Overview
Keri DuBois-Gould, Director in the Quabbin School District in Massachusetts, has been with Health-e Pro for five years now. We spoke with her to hear her story with Health-e Pro: how has the software made her job easier? What is she able to do in the software from her phone? And what’s the ultimate result of using Health-e Pro for Keri? Read on to find out more.
What do you love the most about Health-e Pro?
Oh, it’s so easy, I love it. You guys understand school lunch. I could sit here and enter a recipe on my phone, that is how easy Health-e Pro is.
What else have you done on your phone with Health-e Pro?
I can update my menu on my phone. I’ve scaled recipes on my phone or calculated Meals Per Labor Hour (MPLH).
What is the major difference before and after using Health-e Pro?
Six years ago, I started in this district and I started with another software as their menu planning software. It was not user friendly and difficult to get data in, so I didn’t really utilize it.
I started looking into programs and found Health-e Pro. I worked for contract food service companies before school food service and healthcare before that, so I wasn’t brand new to programming or training staff on menu planning. I have worked with a lot of systems and Health-e Pro is just easy. I don’t have to make up everything in Excel spreadsheets. I used to have to create my own Production Records, but now my staff can enter it all in online.
What made you decide on Health-e Pro?
One reason I got Health-e Pro was because it was all my menu planning in one. It has my “back-of-house menu planning and production” but also the front end with Online Menus for parents and the Mobile App. I don’t have to upload anything into a separate program–it’s all in one program.
How was training?
When I started training with Lynn, it was supposed to go over three days. We did it in one day because I wanted to get started and program my menus; within a couple weeks, I had my menus in.
How was training your staff on production?
It is user friendly for them. They can print off production worksheets and then, at the end of the day, come in front of their computer and enter it in. Once my staff realized that, it’s much easier.
As a director, what is the biggest benefit of online Production Records?
When you have your production entered, you can run a Usage Report so you aren’t looking through months of production data to see how much you prepared of a menu item; that helps a lot. This past week I had to cover one of the staff members and I was able to run the usage report to see how many they prepared the last three times and I could estimate what I needed. Whereas years ago, you had to estimate how much was needed or go back in the files to see any old data. But now because since we use online Production Records, we have easy access to it.
We had a state auditor in and she loved all the reports we had. I use the MPLH report in the Business Insights Dashboard and it helps justify if we need to reduce hours or increase hours at school, so it is really cool how it runs for you.
What has exceeded your expectations?
Just how easy it is. I show people how quick and easy it is to find products in the manufacturer’s tab in Health-e Pro. I am always telling any of my vendors they need to get in Health-e Pro, so people can use their products more!
As a director, I think we spend too much time on our office, but with Health-e Pro, it has allowed me to get out into my high school more.