Central Florida founder 20 years ago created a HR software used by CNN. Here’s why he redid it.

Caucasian worker punching time clock in warehouse Getty

Program Works' WorkSchedule.Net product allows employers to track employee time and edit shifts online.

Jetta Productions Inc. | Getty Images

By Alex Soderstrom - OBJ Staff Writer & Orlando Inno Reporter

March 17, 2022, 02:05pm EDT

The phrase “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” doesn’t always apply to the fast-changing world of technology, and it didn’t for WorkSchedule.Net.

The online employee scheduling system developed by Winter Springs-based Program Works Inc. was launched in 2000 and built up thousands of users, including cable news giant CNN, over two decades. While it worked well enough, it became clear in recent years that WorkSchedule.Net needed an overhaul, Program Works founder and owner Robert Catron told Orlando Inno.

That’s why Program Works last month began to publicly tout version 9 of WorkSchedule.Net. Employers use the product to track employee time and easily edit shift calendars. The new version makes over the user interface, edits shifts and introduces a mobile version, Catron said. “This was a revamp to the core.”

Robert Catron

WorkSchedule.Net has accumulated 300 business clients, with big-name firms using the product. While Catron said he cannot name the clients, a WorkSchedule.Net site shows one client is Cable News Network, better known as CNN.

Program Works is beta testing the new version of WorkSchedule.Net until May, though the beta period may get extended to July, Catron said.

Here’s more from Catron on why his business reworked its flagship product.

When did you realize you needed to overhaul your product? We were pretty small before. For the first 10 years, there were only a handful of us. What really changed things was the time we joined the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program [in 2015].

What happened then? At that time, we did two things. First, the incubator connected us to the UCF internship program. I hired five interns. They went out and did research. We were able to bring our prices up after that. We were way low in the market. Three of the interns have stayed in the last 10 years and are employees now.

When did you decide to revamp WorkSchedule.Net? When I had that staff and saw what we could do, that’s when we said, ‘Let’s dig in, and let’s rewrite this.’ It didn’t start out as rewriting everything. It led to that. It’s not a full rewrite, but it’s pretty close.

What are the biggest changes in the new version? User interface is the big thing. The shift editor itself is a lot better. Yahoo or Google Calendar don’t really allow you to mass edit shifts. We can mass edit shifts, like 10 at once and change one aspect. The mobile app is huge; it does everything that standard application does.

What other features do you plan to add? In the future, we’re going to work on expanding artificial intelligence. That didn’t change that much in this upgrade. We have plans for that. I can’t go into details, but we’re going to take it to the next level.