SMSS Release Newsletter - April 2015

Hi all and welcome to the Artena 09.09.00 release newsletter,

Included in this newsletter are:

  • An update from SMSS
  • Summary of new functionality
  • Summary of enhancements to existing functionality
  • Summary of known issues
  • Maintenance

The SMSS team would like to thank those of you who attended the recent onsite user testing at our offices. We always enjoy the opportunity to host you here in Wellington. Your input into the user testing is valuable and ensures a smoother release to site.


When visiting Wellington you are very welcome to drop in and say hello, there is always a spare desk for you to use to catch up on those emails and phone messages. If there is someone in particular you would like to catch up with let us know in advance so we can ensure they will be available.


There have been some major changes at SMSS since the last newsletter. As of the 1st of March 2015 SMSS Ltd has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Adapt IT Australasia Ltd. From a client’s perspective you will notice no change to the way SMSS operates, we will continue to produce the highest quality product possible and we will always be a collaborative organisation with your input encouraged and valued. If you have any questions about this change please feel free to contact Cheryl to discuss either by phone or email.


We are delighted to welcome two new clients to the Artena community, AMS Group based in Hamilton and English Teaching College based in Palmerston North. They are looking forward to participating in the forums in May and taking the opportunity to meet with clients from other sites. This will also be a brilliant opportunity for you all to meet the new clients and for them to gather some useful hints and tips from the experienced Artena users.


As most of you are aware we have had some staffing changes over the last few months. Sadly Samantha Stanley is no longer with us. She has accepted a position in Palmerston North to allow her to be closer to her young family. We are pleased to welcome on board her replacement Hendrik van der Watt as the new Technical Business Analyst, Hendrik starts with us on May 11. Hendrik has been working within the education sector for a number of years and brings a wealth of experience to the team.


We also welcome Bette Cosgrove to the team as the Office Co-ordinator replacing Vanessa who left in January. Bette works Tuesday through Thursday each week between 8.30 and 1.30 so many of you will hear her cheery voice when you call the office. Bette is a former Student Services Manager at the tertiary PTE Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School in Wellington. Her working life has been in education, media and performing arts administration.


We have been using our new helpdesk tracking system, Jira, for 6 months and while we are constantly fine tuning the system we have seen vast improvements to efficiency and visibility of how issues and enhancements are handled. Feedback from clients has generally been positive and we look forward to further improving the use of the system so clients are getting the most from it. If you would like to schedule a session to either be introduced to Jira, or to be refreshed on its use and functionality, please do not hesitate to contact helpdesk@smss.org.nz.


Upcoming Client Events

  • Artena User Forum                            21 and 22 May
  • Artena Owners Forum                      28 May
  • Artena 09.10.00 User Testing        14 and 15 September
  • Artena 09.10.00 RTS available      19 October

We are looking forward to hosting you at our Forums in May. There are full programmes for both forums. Copies of the Agenda are available here. If you have any queries or comments either about the above or something else please contact your Artena Owner or the SMSS helpdesk.


Summary of new functionality


Unicode fields added for display names

To provide better conformity with different language requirements the use of Unicode characters has been enabled in the display fields in Person, Prescribed and Offered Teaching and Academic records. This will allow macrons to be used for reporting and transcripts. Your report writer will need to update your reports to use the new Unicode fields.


Online Enquiries

This new functionality allows you to import enquiries via your web-based, site-defined forms into Artena where they can be screened before committing them to the database. This functionality is separate from the functionality provided by Student Portal (ArtenaSP) and compliments Online Enrolments.


Funding budget allocations

The funding source allocation functionality is being developed to assist decision making around the most appropriate funding source to use for a learner. To make use of the capability two steps must be taken before the start of enrolments for an academic year:

  1. Setup budget projections for the current year
  2. Assign weightings to funding sources


Client History

We recognise that occasionally there is a need to return to a student’s record after making amendments to another student. A “History” button has been added to the client search page, this will enable users to access the previous clients they have been working with. It will display the last ten students that have been navigated to, saving time and effort.


Previous name included in search function

When searching for a student in “Client” the search parameters have been extended to include the “previous name” field. This widens the search to find existing records and assist you in eliminating multiple entries for the same student.


SDR and Mandatory field colours and borders

To provide visibility of mandatory fields, and fields that are either directly included in the SDR or contribute to the SDR, the following changes have been made:


Mandatory Artena fields      red border

Directly in SDR                     green fill

SDR related                          yellow fill

Summary of enhancements to existing functionality

Changes to CREG file generation

Creating the Course Register by PT Programme(s) gives access to the new Amend Fees functionality allowing the ability to increase fees (eg as a %). This enables all courses to be included regardless that they have been offered, so when they are offered next they will be able to have a larger fee increase than they would have if the course was not reported for a number of years.


Online enrolments

There have been a number of enhancements to Online Enrolments including the ability to import attachments directly into Artena, uploading them to the Person Record on acceptance of the application.
Pre-population of the preferred name field has been eliminated to improve the chances of matching a person.

Please refer to the Online Help and Release Notes for a summary of the other changes to Online Enrolments, they are numerous.


Student photo and signature have moved to personal tab

The student photo and signature have been moved to the personal page in Client to allow quick and easy verification of a student.


Company name field added to the work address tab

The work address now captures a Company Name and Position for information purposes.


Edit mask improvements

To achieve better consistency throughout the system several changes have been made to how the edit masks are configured allowing faster and more intuitive input controls.


Hide inactive SCE templates

To reduce the long lists of templates and components that are displayed in the SCE Template and Component lists these have been modified to not retrieve inactive items. The ability to show inactive components and templates is available when searching.


Populate New SCE Template or Component Name with Search Criterion

When using the SCE the practice is to search for a template or component that may suit your needs before creating a new one, if no search result is returned a new template is required. Instead of having to retype the search criteria you have just entered, Artena has been updated to populate the template name with the search criteria details used in the original search.


Add additional search criteria to Output Job Monitor

Additional search criteria has been added to the Output Job monitor to allow further filtering of results as previously you were limited to the combo box selections with the potential to return thousands of results. To ease the load on both the user and servers a text box has been added which allows entry of more accurate search criteria. Results returned have been limited to 1000 results regardless of the search criteria.


Enforce selection of search criteria prior to execution in Output Job Monitor

Executing a search without criteria has the potential to attempt to retrieve thousands of items. This causes the request to timeout after having made the server work extremely hard for a few minutes. This is not user or server friendly and has been changed so that a minimum of one search criteria must be entered prior to the search being executed.


Summary of known issues


The known issues in Artena 09.09.00 are as follows:


SMSS-11727  The Commission History amount paid to date is not being carried forward to the next empty record.

Impact: Minor

Resolution this has been targeted for Artena 09.10.00


SMSS-11473  Discontinued Accommodation providers cannot be viewed in Client.

Impact: Minor

Resolution this has been targeted for Artena 09.10.00


Maintenance


Artena 09.09.00 requires WAP 05.00.00 – please refer to the Release Notes for further information.

A new version of the Security Administrator is required for this release and it is included in the release package.


There will also be new versions of ArtenaBI and ArtenaSP released for compatibility with Artena 09.09.00


Your Feedback

You are a vital part of the Artena development and we welcome your thoughts, suggestions, criticisms, and feedback.

SMSS : PO Box 5768, Lambton Quay, Wellington 6145. | rhian.nicholls@smss.org.nz |
Phone: 04 931 1470 | subscribe | unsubscribe