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Employee Learning Toolkits:

SDMS and Vado New Partnerships for Learning Excellence

SDMS Ltds Partnership for Learning Excellence aims to complement SDMS software existing of offering its users a wide range of products and services from industry leading companies from across the globe to help them enrich and extend employee learning and development.

SDMS Ltd has now formed a partnership with Vado Inc. to provide unique learning content that is “changing the face of learning” in the USA. Vado courses offer learning content in five areas: Competency Development, Engagement and Retention, Career Development, Onboarding and Project Management. The courses are offered in the form of Employee Learning Toolkits.

“We are pleased to partner with SDMS Ltd to provide unique learning content that is changing the face of learning,” comments Cindy Pascale, Vado’s CEO. “We offer learning content in four areas: Competency Development, Engagement and Retention, Career Development and Onboarding. Our learning content is delivered in small bite sized chunks to maximize learning retention. Additionally, all courses include a step by step Implementation Guide leveraging the natural way people learn - on the job. Finally, Vado offers Mapping as a Service where, on a complimentary basis, we will map our learning content to a client’s competency model, engagement survey, turnover drivers, an instructor led workshop, or any business soft skill area a company is looking to develop.”

“Short, targeted content is very popular with our clients and our own employees. With Vado’s content, learners are not only gaining new knowledge, but clear action to apply what they learned on the job,” commented SDMS Ltd’s representative. SDMS Ltd continues to see growth in the usage and popularity of its learning content library. Clients report that employees react well to Vado’s videos due to the shorter duration and targeted learning they provide”.

Vado provides streaming video courses to improve individual performance, employee engagement, overall retention, and organisation results. Each course contains: short instructional video, detailed step by step Implementation Guide, downloadable Job Aid and a self-evaluation.

Access to Vado - Vado’s courses are loaded and hosted on the company’s learning management system and will be offered by SDMS alongside e-Front e-Learning as part of the increasing range of e-Learning resources and e-Learning content development. Vado’s courses will also be offered via the new SDMS Learning Portal on a pay as you learn basis to be launched in the early New Year. Vado’s learning courses are designed to help organisations take action to develop competencies, increase engagement, and quickly onboard and socialise new employees.

“SDMS Ltd is a leading provider of Staff Development, Personnel and Learning Management Solutions that have been developed with training and personnel managers in both the public and private sector over many years."

For more information Click Here

To learn more about Vado and preview the content Click Here

SDMS Ltd Partners with Epignosis to Market eFront Enterprise e-Learning

eFront Enterprise provides e-Learning and Human Capital with SDMS Staff Development and Learning Management Solutions.

Thursday 16th December 2010 – Leading Staff Development and Personnel Solution provider, SDMS Ltd, today announced a strategic partnership with Epignosis, the developer of eFront Enterprise® its award winning e-Learning platform.

SDMS Ltd is one of the foremost providers of Staff Development and Learning Management Systems with a strong presence in the UK Local Government and Education Sectors. eFront Enterprise; an exciting and innovative e-Learning platform combining pleasing and engaging learner facilities, e-Learning course development tools and employee skills profiling, is now integrated with both SDMS Ltd’s widely used Staff Development and e-Training Management System.

The partnership brings together SDMS Ltd’s 20 years’ experience of working with the UKs leading staff development and learning managers in delivering extensive applications for the planning and administration of face to face training with the specialist focus of Epignosis in the delivery of highly functional and pleasingly designed e-learning experiences. This extends the value of SDMS Ltd’s Staff Development solutions by providing users with easy and secure access to On Line learning, fully integrated with its product suite. Providing learning experience and assessment through the web browser eFront offers corporate managers tools for the satisfaction of training requirements via e-Learning to complement other forms of employee training.

The value added by eFront’s functionality and ease of implementation will assist Human Resource Managers to easily track skills required by the job through on line and face to face training and to ensure that investment of time and money in employee skill addresses the needs of the business.

"Our strategy is driven by the determination to offer the most intuitive products in the market specially crafted for small-and-medium enterprises combined with fanatic attention to client needs. Our partnership with SDMS, an established organization within the staff training and development market in the UK, will give value to current offerings by enhancing and providing a complete eLearning solution, tailored to specific organizational training needs and important compliance topics." commented Dr. Athanasios Papagelis, Founder and CTO, eFront.

David Stevens, Founder and Managing Director, SDMS Ltd said, “We have been talking with our customers for some 3 to 4 years about their emerging involvement with e-Learning alongside the use of our software - while the use e-Learning as a mode of delivery is currently on a relatively modest scale, even amongst our larger customers it's use addresses some very important compliance training topics – such as health and safety, safeguarding children and hygiene. Looking to the future, customers of SDMS expect it to grow and have asked us to look at providing a complete learning solution incorporating e-Learning itself. This we have now done by our partnership with eFront.

