SMSS Release Newsletter - October 2015

Hi all, welcome to the Artena 09.10.00 release newsletter, the final edition for 2015!

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 who attended the User Forum and the Owner’s Forum in May. It was a pleasure to host this event for our clients again.


The team has worked hard to ensure the new release is up to our usual high standard. Our focus was on improving your experience with Artena. The release includes 47 JIRA tickets, 28 of these are enhancements. Some of the enhancements are in the Standard Communications Engine (SCE) which enables you to improve communications with your students. We also introduced the recently advised SDR changes and improved your search capability making it easier to identify the correct person, at the time of potential student enquiries.


Our helpdesk ticketing system, JIRA, has been running for almost a year and the feedback we receive from you is great. This really enabled us to give you an accurate view on the progress being made on enhancements, defects and other developments supporting our SLA with you too. We thank you for the success of this system, and hope to help you even more in the future


We would like to congratulate Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT), for successfully implementing the Online Enquiry module for Artena. Their Online Enquiry module has been live for more than two months. They are the first client to implement this. SMSS managed the project, setting a benchmark for future project management.


Online Enrolment module for Artena is having a great uptake, with more clients using it to enrol their students directly from their own websites into Artena.


We would also like to welcome our newest clients, AMS Group and English Teaching College, to the growing SMSS family.


Upcoming Client Events

Please mark in your calendar

  • Artena User Forum                            19 and 20 May 2016
  • Artena Owners Forum                        27 May 2016
  • PTE Forum                                         March 2016 (date TBC)
  • Artena 09.11.00 RTS available           29 April 2016

We are looking forward to hosting you at our forums next year. A draft programme will be available early in the New Year. If you have any suggestions for the agenda, please let us know so we can try and include them. Any queries or comments either about the above or anything else please contact us. We are always happy to help.

It has been an extremely busy year, and we’re sure you will all look forward to a well earned break over Christmas and New Year, just as we are. Thank you for your business and input during 2015. The Team at SMSS wish you, and your families, a happy festive season and may 2016 bring success and enjoyment for us all!



SDR changes, select dropdown for SDR periods plus deletion of multiple SDR runs

  • Funding code 30 has been added to the available list and the associated MOE validations changes introduced.
  • The MOE extract date has been changed to a dropdown selection, to eliminate data entry errors.
  • The deletion of multiple test SDR runs is available. Sites needing to delete trial runs should do this as part of their end of year tidy up.

Additional search criteria for Client and Enquirer

  • The search criteria have been extended on the Enquirer and Client screens, to allow more accurate search results.

Added more fields to Online Enrolment and enabled unit standard allocation

  • Additional fields, Work Name and Position can be included in the XML.
  • The student can also select unit standards on your web application to speed up processing of the study contract.

Update PT courses in a grid format

  • The process of updating and viewing the prescribed teaching courses can be completed from a grid in the Programme, Level or Stage.

Enhanced SCE functionality:

  • Send correspondence to a 3rd party
    Data can be sent for students, e.g. to a Bank, where the Bank is the recipient, however information is not held in the data of the students. This is called ‘Recipient Not in Data’ or RNID. The 3rd party’s details are not included in the context selected.

  • Added User Defined Replacement Fields (UDRF)
    The capture of user defined merge fields, where the user can specify any data for these fields at the time a letter or email is generated.

  • Added HTML output and formatting of email messages
    Emails can be sent in HTML rather than plain text.

  • Include sender’s signature, user display name and long date
    Every user can specify their name and email signature in the User Preference screen, which can be included in the email template.

  • Supports Unicode fields
    Special characters can be also included with merge fields in the SCE templates.

  • Additional document storage area added for Person
    Documents sent to a person that is not a student, will be stored in a separate folder; no longer in the student document storage folder.

Support Services alerts

  • Records default to the current Study Contract and provide History and Audit functionality
  • When creating a support services record (like a discipline record) an alert can be set. The Person record will indicate there is an alert, every time the record is accessed, click the alert symbol to read the attached notes. The current Study Contract defaults but may be changed when the record is created. History will be saved, of any changes made.

View assessment result notes and resit date for historical assessment results

  • If changes are made to the resit date or result note, a record of the changes is kept in the history file.

Added roles to the staff record

  • Staff can be assigned role(s) in line with their responsibilities for Artena functionality.

Additional parameters for LLN added

  • The addition of OTE short name in the selection of parameters makes it easier to distinguish between offerings with the same name.



Maintenance


Artena 09.10.00 requires WAP 06.00.00 – 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 are new versions of ArtenaSCE and ArtenaHelpDoc released with Artena 09.10.00.


There will also be new versions of ArtenaBI and ArtenaSP released for compatibility with Artena 09.10.00 in the near future.



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 |
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