Thoughtful Systems and its predecessor companies, under the direction of Murray Gordon, a management and IT consultant and systems analyst, began producing software for a window cleaning company based in New York’s toney Hamptons district back in 1986. That window cleaning business had 4 branches, each one in a different Hampton, and thousands of customers, many of them wealthy new Yorkers in the finance industry, the movie industry and others. Due to the seasonal nature of the Hamptons position, the software had to allow for differing schedules for various periods of the year. In Summer, it was window cleaning once a week perhaps, whereas in the winter, when houses sat empty, window cleaning was rare, but houses needed to be checked for things like freezing pipes, snow removal and so on.
The software needed to be able to define and maintain schedules for all the tasks these demanding clients wanted, and be able to assign suitably qualified employees (or subcontractors) to the jobs. In addition, the software needed to handle bulking, invoicing and production of statements on a monthly basis. There were many details that had to be considered. For example, some customers wanted their invoices sent to their nice Hamptons houses in the summer, but to their New York City addresses in the winter months. Some employees were paid on an hourly basis, whereas some subcontractors received a percentage of the amount charged for the job,. There were even a few who had fixed pay arrangements – they received a fixed dollar amount for each job completed.
The software had to handle management of the employees’ hours, and the gross pay that was due to each employee or subcontractor each pay period. Gross pay amounts and number of hours worked were to be exported to a dedicated payroll program, such as ADP. (These days, we export to QuickBooks, Xero, Sage and MYOB as well.)
This was a challenging project at the time. There were no other service business software programs available at the time. Business owners were not very familiar with software, and advantages of using powerful software to run and manage a business. At one of the first trade shows we attended, one attendee said yes, he wanted good software – he’d been looking around for good, soft cloths for cleaning windows for some time! Nowadays, everyone is familiar with computers, and with a variety of software programs that run on them. Not only that, but also mobile software – apps that run on mobile devices – smart phones, IPads, IPhones, Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets, and hundreds of other mobile devices.
High tech has finally entered the arena for these service businesses and made the management of such businesses more scientific and professional – thus cutting down on the time it takes to run a successful service business, and providing valuable data which can be mined to reveal trends in the business, and thus help make better decisions for future years regarding the running and management of the business.
