Tyler Weber knew there must be an easier way to schedule shifts for the 11 radiologists he works with as chief administrative officer of Northwest Imaging in Kalispell.

His solution, a web-based software application that fills open shifts in a company’s work schedule, already has proven the old adage: necessity is the mother of invention.

ShiftAuction, Weber’s trademarked name for the software tool, has been used by the Northwest Imaging radiology group for about nine months and with Kalispell Regional Medical Center’s nursing pool for about four months.

Response to the product has been good, Weber said.

Kelli McMahon-Staats, the obstetrics manager at KRMC, said using ShiftAuction has allowed the nursing staff to have immediate access to open shifts.

“It has eliminated wasted employee and company time and also has created a fair and consistent method of our department’s scheduling needs,” she said.

Weber said manually covering shifts for the radiology group, which serves nine area hospitals from Cut Bank to Libby, was a logistical challenge. On any given day he had to know who was scheduled when and where, and his staff used to have to make endless phone calls to keep it all straight.

Then he noticed the hospital was sending out emails regarding a need for nurses for various shifts. With KRMC’s pool of more than 400 nurses, that, too, was a scheduling nightmare. Shift openings used to be posted on a wall at the hospital.

“I went to them and asked them, ‘if I build it, will you use it?’” Weber said.

The nursing force signed on and Weber had his first big user.

ShiftAuction not only allows an employer or employee to post an open shift; it also notifies potential qualified employees of that open shift using their preferred means of communication — text message, email or phone call.

As Weber researched existing software for work-force management, he found some elaborate and very expensive computer software that still didn’t accomplish what he wanted. He calls ShiftAuction a “tool for the tool box” of scheduling software.

His system enables employees to competitively bid for extra hours, saying, for example, that they’ll work a shift for $25 per hour instead of the usual $30 hourly rate.

“That feature is up and running,” he said. “The radiologists are moving in that direction.”

The software also can be used to schedule facilities such as surgery rooms.

Weber said the return on investment with ShiftAuction is multi-faceted. Management time is saved in posting and locating employees to fill shifts. Staff time is saved in communicating and/or applying for open shifts and there’s a potential decrease in overtime pay by filling spots with the right employees.

And by allocating hours to existing employees, the software can reduce the amount of money companies pay for third-party employees from a labor agency.

There’s a cost to use ShiftAuction, about $5 per employee per month.

Bigfork Web Development did the initial work on the program and Weber now is working with Scott Countryman, an independent software developer who will help market the product. The shiftauction.com website has been up since June 1.

“Now that I’ve had two beta tests, we want to launch commercially,” Weber said.

Weber owns the ShiftAuction program and serves as president of the new company.

A 1993 Flathead High School graduate, Weber earned his accounting degree from Notre Dame and recently completed his master’s degree in business administration at the University of Montana. He’s the son of longtime Kalispell ophthalmologist Steve Weber.

Weber has been the chief administrative officer at Northwest Imaging for six year and says it’s a job he loves. Developing ShiftAuction after work hours has made for a full schedule for Weber in recent months.

The innovative software already is attracting interest from other hospitals. Weber said he had a call recently from a Texas medical center that’s considering the software application.

Jim Oliverson, spokesman for KRMC, said he’s impressed with Weber’s product.

“I am excited for him because it is another local young person who is staying in the Flathead and developing a program that will eventually be hiring employees and keeping the revenue in the valley,” Oliverson said. “He has been testing his product for some time... and it realy works. The beauty of it is that it can work for a variety of businesses, from trucking companies to auditoriums.”

For more information, go to www.shiftauction.com.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.