CASE STUDY

Dorman's Group

AN ULSTER INSTITUTION IMPLEMENTS BIZIMPLY

Dorman's Group

PUB

INDUSTRY

50+

EMPLOYEES

3

Locations

2019

USER SINCE

Originally opened in 1905, Dorman’s Bar, along with its two sister establishments, Mary’s Bar and Secrets are something of an institution in mid-Ulster.

We talked with Thomas Doherty, the Group General Manager about the challenges they had before Bizimply and the results they have seen since implementing the system into their company.

The BACKGROUND

Originally opened in 1905, Dorman’s Bar is something of an institution in mid-Ulster. Located on Queen Street, Magherafelt, it is a popular choice for food, drinks and live entertainment with customers from around the world.

Its aim, now as ever, is to provide the best in hospitality to customers each day with a dedicated and friendly team. Dorman’s have received many accolades over the years, including Bar of the Year in 2011.

As well as that, Dorman’s has two sister establishments, Mary’s Bar and Secrets. Mary’s Bar and Restaurant in Magherafelt offer a cosmopolitan social scene with the best of entertainment and “decadent food”, with a wealth of character and charm.

Mary’s Bar was named Licensed & Catering News (LCN) Bar of the Year 2015 and Pubs of Ulster Urban Pub of the Year 2015. With six bars on three floors and offering amazing entertainment, Secrets has been named LCN Night Club of the Year four years in a row from 2015 to 2018.

Dorman's Group Bizimply

The Challenge

Previously, the Group had printed out paper-based rosters built in a spreadsheet, and stuck them up on the staff notice board.

A manager then took a photograph of the spreadsheet and circulated it via a WhatsApp group. If employees then needed to take time off, this involved a lot of time-consuming back and forth between the “time off diary” and the rosters.

To record attendance, the company used a hand scanner system for employees to clock in and out.

There was no real-time information and management only had access to the clock-in times at the end of the week when they would pull the report from the system for payroll. If they weren’t onsite, they had no visibility over attendance. They also had little idea of wage costs and would have to work out wages manually at the end of the week.

The Solution

With Bizimply, the rostering is done with a simple and intuitive drag and drop.

I can now build an employee’s hours with a few clicks,” says Thomas Doherty.


Employees then receive their rosters directly on their phones. This eliminates any possible confusion or uncertainty. They clock in and clock out with a wall-mounted tablet, which provides a record of attendance that is accurate to the second.

Bizimply has provided transparency across the business and between staff. Managers can log in no matter where they are. They can see who clocked in, who was late, who was early and who is on break. Without being on the premises.

At the end of the session, managers also get a summary of hours worked and the day’s sales. Wheras the old spreadsheet-based system only (and inefficiently) recorded hours for payroll, all the information is now in one place.

Thomas Doherty checks the dashboard every morning to see how the week is going so far in all three locations. Thomas concludes.

Within seconds, I have detailed information about how each of the three businesses are doing, including sales to date for the week, a comparison between sales this week and the same week in the previous year, and actual sales against forecasts and forward-looking projections. This is highly motivating.

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