Our Staff Development and Personnel Administration Systems are for all levels of the market from organisations with less than 50 staff to organisations with 5,000 Staff. Epignosis provides a flexible solution which allows us to address all segments of the markets we work in, regardless of the number of employees.”

About SDMS Ltd

SDMS Ltd is a long established supplier of specialist Staff Development, Personnel and Learning management products to medium and small businesses and the Local Government and Education markets. It provides a range of specialist editions to LAs and Children’s Services, Social and Adult Care as well as Further Education and Universities.

For further information about SDMS Products visit: www.sdmsltd.com

About Epignosis and eFront

Established in 2003, Epignosis is a member of the Virtual Trip entrepreneurial ecosystem of high-tech companies. Focused on the international market, the eFront distribution and support network is present in 25 countries through a network of over 50 value added resellers.

eFront is a next generation learning and training platform with an intuitive user interface and strong Social and Enterprise functionality. The platform satisfies modern training requirements by combining a clean, web based interface with customizability, functionality and ease-of-use. To learn more please check: www.efrontlearning.net

SDMS V e-Academy for Football Clubs

The UK’s Leading Football Academy Management System Now Extended to the Web with e-Academy Web Access

SDMS V Football Academy and Youth Development for Windows is the UK’s first and leading management system to help Administrators, Coaches and Scouts cope with the day to day record keeping of young Football Players while, at the same time, ensuring that best practice and FA requirements on Youth Development are met.

The system is used by several leading Clubs and has now been extended with e-Academy to provide fully integrated Web Access.

e-Academy enables players to view their own records, match history and assessments On Line as well as communicate directly with Coaches using the inbuilt messaging system.

e-Academy also allows Parents and Guardians of players to view assessments, forthcoming matches and also communicate with Coaches and other Academy Staff.

Web access is provided for Coaches so that they can update player details, enter planned fixtures and select teams to play from their age group squads, enter match starting line-up, substitutions and discipline as well as recording overall match assessments.

Coaches can also complete termly assessments of young players On Line using the criteria for each position.

Scouts can enter personal and contact details of possible prospects and conduct full scouting assessments On Line – entering Skills Assessments and details of both teams in the match.

Academy Administrators can be given access to enter player details, fixtures, match assessments, scouting and player assessments.

The need to share information and develop collaborative ways of working applies to those whose job it is to develop young Football Players as much as in any other organisation. Increasingly, this shows itself in the need to provideaccess for Football Scouts, Coaches, Physios and Medical Staff to access and update information on the players and prospective players. SDMS e-Academy provides just this.

Information about young players in the commercial Football market is highly valued and access to it controlled by high level security. The fact that e-Academy can be run from the Clubs own servers, as well as the inbuilt security features, helps to secure this.

Designed to deal with specific tasks, e-Academy Web Tools are a simple, low cost and effective way to enable Web Access for Scouts and Coaches allowing them to log in to the Clubs secure website from anywhere at any time. Academy administrators can access and update the player and match information via their browsers rather than the SDMS Windows application enabling an unlimited number of users without extra licensing costs.

There are several separate tools in the suite, each dealing with a specific task. Access is restricted to users configured by the administrator. Each user can be granted or denied access to the individual tools and specific player records meaning that coaches only see their teams or a guardian will only see their player.

For Club players: the My Player Details Web Tool allows details on players to be recorded including Schools, Next of Kin, Registration, Qualifications, Competencies, Equipment and Financial Information. The My Player Assessments Web Tool is for recording periodic assessments for players using graded responses for the criteria associated with each type of assessment. The My Fixtures and My Squad Team Web Tools allow recording of matches and match reports and to set-up the squad and team for those matches and then record assessment and discipline for each player on the team.

For Scouting: The My Prospects Web Tool allows recording of prospective players and their next of kin. The My Scouted Matches Web Tool is used to record details of matches and detailed match reports. The My Scouting Assessments Web Tool allows the users to record assessment details for prospective players.

SDMS Ltd has launched a major marketing campaign to invite a wide range of Football organisations to consider the benefits of its highly functional Academy Management System - these include County Football Associations, National bodies in the UK and overseas, as well as Clubs in the English speaking world and beyond.

