When Marc Weber returned to his alma mater earlier this year, he outlined his recipe for success. The graduation class of the CIA-Culinary Institute of America heard his message of the importance of confidence and humility.
“It’s important that we have confidence,” Weber told recipients of associate degrees in Culinary Arts and Baking & Pastry Arts. “You need to be confident to be a leader. But without humility, it’s really impossible to grow.” With that very same confidence, Weber and his two partners, Harrison Keefe and Noah Borts, have ventured into a new territory: software solutions.
“For years while operating our ONTHEMARC catering firm, we struggled to find a software solution that could enable us to manage multiple teams of staff simultaneously,” Weber noted. “In order to run multiple corporate events in Manhattan and weddings in Connecticut on the same day, a caterer needs software that can support a distributed
workforce.” The 2005 CIA graduate has built his events company and catering business by providing industry leading cuisine and the highest quality service to the Stamford, CT’s customer base and venues. The software is called QuickShift and has been released following four years of extensive beta testing.
“The work that we do in building teams for our events, has given us a unique understanding of what it takes to plan and pay our staff,” noted Weber. “Keep in mind that keeping a staff happy includes getting them paid on time and correctly. In many cases, the taxes that need to be deducted for a staff member in Manhattan include both City and State taxes. To address both the frustrations with scheduling our staff and paying our staff, we designed an all-in-one platform that gives the caterer complete control with the simple touch of a button.”
The Weber approach has always been for the greater good. Active in his community, Weber donates food and time to non-profit organizations and, through his company, provides meals for the homeless. His philanthropy also includes the ONTHEMARC Young Caterer’s Scholarship at the CIA.
So it comes as no surprise that Weber and the QuickShift team have made the decision to make the software available to the entire industry, including their competitors, at a fraction of the cost of existing platforms.
Borts’ software expertise was a key to QuickShift’s development. “As we looked at what was being utilized in catering, we saw the use of Excel spreadsheets and Google Drive to track employees and their shift availability,” Borts’ explained. “QuickShift eliminates hundreds of wasted hours entering information into multiple databases and creating separate reports. We knew that in order for QuickShift to make sense, we would need an integrated calendar that can keep both management and staff updated on upcoming events,” Borts continued. “The QuickShift calendar syncs schedules with Google Calendar, Outlook, and Apple Calendar. The key to this was the creation of something that is both intuitive and inexpensive to use.”
The QuickShift design team has also kept an eye towards the changes in how information is delivered. “We knew that catering management needed to be mobile and cloud based,” Borts added. “So with QuickShift you get a platform in which multiple event details can be efficiently retrieved from a smartphone or tablet.”
QuickShift’s goal was to create both pricing and on-boarding that would set a new industry standard. “We have accomplished both of those goals with a cost effective subscription plan,” Weber concluded. “We also guarantee that a caterer will be up and operating within minutes of installation which is all handled with a simple sign-in at the website of the QuickShift software.”
