How were larger companies initially utilizing the customer-facing scheduling software developed around 1999?
Answer
Internally managing staff scheduling on behalf of customers
Pioneers working on scheduling software in the late 1990s discovered an interesting discrepancy between the software's design intent and its initial adoption by larger companies. Although the software was designed to allow end-users direct booking access, many larger corporate purchasers opted to use the system internally. Their primary use case was managing staff scheduling on behalf of their own customers, rather than exposing the direct booking functionality to the public. This internal management structure often existed because the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, which powers modern adoption, was still a relatively new concept at that time.
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