Customer Testimonials:

Colin McLaren – Rochdale FC Training and Development Officer

“After hearing about SDMS, the Club wanted a simple to use yet comprehensive system which would provide them with a system which was more than a simple spreadsheet. One of the main features we find that helps greatly is that we recently started to set up all our standard letters for young players and a lot of time was saved just by this. The great benefit is time saving – jobs which used to take 2 days before we used SDMS, now take a couple of hours. And of course, once the information is entered it can be used many times for different jobs – we use the excellent mail merge facilities of the software for all player-related letters. We now plan to look at using more of these features to produce standard letters for our Scouting Staff.”

John Murray, Heart of Midlothian Football Club’s Academy Director, said about the decision to purchase SDMS Academy and Youth Development for Windows:

“Being a well established Scottish Premier League team at Hearts, we have an excellent tradition of running a professional Academy producing players that have gone on to represent their Country and also play for other leading teams across the UK. Basic player records on young players have been held in Excel worksheets, but with the extension of our work we have been looking for a more comprehensive but nevertheless affordable way of doing this. We had heard of SDMS through their work with some of the Clubs in England and so decided to look in detail at what SDMS Academy could offer. The quality of the information provided and the ease of looking at the software with a member of the SDMS staff on line helped us to our decision. A brief on line project meeting has helped us to move forward rapidly in implementing the new software and with the Data Take On from Excel being done by SDMS, we expect to be using the system for live by the end of October.”

SDMS Ltd:

SDMS LTD is a Software Supplier specialising in Staff Development, Personnel and Learning Management Systems of some 20 Years standing. It has a prestigious customer list, mainly in the Local Government Public Sector and related businesses in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

For over 10 years, SDMS Ltd has also been providing systems for Football Clubs to help manage Club Players, Matches and Fixtures, Prospective Players and Club Staff. SDMS V Football Academy & Youth Development for Windows is a feature-rich windows application designed to deal with the many tasks required in the Club for the management of the Academy and Professional Teams.

For Further Information and Presentations:

SDMS Ltd is offering a full range of On Line Introductions, On Site Presentations and Information Packs to assist Clubs and Footballing organisations to review the value of SDMS V Academy and e-Academy. For further Information call 01952 - 200911 or email sales@sdmsltd.com.

SDMS V Academy and Youth Development for Windows

SDMS V e-Academy for Football Clubs

SDMS Ltd Joins Sage Developer Programme

As a result of providing Workgroup Editions of its renowned Staff Development and Learning Management System to smaller businesses in response to their need to integrate SDMS products with Sage products; SDMS Ltd has recently joined the Sage Developer Programme. The demand was doublely reinforced by Hospice users of its Personnel and Rostering software.

This Sage Developer Programme allows SDMS to develop integration options for its customers who use Sage and also to provide developer services and add-ons to them.

Sage

Sage (UK) Limited is a subsidiary of The Sage Group Plc, a leading supplier of business software and services to 5.7 million customers worldwide. Its well known range of business software and services includes software to manage business finances, payroll, manage customer and supplier relationships, and support to the HR function. In the UK, it provides software and services to over 760,000 small and medium-sized businesses.

SDMS Ltd Sage Dealership Plans:

Our plans include the development of a range of integration modules and add-ons to support the use of Sage products by SDMS Customers. This will include SAGE Payroll, SAGE Line 50 and ACT.

We have already released and integration module for SDMS V HRPersonnel with SAGE Payroll and SAGE 50 HR Easy Link for SDMS Staff Development Workgroup Edition. Our next offering will be to provide integration between SAGE Payroll and SDMS Ltd’s latest and perhaps most innovative product for Hospices and Care Homes – SDMS Rostering and Staff Scheduling.

Focused firmly towards the smaller business by joining the Sage Developer Programme we hope to make sure that SDMS Customers make the best use of their purchased products by high quality developer support and enhancement services.

David Stevens, Managing Director, SDMS Ltd said, “We have found that in the new market sectors we are beginning to work in prospective users of SDMS products asked us to provide integration with Sage products – the logical result of which was to become a Sage Developer!”

SDMS Ltd Partners with HumanConcepts

OrgPlus providers of Visualisation of Training and Staffing Data to SDMS V Staff Development and HRPersonnel Solutions

The Following Press Release has been issued by HumanConcepts:

Leading Staff Development and Personnel Solution provider, SDMS Ltd, today announced a strategic partnership with HumanConcepts, the developer of OrgPlus®. SDMS Ltd is one of the foremost developers of Staff Development and Learning Management Systems with a strong presence in the Local Government and Education Sectors. OrgPlus, a workforce modelling and intelligence solution, is now integrated with both SDMS Ltd’s Personnel Software and its widely used Staff Development Management System.

