Service is a people-intensive business, and empowering people with ORTEC's workforce management and planning and scheduling solutions is the key to a reliable and world-class performance.

Service is the 'product' of the new millennium and Professional and Public Service organizations need to capitalize on their most valuable asset, their employee. Every organization must balance service quality, efficiency, and effectiveness with the pressures of revenue generation, cost cutting, and profitability. Professional and Public Service providers have the additional challenge of selling and delivering an intangible product, the knowledge and skills of their employees. ORTEC specializes in work force optimization and planning and scheduling tools that are equal to this complex and difficult task.

The NOS broadcasting organization – a Dutch Broadcasting System – is undergoing a radical transformation. The organization, which employs over 700 journalists and 400 freelancers, programs on the radio, television, teletext and the internet. NOS is being re-divided into two major components: sports and news. ORTEC’s Workforce Scheduling will help NOS make these changes in a seamless and timely fashion.

Using the ORTEC Harmony roster planning system, the NOS is obtaining valuable management information, providing the organization with a clear overview of how labor costs are distributed. "The overview alone - knowing where you can find information and the simplicity with which it appears - makes ORTEC Harmony excellent to use," said Woltering. The broadcasting company also has a better grasp of the personnel file and the actual number of hours worked. As previously stated, the NOS employs over 700 permanent members of staff and 400 freelancers. They are scheduled by a total of 25 planners spread out over various departments. "Until recently, the planners all worked in different ways, some digitally and some manually using pencils and erasers. In such circumstances, it is not easy to draw up an overall picture,” Woltering remarked.

The implementation of ORTEC Workforce Scheduling at NOS Broadcasting includes:

• programs on the radio, television, teletext and the internet 
• several leading programmes such as: NOS News, NOS Youth News, NOS Studio Sport, The Hague Today, NOS Radio News, etc. 
• over 700 journalists and employees 
• almost 400 freelancers