Innovative Award Nominee: TaskTracker

Gerald had an idea that wasn’t ground breaking, earth shattering, or frankly even that unique. In fact, many others have had the same idea, but what makes Gerald’s idea innovative and useful is the approach that was taken to achieve the idea. The problem was simple to recognize. How do you accurately track labor hours and the amount of  dollars spent on each of the tasks assigned on the course throughout the season? The answer wasn’t simply to make an excel spreadsheet, or have his employees fill out a task sheet to be entered at a later date. What was innovative was rethinking how to collect this data. Almost every Superintendent uses a whiteboard to assign jobs for each day, and every Superintendent erases that whiteboard to make room for the next day’s jobs. Gerald wanted to create an electronic whiteboard.  An e-board, if you will, where tasks could be posted faster than they could be written down on a board. Those tasks would then be tied to an employee and the employee  would be tied to a wage.

The idea was to use an HDTV as the new whiteboard. He consulted with an unlikely person for help, his Golf Pro.  His Pro has extensive knowledge in golf course operation, database management, HTML protocol and numerous other programs with acronyms that would only have meaning to the geekiest of geeks, but it would prove to be a perfect marriage of cyber world meets real world experience. Gerald and his Pro, Jaime Sharp, created a web based application where job assignments can be entered effortlessly from any mobile device or computer. Those job assignments can then be streamed to an HDTV via a Chromebox, as well as smart phones. By developing a web based platform, he and his assistants are no longer chained to the whiteboard to assign second jobs. Those assignments are now done in the field and updated automatically to the monitor.

Now for the real innovation. Data is just data, and it is easy to collect. However, it is hard to display data for useful purposes. Gerald knew what type of reports he wanted that would give an accurate picture of how labor was being utilized on the course. These reports were refined and have become an integral part of his budgeting process.

The product that was developed took on the name “TaskTracker”, and has the ability to transform how Superintendents assign tasks and track labor. In fact, since its debut, the TaskTracker has been used across the country by some of the top Superintendents. The program continues to gain attention and has allowed staff to break the shackles of data entry, giving them the opportunity to spend more time on the course doing what they love.

The TaskTracker also gives financial insights that effect the bottom line. One is that many Superintendents, including Gerald are asked to do many labor intensive projects that are outside of their department, and in most cases the Superintendents are not given financial credit for these tasks. They are simply absorbed into the golf course maintenance budget, and with ever increasing pressure to produce more with less, these projects only make it harder to meet financial goals leaving the Superintendent holding the bag. With TaskTracker, Gerald has proven that even though his budget may not be decreasing, he is doing more with less, demonstrating that his operation is becoming more efficient. He now knows how much money it takes to maintain a square foot of green, bunker, rough, native, and tee. This is valuable data when deciding to widen fairways or increase rough, all of which have financial impacts. TaskTracker also empowers Gerald to calculate the ROI of a piece of equipment verses manual labor, allowing him to give a compelling argument on the cost savings to the club.

TaskTracker meets all of the requirements and then some for excellence in innovation.  Out of the box thinking in collecting and displaying  job assignments has lead to a more efficient way of collecting and displaying  valuable data, and in turn has lead to better budgeting and member expectations. Being able to demonstrate to the Board and the Members where his largest budget line item is spent gives him immense credibility and job security.