The partnership extends the value of SDMS Ltd’s Staff Development and Personnel solutions by providing users with easy and secure access to graphical views of employee information, organisational structures and directories through a web browser. OrgPlus offers Managers and Team Leaders a real-time workforce dashboard with the information needed to plan workforce changes. By presenting complex organisational information in a visual form, the solution enables information sharing and collaborating.

The added OrgPlus™ capability will assist Training and Personnel Managers in planning and executing workforce management tasks such as succession planning, skills development, budgeting for training and staffing, development of qualifications profiles and communicating a Corporate Employee Directory.

“We are excited to offer HumanConcepts’ advanced workforce modelling solution to SDMS Customers”, commented Scott Jenkins, UK Director, HumanConcepts. “With OrgPlus™, users can transform conventional organisational charts into a powerful business system to make informed decisions and take action.”

David Stevens, Managing Director, SDMS Ltd said, “Our Staff Development and Personnel Administration Systems are for all levels of the market from organisations with less than 50 Staff to organisations with 5,000. They all need data presented in an easily digestible and shareable form − standardised organisational charts provide the ideal format. Our approach is to offer them OrgPlus and a starter set of prewritten charts and data views. The ability to go beyond charting with the many features of OrgPlus gives our Customers the tools they need to successfully manage workforce change.”

About HumanConcepts

HumanConcepts is the leading provider of workforce decision support software. With its OrgPlus technology charting over fifteen million employees for organisations worldwide, including 400 of the Fortune 500, HumanConcepts has defined best practices in workforce modelling and intelligence. OrgPlus empowers its users to proactively manage change, from departmental reorganisations to large scale mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

OrgPlus integrates with leading HCM and HR systems to automatically create, update and distribute organisational charts for team collaboration, workforce planning and critical decision-making. In addition, OrgPlus seamlessly integrates with industry-leading applications such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat. HumanConcepts is based in Sausalito, California with offices in the United Kingdom and Germany and offers OrgPlus software and services worldwide. For more information please visit www.humanconcepts.co.uk.

Useful Links:

HumanConcepts - Website
SDMS V Charting: OrgPlus Professional
SDMS V HRPersonnel for Windows Page
SDMS V Staff Development for Windows

SDMS LTD ROSTERING SOFTWARE IS NOW RELEASED!

SDMS Addresses the Need to Ensure the Right Staff are in the Right Place with the Release of: Staff Scheduling and Rostering Module for SDMS V HRPersonnel for Windows

On the announcing the release of HRPRostering David Stevens, founder and Managing Director of SDMS Ltd, said: “I believe this new Software significantly extends the attractiveness of our product portfolio in general and our Personnel Administration Software in particular. Increasingly in conversations with prospective Customers they are asking us how SDMS Products can assist them in better Cost Management”.

Hospice Project

Committed to providing specialist editions of its products SDMS Ltd has worked with a group of four Midlands Hospices over a two year period to enhance its Personnel product to meet the specific requirements of such Organisations at a price they can afford.

The Need for Rostering in the Care Sector

Making sure that we have the right Staff in the right place at the right time is of course one of the main jobs for all Team Supervisors and Managers as well as departmental or Corporate HR.

But in many situations the demands of the business go way beyond this generalisation. Whether you have the correct number of Staff with the specific qualifications and experience doing a specific job can effect the very survival of the business – current legislative and inspection regimes for many businesses demand that this can be evidenced.

Staff Scheduling and Rostering for SDMS V HRPersonnel: Care Edition has been developed in close partnership with a group of four Midlands Hospices. Their exacting demands for a product which can assist the day by day Rostering job of Nursing Staff, Kitchen Supervisors and Organisers of Volunteers as well as the needs of Hospice CEOs for best solutions in Staffing has been now delivered in a module of HRPersonnel.

SDMS V HRPRostering Software Provides:

Easy to use Worksheet Style Rostering screen; it allows Team Leaders to prepare Weekly or Monthly Staff Rosters
Multiple Drafts and Final Roster with Actualisation and Day to Day Adjustment
Use with HRPersonnel or separately with Excel™ Staff Roster Data Export to External Systems
Auto Load of Key Information about Staff, their Jobs and Contractual arrangements, Holidays and Work Patterns to produce Draft Roster or Schedule
User Definable Roster Set Up for Multiple Rosters - Staff Requirements and Shifts with Staffing Ratios Needed
Team Matching – Match People against Roster Requirement
Print Facility to Excel™ Format for Display or Distribution
Actual Roster with Attendance and Timesheets

