right time. Manufacturers of automotive, consumer products, electronics, food and beverage, industrial and life science products use QAD applications at approximately 6,100 licensed sites in more than 90 countries and in as many as 27 languages.
For more information about QAD, telephone +1 805 684 6614, or visit the QAD Web site at www.qad.com.
Tugboat Signs Agreement with Quinn & Assoc. Combining Preactor’s APS with Workforce Rostering
NEWPORT BEACH, CA (January 12, 2011) – Tugboat Software has signed an agreement with Quinn and Associates Inc. Business Development Partner for Preactor software products, to offer finite capacity scheduling with Tugboat software products.
Combining Preactor’s Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) solution with Tugboat’s workforce rostering solution will extend the engineering process for manufacturing operations where production planning needs to be incorporated with rostering for a skilled workforce. Solving the roster for manufacturing large products that use a complex mix of highly trained resources applied over days and weeks on multiple projects now has a solution. In the past this problem is typically left to reactive processes including spread sheets and past practices.
Tugboat Software President, Patricia Schilling, explains, “It is important to create the space in the planning process so that rostering and the associated time-sensitive problems such as man-power availability can be solved in concert with planning without having to change your production schedule”. Tugboat’s automated rostering solution combined with Preactor’s order sequence enables this time-critical engineering step to provide real value for Preactor customers as well as manufacturers looking for both advanced planning and a workforce scheduling solution. The value is the ability for an order sequence to flow conveniently into a fully automated rostering solution.
Gregg Quinn, president and CEO of Quinn & Associates Inc, says “The combination of the two solutions offers a very powerful solution for a number of prospects in different manufacturing verticals. The integration of efficiency of shop floor resources and labor is a problem that has become more acute as commoditized manufacturing has increasingly moved offshore, while high-value, labor intense manufacturing increasingly becomes the norm in North America.”
The time span for manufacturing larger projects may be days and weeks. “In order to complete multiple projects on time,” Patricia explains, “creating a roster that is optimized for the best fit to available skills is a key engineering step. What Tugboat adds starts with capturing the results from Preactor, translating them into a labor demand and then converting this demand directly into a roster of skilled workers which matches Preactor’s production plans over time. This is a logical extension of Tugboat’s technology and will provide a competitive advantage to manufacturers,” concludes Patricia.
Since 1998, the principals of Quinn & Associates, located in Altoona PA, have provided Preactor® software and services to manufacturers in all verticals. Preactor, has been a steady recipient of awards each year for license sales and customer retention. Quinn & Associates is one of only three resellers inducted the Preactor® International Hall of Fame for net sales of $1M or more.
Tugboat Announces Agreement with CornerStar to Incorporate Its Analysis and Reporting Tools
NEWPORT BEACH, CA (June 4, 2010) – Tugboat Software has signed a dealership agreement with CornerStar Inc., to resell its business analysis and reporting tools which are specifically designed for on-line analytical processing applications, such as SOS, Tugboat’s labor scheduling solution. The new agreement will give Tugboat customers cost-effective access to high-quality analytical and reporting tools out-of-the-box, according to Tugboat software sales and marketing vice president Terry Schilling. “CornerStar’s tools combine powerful data analysis tools with convenient drag-and-drop functionality to make report design simple and quick,” he says. “Reports can be delivered to a user’s desktop in a variety of formats, including PDF, CVS, XML, HTML among others.”
Schilling says CornerStar tools link directly to an appServer which then provides flexible, real-time access to Tugboat’s SOS labor scheduling database. With these tools, he says users can filter their data as needed to create their own reports in addition to those provided with Tugboat’s application, and export data for analysis or presentation.
Recent company analysis has shown that a typical Tugboat customer will come up with requirements for new reports or modifications to existing reports year-after-year. With the new CornerStar access, Schilling says Tugboat customers can make modifications to reports without having to initiate a development project with his company. “Further, in the case of labor scheduling,” he adds, “this provides the opportunity for a company to build a labor-scheduling data warehouse in stages as needed.”
Priced at a much lower point than comparable offerings, the new tools are offered in two low-priced packages: Analytics and Viewer, or Report Designer, including Analytics and Viewer. Customers will also realize further savings to their reporting costs since the CornerStar solutions do not require additional purchases such as ODBC drivers. Licensing is available on a per-site basis and is not limited to a number of specific users or a designated server.
