Tech Tip: How Do I Get My Work Schedule On My iPhone (or iPad)?

33% of our staff has an iPhone or iPad so we'd be happy to help you get your EMS Manager, FIRE Manager or Zanager work schedule on your iOS device. Don't worry, I'll do a post about how to get your work schedule on Android soon!

First things first, login to your system and goto Work Schedule/My Schedule. On the bottom of this screen, you should see a green box with some instruction on how to subscribe to your work schedule.

To subscribe to your schedule on your calendar.app on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, copy the URL from your work schedule:

For example:
https://secure.emsmanager.net/[yourservicename]/index.php?action=get_ical&utc=1&mid=4958:1:1:1

Next, go to Settings and select Mail, Contacts, Calendar and click on "Add Account..." From there, select "Other."

Next, select "Add Subscribed Calendar"

Replace the "https" with "webcal" and enter the URL here manually or by pasting.

It should read:
webcal://secure.emsmanager.net/yourservicename/index.php?action=get_ical&utc=1&mid=4958:1:1:1

And you're done! From here, your calendar.app is subscribed to your work schedule and will receive updates regularly.

Tech Tip: Can't Edit Past Data? Check Your Historical Edits Limit!

One of my favorite features in our systems is being able to edit past schedule entries. Even in a perfect world, there's no telling if you'll ever need to go back and fix any mis-entries. Whether someone left their shift early, late, or traded shifts with someone without going through the proper channels, you don't have to jump in your DeLorean and hit 88mph to go back in time to fix it on the schedule.

But what if your EMS Manager, FIRE Manager or Zanager system doesn't let you change past schedule data? 

There may be a simple answer to that question...Check your Historical Edits Limit. 

Under Setup/General, you will find the Historical Edits Limit setting.

                

If you can't edit an entry from 90 days ago, bump up your limit to 180 or 365 (there's nothing stopping you from changing it back to a lower limit). 

Tying this great feature with our System Log makes it foolproof. Since the System Log timestamps every action taken in the system, you have complete accountability over any changes made. What does this mean? It means that if you have mid-level administrators making scheduling changes, you will know who did it and when.  

Lifestar Ambulance's Stephanie Fowler Burt says, "Goodbye paper schedules...Hello web-based scheduling!"

Stephanie Fowler Burt
Human Resources Manager
Lifestar Ambulance, Salisbury, MD

This month's EMS PRO MAG features a story by Lifestar Ambulance's (Salisbury, MD) Stephanie Fowler Burt from April 2011. "Goodbye Paper Schedules...Hello Web-Based Scheduling," goes over their switch from paper scheduling to online employee scheduling from start to finish.

Fowler Burt talks about the decision to go with online scheduling..."We were interested in online scheduling because we felt that it would provide us with the immediacy and efficiency that we were seeking. Rapid responses and real-time data were mission critical."

Lifestar Ambulance chose EMS Manager for their scheduling needs saying that, "Combining our administrative team’s “wish list” and our employees’ input helped narrow down the search and ultimately choose the right vendor for our company. Aladtec’s EMS online scheduling program, EMS Manager, is designed specifically for our field so we didn’t have to explain the interesting dynamics of EMS scheduling. They had already solved many of our problems because they had previously answered these same questions for other EMS companies." 

We're always happy to see these testimonies and we're glad Stephanie shared her story with the rest of the world. To read the entire story, click here.

In closing, here's what Stephanie had to say about the switch..."Since our move from the dark ages of paper schedules to a web-based system, we have seen a significant change and overall improvement in our daily operations. Our only regret: we should have done it sooner!"

Thanks, Stephanie! We're happy to help!

"Help Me, Help You."

In my opinion, this line (and scene) is head and shoulders over that other quotable from the 1996 Cameron Crowe classic, Jerry Maguire. In this scene, Tom Cruise's Jerry Maguire is pleading with Cuba Gooding's Rod Tidwell to play along so they'll both get what they want...show me the money! This isn't our message here today, but the tagline is perfect: help us help YOU.

We want you to be successful. When you take the dive and decide to manage and schedule your employees online with us, we are committed to helping you get started, roll-out your system to your company, and being available when you need us. Our customer support department is available 8AM - 5:30PM CST, Monday through Friday by phone and can also be reached by email at support@aladtec.com. 

But what about for after-hours? In addition to our emergency line (715-690-1095...which we politely ask you to use for emergency situations), we have great resources such as:

• Videos at youtube.com/aladtec
• Tech Tips on our blog (aladtec.blogspot.com)
• And a growing help section built right into your system which includes:
• New Features
• Tech Tips
• Administrator Videos
• Member Videos
• Help Documents
• System Status
• Support Contact Information

So don't be shy, we really are here to help! Call or email us any question, any time! 

"Stay hungry. Stay foolish." - Steve Jobs

That is a widely-known Steve Jobs quotable delivered in his 2005 Stanford University commencement address. 

By now, news of former Apple CEO Steve Job's passing has reached the corners of the tech Earth. I found out around 7PM CST last night by randomly visiting apple.com to look, again, at the forthcoming iPhone 4S. I've been surveying the Internet ever since, reading editorial and social media tributes to a man who left his fingerprints on the world. 

News, blogs, facebook, twitter, NPR...it seems people everywhere are sharing about how Apple products, under Steve Job's vision, have changed their lives or even given them a livelihood. It is both touching and inspiring to see how many people long to pay tribute to one man and his life's work. 

As a company who develops a cloud service, we appreciate all that Steve Jobs did to bring Internet computing to the masses. His work will forever inspire us to "think different," "stay hungry" and "stay foolish."

The above photo was designed by nineteen-year-old Jonathan Mak, a student at Hong Kong's Polytechnic University School of Design, who came up with the idea of incorporating Steve Jobs' silhouette into the bite of the Apple logo, symbolizing both Jobs' departure and lingering presence at the core of the company.