With its easy to use worksheet style Rostering screen it allows Team Leaders to prepare Weekly or Monthly Staff Rosters just by entering the Work Type Code with immediate visual feedback through Colour Coding, Cell Letter Codes, Tool Tips and Detail Drill Downs. Utilising Roster Templates and Copy Facilities from previous months HRRostering can be used completely independently of HRPersonnel massively reducing the time and cost of preparing Rosters. Furthermore, given its full integration with HRPersonnel its allows data, such as Staff Details, Work Patterns, Absence, Holidays etc. to be loaded into draft templates for minor modification and preparation of the finalised Roster. And, in setting the Roster the various Work Types or Absence entered in the Roster can be actualised and copied into the Personnel Data files for individual members of Staff. When taken with the ability to make on the hoof adjustments to the Roster to account for Staff no shows the System closes many of the gaps between planned Staffing and what actual happens.

Customer Views:

The following are just a small selection of User Testimonials and References by those involved in the development of our Hospice Personnel System.

Alan Terrill, IT Manager, Severn Hospice:

“I have been involved with the implementation of SDMS from its beginning with Severn Hospice. We were the last to join the SDMS Hospice Development Project, but as the existence of this software prompted us to take on a full time HR Advisor, we have been able to make use of it from the very start of our Personnel department. This was helped by a clear vision of what was required by our Chief Exec, Paul Cronin. Although there is much we still do not use, I am impressed by the many facilities available, and it is good to know these other parts are already there for when we need them.

Much of the newly released Rostering Module has been based on meetings with key Nursing Staff at Severn and we look forward to its gradual implementation.”

Ms Gaynor Taylor, HR Manager, Severn Hospice:

“Notwithstanding the inevitable teething problems that are associated with learning to use any new Personnel System SDMS V HRPersonnel is now an integral part of our Personnel Administration function”.

Breda Moloney, IT Manager, ST Giles Hospice:

“When we first become involved with the SDMS initiative we had a list of requirements we felt must be met including the ability of Team Leaders and Line Managers to access and update the records of their own Staff in order to reduce the burden on central functions and to share ownership for the correctness of Personnel information. We are a long way down the road to achieving this.”

Ron Middleton, CEO, Compton Hospice:

“We have found that the implementation of SDMS Personnel Software has provided a useful checklist for developing and improving our already substantial Personnel function. We are now looking forward to extending the number of Staff accessing it for day to day work and for implementing the Rostering Module with our Kitchen and Stewarding Rosta plus in due course our Nursing Duties and Volunteer Reception Duties.

Peter Edwards, IT Supervisor, Compton Hospice:

“It looks easy to use, I hate to say!”

Useful Links:

SDMS V HRPersonnel for Windows: Hospice Edition
SDMS V HRPRostering for Windows

Hospice Case Study

SDMS LTD LATEST RELEASE PROVIDES SOFTWARE TOOLS TO HELP SOCIAL SERVICES DEPARTMENTS ADDRESS NATIONAL WORKFORCE AND TRAINING ISSUES

SDMS V STAFF DEVELOPMENT FOR WINDOWS: SOCIAL SERVICES VERSION 5.07 IS AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH, WELSH AND SCOTTISH EDITIONS

SDMS Ltd is one of the Country's leading Suppliers of dedicated and specialist Training Administration Systems in the UK. Since the early 1990s it has provided a Special Edition for Social Services in England, Scotland and Wales taking into account not only the demanding requirements of Social Services but how these differ between each Country.

From the very first release of SDMS V Staff Development the Software has not only addressed the Central Training Administration Needs of users but also addressed the related Workforce Management Issues - such as the production of Staffing Return SD0001and other Work Force Data issues such as those defined by LGMB Workforce Analysis requirements in the early 1990s. Social Services have perhaps led the way in reinstating Qualifications and Competencies at the heart of training rather than softer approaches. This of course stems from the long term crisis of Social Services Staffing - not enough appropriately qualified Staff being recruited or retained - compared to the demand for Social Care given the UK's demographics.

With the latest release, these features have been completely revised, extended and updated, not only to meet the increasing needs of Workforce Planning within Social Services and its link to Training, but also to address the need for Training and Workforce Managers to gather and produce the data required for the National Minimum Data Set of Skills for Care.

The latest release of the Social Services Edition of SDMS V Staff Development for Windows System for day to day management of Staff will enable departments to gather NMDS data in the course of Managing Training and Staff and therefore will contribute to making sure that the tools provided by Skills for Care - Paper Questionnaires, Excel™ Workbooks and now a Web Application - are used to best effect. This new release will assist users to extract the data required for the NMDS from their local data and is an important tool for doing this. National Minimum Data Set for Social Care will give us a complete picture of the Social Care Workforce. This vital information will help to plan for future Training, Qualifications, Funding and Policies to develop the Social Care Workforce.