Tugboat Software Releases Roundtable TSMS 10.2B
NEWPORT BEACH, CA (March 22, 2010) — Tugboat Software, a global supplier of software for enterprise application development and life-cycle management, today announced the availability of Roundtable® TSMS release 10.2B, the premier Software Configuration Management (SCM) solution for the Progress OpenEdge development environment. This release solidifies Roundtable TSMS as the SCM tool of choice for Progress users in more than 30 countries worldwide.
Roundtable TSMS release 10.2B delivers new features to simplify the process of managing the development life-cycle of OpenEdge applications with key feature enhancements in areas of schema management, security, and user interface efficiencies. The enhancement in each is designed to provide significant time savings above previous releases.
Moen Incorporated Selects Tugboat Software To Provide Automated Vacation Scheduling
NEWPORT BEACH, CA (February 23, 2010) – Moen Inc. has signed an agreement with Tugboat Software to purchase and install Tugboat’s Vacation Scheduling™ solution for use in three of their facilities located in New Bern, Kinston and Sanford North Carolina. With a combined workforce of 1,000 regular employees, Moen’s North Carolina facilities assemble and distribute faucets for bathrooms and kitchens.
With the new software Moen employees will be able to manage their own vacation requests without having to work out each transaction with the HR office. “Vacation scheduling has always been a very labor intensive operation for both our HR department and our shift supervisors,” says Robin Ball, lead application analyst for Moen. “During the last quarter of the year, managing vacation requests is practically a full-time position with employees lined up at the counter all of the time. The Tugboat solution really takes the pressure off of the HR department and frees up time for our front-line managers.”
With the new software each employee will have a self-service kiosk window on their PC where they can view their available vacation time, make requests and cancel previous requests. Vacation requests are then automatically processed according to the unique vacation requirements of each separate facility. Moen’s vacation scheduling rules are fairly complex. Workers can trade a week for single-day vacations. And they can suspend a week of vacation and ask for it later if the week has not been selected by someone else. The Tugboat program handles all the changes and customizes the request to each facility’s rules.
Moen Incorporated, a Fortune Brands company, engages in the design, development, manufacture, and marketing of plumbing products for kitchen and bathroom applications to residential and commercial markets in the United States and internationally.
Tugboat Software Expends Product Offering with Shift Rotations Software
NEWPORT BEACH, CA (September 1, 2009) – Tugboat Software, a recognized leader in labor scheduling automation, today announced the launch of Shift Rotation Software™, a new solution designed to automate the process of generating and administrating crew schedules for large operations which utilize combinations of concurrent 24/7 shift schedules with different on-off work patterns.
In a range of industries, companies operating for extended hours use combinations of multiple shifts and on-off work patterns to balance the impact on human resources and run their operations in an optimal manner. Some patterns cycle through different numbers of weeks and start days over extended calendar periods and can become very complex. “Staying on top of who is on the active crew, who’s coming off one, who’ll be on the next crew, who is out on vacation and who’s available for call up or overtime can give managers a migraine,” says Tugboat founder and president Patricia Schilling.
“Our Shift Rotation Software automates the administration of any combination of crew scheduling systems,” she says. “It simplifies the management of shift rotation systems by automating the entire process, making the crewing system easier to view and report, regardless of how complex the mix.” She says managers are better able to predict their available resources, and their administration costs drop when they have tools for making better-informed decisions. In addition, employee satisfaction improves with better predictability and human errors eliminated.
According to Shilling, Tugboat’s Shift Rotation Software was developed specifically for defining and managing concurrent work plans for crews on combination shifts with 8, 10 or 12 hour lengths, fixed or staggered, and with various on-off work patterns. Slow, rapid, oscillating or partial rotation schedules and combinations of these are supported. She says the new Shift Rotation Software is integrated with Tugboat’s comprehensive labor scheduling application which includes automated overtime, skills inventory management, leave management, vacation scheduling, alerts and an employee self-service interface.
September 1, 2009
Tugboat Software Expends Product Offering with Vacation Scheduler
Newport Beach CA, (July 17, 2009) Tugboat Software a recognized leader for labor scheduling, today announced the launch of its new Vacation Scheduling solution.
Tugboat Software today announced the release of Vacation Scheduler, a solution which automates the entire vacation scheduling process from establishing rounds for vacation bidding to managing quotas, capturing vacation request, processing those requests, granting instant requests, tracking related balances for all employees and making year-end adjustments. Tugboat’s Vacation Scheduler significantly reduce the workload of HR managers and supervisors when responsible for this important and complex operation.
