Employee Scheduling Software Receives The Highest Praise

If imitation is the highest form of flattery then Asgard Systems Inc. has been receiving it in spades. They are the publishers of Time Tracker - employee scheduling software. Judging from some of Asgards’ competitors, Time Tracker appears to be the product to imitate.

They have had one competitor copy their logo and use it with their own product. Another competitor directly copied the Asgard web site (www.asgardsystems.com) and used it to sell similar software. In an attempt to increase market share, another employee scheduling company called their product Time Tracker.

Then, there is the very bold competitor that used the name Asgard Systems as their own company name. The company was even located in the same city as Asgards’ head office. The real Asgard was alerted to the issue when customers began to call with complaints that just didn’t make sense.

There was also the time that Asgard Systems discovered a tender and responding bids to develop an exact copy of the Time Tracker software. Their free trial version was copied and distributed as the basis of the tender.

Asgard also appears to be imitated when it comes to concepts and terms used. Scheduling concepts originally developed by Asgard have also appeared in a number of their competitors’ products as well.

According to Richard Askwith, their product manager, “So far, our response has been to call the offending party and present our case. The embarrassed marketing director usually agrees to rectify the situation. In the case of the stolen logo, we were in the midst of redesigning our logo anyway. The tender to replicate Time Tracker was apparently cancelled, due to the high cost of development”.

Richard goes on to say, “As amusing as these incidents are, I expect that we may need to take more aggressive action in the future. It is very fortunate for all, that the offending parties voluntarily curtailed their actions”.

A certain degree of functional overlap can be expected in any industry. However, it is innovation and difference that make for healthy markets. Asgard has been happy to take the innovative lead but sometimes flattery crosses the boundary.