Synopsis:

SDMS V Staff Development for Windows: Social Services 507 has been the result of several years development - responding to and working with the requests and perhaps demands of key Social Services Clients. It includes:

Significant Additional Data Items and Features on Employees and Staff, Major Extension of the Posts and Jobs Management of the Software Additional Reporting Based on the Extended Data Items of Employees and Jobs A Fully Revised User Definable Workforce Module to Address - amongst other things - the National Minimum Data Set Extension of the Scope of the System to Hold Data for Partner Organisations and not just the Department and its own Staff Substantially Expanded to Include Several Additional Features for the Management and Analysis of Staff Training and Qualifications - Including Qualifications Framework.

Many General Improvements and Enhancements.

And of course the new release is available in specific Editions for England, Scotland and Wales with appropriate differences reflecting the Management of Training and Workforce Planning in each Country. Qualifications Framework:

The Types of Qualifications required by Staff in certain roles can be identified, with the differentiation between Required, Recommended, Vocationally Recognised, Professional, Social Work and Management Qualifications. Skill Gaps and proposed Training Activities leading to those Qualifications are automatically listed.

Equivalent Qualifications can be grouped into blocks and Staff can be analysed against Qualification Gained or equivalent.

Staff Qualifications can be analysed by new Achievement Status, to differentiate between To be Achieved Qualifications (from Post Requirements), Achieved (from Training, NVQ Enrolment or otherwise) or In Progress.

Workforce Analysis Tools:

As part of the new module, several Work Force Analysis Tools are provided, ranging from: HR Analysis on Staffing Levels, Turnovers and Forthcoming Retirements aiding in Succession Planning and identifying potential Skill Gaps and Training Requirements for New Starters. All analysis can be down by several indicators like Type of Staff, Location, Equal Opportunities Data. Volume of Training Analysis - checking how many Staff Have Been Trained, Will Be Training or Needs Training is easier with this matrix, allowing Analysis by Location, Job Role, Equal Opportunities or Training Area. Qualifications and Competencies Framework and Achievements - how many Staff Have Gained, Need to Gain or Will Gain a Qualification depending on Certificate Type or Job Roles. The analyses are done in matrix style - with one indicator compared against the other - e.g. Staff Level by Ethnicity and Gender, or on individual breakdowns. All statistical data is presented on screen with drill-down facilities to check where the counts are coming from, or an option to print to Excel spreadsheets. All analysis can be Period Based, or Monthly Breakdowns. Previous counts can be saved and archived to Excel? to allow year on year comparisons. Where statistical data is not available to be scanned from SDMS Data, it can be entered from the known figures and saved for future reference. Data can be analysed for the whole Organisation, Specific Groups, or Clusters of Groups. Preferred analysis set-ups for each Work Force Analysis Tool can be saved by each user for future runs.

National Minimum Data Set (NMDS)-SC Returns:

Additions to Employee and Group screens have ensured that all the data required for the NMDS-SC Organisations and Individual Questionnaire can be held in SDMS System, with user definable output to spreadsheet. In addition to Group Type, Groups can now be analysed in terms of Sector, Client Area, Client Type and the snapshot of data can be saved to Excel™ for future years and trends analysed with previous years. Codes required by NDMS-SC Return are supplied with the System. Additional user definable data can be held against Groups and Employees by using new extended Profiles allowing unlimited number of "profile" items to held, with multiple "answers" and comments against each profile.

Assembling the Data:

In general the data required by the NMDS is not held in a single place - some will be in SDMS, some in Corporate Payroll, some on spreadsheets and some will need to be gathered directly from Staff themselves. To help Departments assemble this data we will be providing a range of Integration Services to migrate this data to SDMS as a "data portal" for the NMDS.

On Line Briefings:

If you would like to book an On Line Briefing to explore the new features of the Upgrade contact SDMS Business Support on 01952 200911 or by email: admin@sdmsltd.com

Presentations and Further Information:

SDMS Ltd is offering a full range of On Line introductions, On-Site Presentations and Information Packs. For further information call 01952-200911 or email sales@sdmsltd.com.

Social Services Webinar: Training Management and NMDS in Social Services:

Thursday 19th November 2008 - 10.30am to 12.00noon.

On Line using Citrix Gotomeeting: http://www.gotomeeting.com

To Book your place, call Sales and Business Development on 01952 200911 or send an email to sales@sdmsltd.com - places limited!