“Vacation Scheduler is a key product in our arsenal of labor scheduling solutions” says James Fitzpatirck, Product Architect. “Our Vacation Scheduler was a natural next step in the evolution and maturity of our product line.”
Tugboat’s Vacation Scheduler is ideal for a large workforce in any industry or service. “Where you have a big workforce our Vacation Scheduler fills a need,” says Tugboat Founder and President, Patricia Schilling. “For most employees in these large groups, getting the vacation they want can be as unpredictable as playing the slot machines. Where you have a contingent of senior employee who are entitled to take a lot of single-day vacations it is very difficult to balance their vacations with requests from the rest of the workforce.” Tugboat’s Vacation Scheduler relieves this problem because it eliminates the red tape, automates the entire process of requesting vacations, cuts out the time needed by HR to check quotas and approve requests. “The primary benefits are improved visibility, accuracy and speed-of-processing for both management and the employees.”
“Employers are typically looking for way to improve employee satisfaction”, says Schilling, “and our solution goes a long way. Employees can prioritize their requests, change their priorities, cancel requests, get their own reports, verify that the information is correct and if policy allows they can also receive an instant-grant vacation.”
July 17, 2009
Tugboat Software Expands Development Team With ERP Specialist
Newport Beach, CA (July 8, 2009) Tugboat Software is pleased to announce a new member to its application development team, Senior Software Engineer, Ms. Lily Wang. Lily brings over 15 years of experience with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, both their implementation and operation. Prior to Tugboat, Lily supported ERP solutions for companies including Amvac, Bob Siemon Design, Cherry Textron, Dacor and Genera.
“With her extensive ERP knowledge and consulting experience, Lily is an enormous asset to the Tugboat Team” says founder and President, Patricia Schilling. “Her addition fills a key role in our marketing plans to respond to the growing demand for integration between production scheduling and labor scheduling.” As Senior Software Engineer, Wang will guide the overall strategy for integrating Tugboat’s labor scheduling solution, SOS, with production data from customers’ ERP systems.
“Combined with Tugboat’s reputation and momentum in the labor scheduling space, Lily’s capabilities and focus will help drive extensions to our existing solution that will move Tugboat to a new level. We are very excited to have her with us, and are continually impressed by her passion for excellence and enthusiasm for business,” says Schilling.
July 08, 2009
Tugboat Software Releases Roundtable Team
Tugboat Software today announced the release of Roundtable® Team, a new version control solution designed for Eclipse and Progress OpenEdge® Architect development environments.
This new product offering enables Tugboat to serve customers in the software development field who need a cost-effective, commercially-supported version control solution that integrates with the Eclipse workbench.
“Roundtable Team is a great fit for teams of all sizes who use the Eclipse development environment that need a practical and affordable version control system,” says Product Architect Jeff Ledbetter. “As a technology partner with Progress, it is important that we provide a solution that can be used across all Progress product offerings that have been standardized on the Eclipse platform. Roundtable Team nicely fills that role with an easy-to-use tool that is backed by the reliability and performance of OpenEdge technology.”
Having achieved worldwide market success with Roundtable TSMS, a software configuration management solution designed for the Progress OpenEdge development environment, Roundtable Team strengthens Tugboat’s position as a leading provider of software change management tools for the Progress Software development community.
June 09, 2009
Consolidated Biscuit Co. Signs Agreement with Tugboat Software
Tugboat Software is pleased to announce that Consolidated Biscuit Co. has agreed to purchase and install Tugboat’s workforce scheduling solution, SOS. Initially, Consolidated plans to implement SOS in their 1100-worker headquarters facility in McComb OH.
“After speaking with (Tugboat) references, we’re convinced that your software is the right solution for Consolidated”. Don McMahah VP HR
Founded in 1963, one of the largest privately-owned cookie and cracker companies in the US, and one of the largest employers in OH, Consolidated is a contract packer for many well known brands. They bake private label cookies and crackers for retail chain stores and every day Consolidated produces over one million pounds of products. Consolidated currently operates 5 manufacturing facilities and is adding a new facility in Tecumseh MI.
December 17, 2008
Tugboat to Present at FPSA PROCESS EXPO
Tugboat Software is pleased to announce that Mr. Jim Fitzpatrick, SOS Product Architect, has been selected to speak at the Food Processing Suppliers Association PROCESS EXPO scheduled for November at McCormick Place, Chicago.
