Daily Maily issue 4605, 21 January 2008

"TimeMaker system makes more time to do our work and saves time in management issues"

The daily conversation with Kobi Bitter, EVPInformation Systems in Mirs, on implementing TimeMaker system in the company: "The system was developed as a solution which interlocks completely with Microsoft Outlook, and is actually doing what every manager dreams of – it monitors every communication coming out of the manager's desk and makes it a task/project that can be followed visually", says Bitter

Daily Maily editorial board, The People

What is the TimeMaker system?

"TimeMaker - lives up to its name - it "makes time". This is a management system, which enables the manager to be in control of his communications, tasks and projects, and get the relevant data on one progress board. It is implemented in Israel with several clients and is operational also in Hebrew. It was developed as a solution which interlocks completely with Microsoft Outlook, and is actually doing what every manager dreams of – it monitors every communication coming out of the manager's desk and makes it a task/project that can be followed visually. It enables to realize a vision or idea, while converting the organizational strategy into tasks, down to the daily operations level.

The system is a management tool that supports organizational improvement and streamlining as well as full synchronization with Outlook, in order to give an intuitive and immediate tool without the need to manage another application in the organization. In light of the above, TimeMaker system enables the manager to engage in management and planning and thus it reverses the intolerable routine in organizations: 80% in putting fires out and 20% in planning, and start operating on 80% planning and monitoring and 20% handling urgent and unexpected incidents".

Tell me about the implementation of TimeMaker system in Mirs.

"Mirs have operated TimeMaker system for a year now and it does make time for us to do the relevant work; it also saves a lot of management time, in development and in the day to day operation and ad hoc tasks. As a cellular service company, Mirs is required to operate on a fast response basis for the benefit of its clients, therefore Information Systems workers have to support an "avalanche" of business requirements that reach the company everyday.

The PMO's duties in the Information Systems Department are to manage, navigate and direct all tasks in the department. This system facilitates the control of activities, and thus its power is manifested – the ability to change tasks in almost real-time, since the operations of the workers are transparent; this actually gives the managers an opportunity to decide to change tasks through this insight".

How did this system change the operation of the company?

"Regarding operationsl aspect and synchronizing between people, we found out that the interaction between people was reduced substantially. Since all mailings (also through e-mail) are linked under the subject handled, the ability to forward tasks between people is simple. As a manager I mainly use the daily monitoring application – to get a quick review of the tasks status by colors on one screen. Today, after one year of implementation I can look at the TimeMaker project in the Information Systems Department with great satisfaction. We certainly got what we expected, furthermore, we do not stand still and we ask for more extensions, which we get mostly with the updated versions".

TimeMaker Company completed the implementation of a management system in Information Systems Department in Mirs Communications

Within this project, TimeMaker system was implemented to manage projects, tasks and communications in the department. The system improved the efficiency of projects by minimizing the number of communications required to complete a task and by saving management time.

TimeMaker system lives up to its name - it "makes time". This is an innovative management system, which enables the manager to be in control of his communications/tasks/projects in an organization, all in one push of a button.

Surveys done by world leading survey companies show that managers waste a large portion of their time answering and handling e-mails, instead of doing other critical management activities. One of the prevalent reasons of fatigue and enormous work load managers complain about is the nonstop dealing with e-mails, answering and trying to follow them up.

Originally, e-mail was supposed to create real revolution in the managers' ability to control the organization better and realize their vision, yet it seems that the machine has rebelled its creator and managers are enslaved to e-mails without any real ability to follow up the progress of the tasks they gave their workers. In light of the above, TimeMaker system, an innovative software applied in Israel with several clients and also in Hebrew, is about to create a real revolution in the way we handle our e-mails.

TimeMaker, developed as a solution that integrates fully with Microsoft Outlook, is doing what every manager dreams of – it monitors every communication coming out of the manager's desk and makes it a project that can be followed visually. The amazing simplicity of the software enables, for the first time, to reverse the intolerable routine in organizations: 80% in putting fires out and 20% in planning, and start operating on 80% planning and follow-up and 20% handling urgent and unexpected incidents.

Kobi Bitter, EVP Information Systems in Mirs Communication explains how TimeMaker system enables a more effective management: "The system provides a management tool, which enables every employee and manager in the organization to know his tasks and their status – in one push of a button. Through TimeMaker the daily tasks are kept on schedule and it is easy to follow up and identify the bottleneck in the organization and analyze the implications".

Arnon Hadas, director of projects headquarters, Mirs: we checked the effect of the utilization of TimeMaker among our users and we reached the conclusion that through TimeMaker system we reduced substantially the number of communications required to complete each task. We analyze the data accumulated in the system through statistics functions in TimeMaker system and manage according to indexes, which enable continuous learning and improvement.

Eli Matyovis, director of development department: TimeMaker system enables me to manage projects easily and simply with full transparency. In the past we used to work with several tools: Outlook, MS Project, Action Base as well as Excel for department tasks, now all of these are in one place. The system enables to manage the projects as well as give response to ad-hoc unplanned tasks and watch immediately how these influence the original plan".

Gabriela Shlomo, CEO of TimeMaker Israel:

"The main innovation of this system is that it is a management tool which provides a control system on communications in the organization, while maintaining the desirable outcome out of each communication with efficient utilization of the time and energy of the managers. On the higher level, this system enables realizing a vision/ idea while converting the organizational strategy into tasks level down to the daily actions.

Meir Ezra – founder, owner and world president of TimeMaker company: "The real challenge was to develop a software with the main aim to create a management tool which supports the improvement and streamlining of the business on one hand, and integrate it fully with Microsoft Outlook on the other hand, this in order to give intuitive and immediate solution without the need to use another application in the organization"