SDMS LTD ENHANCES ITS SOFTWARE FOR LEAS WITH THE RELEASE OF SDMS V ADVISER OUTLOOK INTEGRATION SYSTEM FOR MICROSOFT OUTLOOK™

For LEAs in 2007 some of the problems remain the same as stated by the Audit Commission National Report "Held in Trust - the LEA of the Future" in 1990!

"LEAs will want to assure themselves that LEA support and intervention is effective. This will require the development of quality assurance systems, including surveys of school views, monitoring how staff spend their time and assessments of the effectiveness of LEA intervention". (Report, Page 66).

The need to systematically record the time spent by Advisers and other LEA Staff in support or providing services to Schools combined with the ability to assemble this data into corporate views and report on it is hard to find. For understandable reasons one might add - cost, time, changing priorities - are just some.

But perhaps the main one is the difficulty of finding cost effective solutions which bring together what Advisers want when it comes to recording how they spend their time supporting Schools and what central Education Department administrators and those with the need for strategic analysis of this activity require

With the release of SDMS V Integration and Synchronisation System for MS Outlook™ offered as part of Adviser and School System for Windows we believe that we now offer such a solution.

Our research shows clearly that for a very large number of LEAs the difficulty is how they gather the information and then generate a "corporate profile" of services provided. Often Advisers will complete School Visit Report Forms which may need to be rekeyed into a Software Package to create this profile. Where MS Outlook™ is used to record appointments (as part of a corporate standard perhaps) this may be an individual tool with dates and times of meetings not drawn into a corporate profile of all Adviser appointments. Where the Technology may exist it is not always used. Often the detailed appointment information entered into standard MS Outlook™ is much less than is required either to plan the work of the Advisory Staff or to create a valuable profile of support provided to Schools.

SDMS V Adviser and School Support for Windows combined with SDMS V Integration System for MS Outlook™ helps to resolve some of these issues cost effectively.

With SDMS V Integration System for MS Outlook™, SDMS Ltd now delivers an easier to use integration system between its Windows Adviser system and MS Outlook™. It consists of:

The SDMS V Outlook Client, provides a special diary entry screen for Advisers and other Officers to enter details of School visits.
The SDMS V Synchronisation Component which ensures that key data such as Schools, Advisers and School Staff is imported and updated in MS Outlook™ and that entries made in the SDMS V Outlook Client are synchronised (so they are kept in step with each other) with the SDMS V Adviser and School Support for Windows - thus giving a "corporate adviser school visit record".

When combined with SDMS V Adviser and School Support for Windows software this offers a solution which we believe many LEAs will find hard to resist.

SDMS V Adviser and School Support for Windows provides:

A system for the administration of Advisory and School Support Services
A System to Plan, schedule and monitor Adviser visits, support and consultancy
Easy to use Adviser diary and Schools visit work record
Team diary view with date clash checking
School information directory, governor record, and record of visits with full details and notes
Service level contracts management with revenues and costs
Requests for service and School requirements
Schools assessment record and status history
Reporting on support provided to schools by category and type of work, Adviser, days, phase, and School type
Supports the quality assurance role of LEAs
Simplified administration with wise owls, quick administrators, checklists and business rules
Management of non LEA Customer contracts and support provided to them
High Quality information to Schools and external bodies
Integrates with Word, Excel, Mappoint and QuickAddress
Comprehensive and customisable standard reporting providing high quality information
Optional SDMS Report Writer: Crystal Reports
Advisory diary and Schools
Records on line access with thin client
Citrix Metaframe or Terminal Services
Available with SDMS V Staff Development for Windows, SDMS V e-Training for Web and Intranet Access and SDMS V e-Adviser for Web and Intranet Access

With records of School visits entered via MS Outlook™ and synchronised with it, this provides a corporate view of time spent by Advisers and other School Support Officers providing services to Schools. It ensures that a clear picture of what services are provided to which Schools or types of Schools by which Advisers, and how much support is provided is readily available.

SDMS Web Systems

Both products may be combined with SDMS V e-Adviser for Web and Intranet Access.

Further Information and On line Presentations:

SDMS Ltd offers a range of face to face and on line presentations of its products. If you would like to arrange a presentation or would like further information about the company or this product, please contact us.

E-ADVISER HELPS DELIVER AND MONITOR LEA SUPPORT TO SCHOOLS

SDMS Ltd is absolutely sure that Chief Education Officers and Directors of Children’s Services are not planning the abolition of LEAs with the publication of Education and Inspections 2006 Bill. Whatever the final formulas arrived at as the Bill progresses through Parliament it is clear that the vast majority of schools in the vast majority of LEAs will still wish their local LEA to provide a wide range of support, consultancy and training services.