Jim will address the topic of challenges facing labor resource allocation in the food processing industry today and the advantages that optimization technology affords for improving labor allocation and plant utilization.
With over 25 years of experience consulting to food processing enterprises including General Mills, Kraft Foods, Nestle, Pinnacle Foods, Unilever and others, Jim’s in-depth knowledge of workforce scheduling provides a valuable perspective on solutions for automating the manufacturing workforce.
PROCESS EXPO, the premier trade show and exhibition for the food processing industry, focuses on the newest developments in processing technology for the challenges facing the industry’s food, beverage and pharmaceutical manufacturers.
June 18, 2008
Tugboat Signs Roundtable International Sales Agreement with appSolutions
Tugboat Software announces a newly-formed sales agreement with appSolutions, a long term Tugboat services partner headquartered in Hjoerring, Denmark. appSolutions will sell Tugboat’s Roundtable TSMS Software Configuration Management (SCM) application to the European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.
appSolutions’ Technical and Services Director Thomas Hansen, “The main purpose of the agreement is to bring much-needed qualified technical sales services to new customers in the EMEA region who are searching for an SCM solution.” This agreement, “is part of our strategic initiative to assist software development operations as they face increasing regulatory requirements to meet compliance standards and improve accountability”.
Tugboat Software and appSolutions both have a long-term relationships with Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) as Roundtable customers also use Progress’ tools along with Roundtable. A vital component to the existing Tugboat/appSolutions relationship has been their history of providing support to customers who have purchased Roundtable from Progress Software. Thomas Hansen has worked with Roundtable for the past 13 years and Tugboat has partnered with Progress for 15 years.
appSolutions and Tugboat are now strengthening their existing business relationship in Europe. “This is an excellent strategic deal for Tugboat,” says Terry Schilling, Tugboat Software Marketing Mgr. “We are combining appSolutions’ track record supporting software development shops world-wide with implementation, training, and mentoring for their SCM needs while also extending the Tugboat Software brand into the European business arena.”
May 20, 2008
Roundtable Version 10.1C Available
Tugboat Software, a global supplier of software for enterprise application development and life-cycle management, today announced the availability of Roundtable® TSMS release 10.1C. This release solidifies it’s status as the premier Software Configuration Management solution for the Progress OpenEdge development environment.
Roundtable release 10.1C incorporates new features to simplify the process of managing the development life-cycle of OpenEdge applications with key feature enhancements in areas of schema management, task management, and application compilation.
This release also introduces an updated plug-in client for the Progress OpenEdge Architect development environment. New features include schema management tools, task groups management, and improved search capabilities, Roundtable is used in more than 30 countries worldwide, in over 500 organizations.
March 27th, 2008
New Tugboat Software Web Site
In response to its rapidly growing customer base and increased inquiries from prospective users, Tugboat Software has launched a new, completely redesigned website which better describes the company’s offerings and announces its most recent business opportunities. Designed to improve accessibility of information for Tugboat’s existing and new customers, the site provides in-depth information about the company’s unique SOS workforce scheduling solutions and Roundtable, Tugboat’s integrated Software Configuration Management application. Future news articles on the site will detail upcoming expansion plans, and introduce Tugboat’s new overseas agreement for sales and support of Roundtable in Europe with appSolutions, a software solutions provider located in Denmark. At the end of first quarter 2008, articles will announce plans to introduce SOS into 10+ manufacturing facilities for major food processing enterprises in the US. Stay tuned!
March 18th, 2008
Development Platform Upgraded
The development system used for SOS is upgraded to the newest release of the Progress Software Corp. database development platform.
Critical to Tugboat’s workforce scheduling solution, PSC OpenEdge V10.1B enables more versatile date and time handling. Important for Tugboat’s customers accessing SOS-as-a-service, this newest release is installed at Tugboat’s hosting services provider thus ensuring more robust, efficient and flexible data handling over the internet.
February 19th, 2008
Roundtable Version 10.1B Available
Tugboat Software announced that Roundtable 10.1B is available for commercial shipment from Tugboat’s dealers worldwide including Progress Software Corp.
Roundtable 10.1B delivers a redesigned plug-in for OpenEdge Architect 10.1B, multi-platform AppServer support, and support for new PSC V10.1B database features via the Win32 and Unix clients.
February 20th, 2007
