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Livonia

Wednesday, February 4, 2004

Velvet S. McNeil / The Detroit News Savance CEO Steve Bardocz checks out the electronic in-and-out board that tracks whether employees are in or out of the office. It's one of several programs the company officers use to cut lost time, increase profits and raise business opportunities.

Firm aims to increase efficiency in the office

Savance uses custom software, hardware, processes to track data

By Jenny King / Special to The Detroit News

Velvet S. McNeil / The Detroit News The EIO Board keeps track of the availability of employees. All about Savance What: Custom business solutions Where: 18292 Middle Belt, Livonia Founded: 1998 Employees: 11 Phone: (248) 478-2555 Web site: http://www.savance.com/ Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

It may simply be a question of saving steps. But unnecessary employee movements quickly add up to lost time, lower profits and fewer business opportunities.

The goal of Savance in Livonia is to increase office efficiency through custom computer software, hardware and processes.

The staff at this 5-year-old business can analyze aspects of a business, for example its internal communications or its inventory processes, and suggest ways to avoid waste and improve individual productivity and job satisfaction.

“We are presently concentrating on four areas,” said John Veeder, Savance’s vice president of sales and marketing.

“We have EIO Board, the electronic in-and-out board; OrderSavant, a quoting and sales order software for distributors; StudentSavant, a student-educator module, and FinanceSavant, a program to help finance companies communicate with mortgage customers,” Veeder said.

Savance, founded in 1998 by its CEO Steve Bardocz, has co-op students from Kettering University in Flint helping develop software solutions, which is frequently based on employee input.

The electronic in/out board or EIO Board has the potential to let every user in a company know where colleagues are and details of their schedules.

The EIO Board has been an answer to the prayers of Linda Crider, the administrative assistant at Aon in Southfield. The global insurance specialist employs 250 people working on five floors of a high-rise.

Crider, who is the key receptionist and handles incoming calls, cannot see most of her colleagues. Customers telephoning Aon expect prompt professional answers to questions.

Ideally, with the EIO Board, Crider only has to handle a call once. When Aon employees type in their schedules or update them, she can see at a glance who is in, or who is filling in for someone away from his or her desk.

“Staff can make changes from home or on the road using their personal computers,” Crider said. “There are callers who tell me they will not settle for leaving messages on voice mail, so I can put them through to another specialist.”

“We had been using an outslip system in which people filled out a paper form with carbons that said where they would be, leaving a copy with the receptionist,” said Tim Teagan, executive vice president-relationship manager.

So far, he said, the EOI Board has been “a very good product.”

Jenny King is a Metro Detroit free-lance writer.