SDMS V e-Adviser for Web and Intranet Access provides LEAs with a browser based method of recording adviser and officer support to schools - including details and reports of on-site visits. It is fully integrated with SDMS V Adviser and School Support for Windows as its “back office system” and with SDMS V e-Adviser provides an extensive adviser diary and school visit recording system with Web and Intranet Access. Fully integrated, this system significantly extends the capacity of LEAs to support schools by a simple easy to use web-based system recording school visits and adviser diaries. Massively reducing time-consuming paperwork the simple process of recording appointment and school visits leads to a comprehensive profile of support provided to schools by the LEA - by all types of staff, subject or business area, service type, date and by school and phase.

With its browser access SDMS V Adviser and School Support for Windows is an easy to implement system overcoming the limitations and costs of paper systems, disparate, non integrated local or in some cases individual adviser databases.

SDMS V e-Adviser and Adviser for Windows are fully integrated with SDMS V Staff Development for Windows and SDMS V e-Training for Web and Intranet based training administration and learning.

SDMS LTD RELEASES A NEW VERSION OF: ADVISER AND SCHOOL SUPPORT SOFTWARE AND ANNOUNCES PLANS OF LARGE INVESTMENT PROGRAMME IN NEW FEATURES

In 1990 the Audit Commission National Report “Held in Trust – the LEA of the Future” the authors wrote:

“LEAs will want to assure themselves that LEA support and intervention is effective. This will require the development of quality assurance systems, including surveys of school views, monitoring how staff spend their time and assessments of the effectiveness of LEA intervention”. (Report, Page 66).

In a recent telephone market research survey of some 100 local education authorities in England and Wales in May of this year around 50% of all those surveyed, did not have a software system in place which could allow advisers, officers and others to share information on key school data and the time spent by advisers and others to support schools or to monitor implementation of the educational development plan. While they, of course do have systems these are often paper systems or adhoc uses of spreadsheets and small-scale databases with the obvious and well-known drawbacks.

In response to this SDMS LTD has recently launched a new version of its adviser management and school support software and has decided to invest significant sums of development funding in a planned development of this product over the next 12 months.

This makes the release of SDMS V Adviser and School Support for Windows even more relevant in 2004 and this is confirmed by the number of LEAs expressing interest in what we have to offer now and the planned new features.

SDMS LTD as a software supplier of some 14 years standing with several LEAs using its software in England and Wales is well placed to provide today’s LEAs with software solutions for management information.

SDMS LTD is particularly well known for software designed, tailored and editionalised to meet the highly demanding requirements of particular sectors such as LEAs, and this is demonstrated by the recent successful implementations of its premier SDMS e Training for web or intranet with 4 LEAs using it to manage all day to day operations of training offered to schools.

With the new release of SDMS V Adviser and School Support LEAs are able to address the issues set out by the Audit commission in its 1990 report in a single integrated database overcoming the limitations and costs of paper systems, disparate, non integrated local or in some cases individual adviser databases. The software provides:

Adviser Time
Tracking, Recording and Diary management
Day to day Contact Management with schools
School Visits Record
Integrated Costs,
Revenues and budget management
School Assessment
Module and School Status History
School Training
Consultancy and Support Requirements
Contracts Module and Service level agreements
Schools Information Database
Record of School
Action Plans
School Staff Database
Governor Record
Optional EDP
Planner and Evaluation Module.

Extensive standard reports and workflow processing can be extended by the use of optional report writers such as Crystal Reports.

Future Developments:

The development programme for the product includes a range of options to allow the software to be embedded into the working practices of education department staff in its great range and variety. SDMS V e Adviser will allow browser based adviser diary management and on line booking of adviser time by schools as well as allowing the school reports to be completed via the web. Where the preferred way of working is for advisers and officers is for a personal laptop computer then SDMS V Adviser Laptop will allow school and adviser diary data to be docked out, modified and updated away from base and docked into the server application on return to base.

Equally important to the development plan is the further development of the already quite extensive school database to include school performance results, and other school data.

With the Government’s emerging Adult Common Basic Data Set (ACBDS) collection strategy placing responsibility on LEAs for collection we plan to extend the functionality of school and staff records to deliver this.

We are sure much else will result from the extensive consultation with LEAs - the company plans to run alongside its active development of these new features! Press Briefings and Further Information:
SDMS LTD is offering full press briefing meetings to selected media personnel. If you would like to attend a briefing or would like further information about the company or this product, please contact us.