Hi all and welcome to the Artena 09.11.00 release newsletter,

Included in this newsletter are:

• An update from SMSS
• Summary of new functionality
• Summary of enhancements to existing functionality
• Maintenance
• Your feedback

It feels like only yesterday that the release 09.10.00 was available for you to test and implement, but actually it was over five months ago.

The SMSS team would like to thank those clients who attended the recent onsite user testing of the Release 9.11.00 at our offices. Your input into the user testing is valuable and ensures a smoother release to site. Feedback from clients regularly attending the onsite user testing, say the access to SMSS staff and being away from day-to-day business as usual distractions, makes it all worthwhile.

Please remember to drop in and say hello when visiting Wellington. There is always a spare desk for you to use, to catch up on those emails and phone messages - plus the staff are happy to make themselves available to answer any questions you might have, or clarify any uncertainties.

Don’t forget to use the training hours allocated to your institution if you are on our Silver or Gold Service Level Agreements. If you have used yours, or don’t have any, we are happy to discuss training options, either at our offices or onsite with you.

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome three new Auckland based clients to the Artena community: Auckland City Training School, Regent Training Centre Ltd and Techtorium NZIIT. They enjoyed the opportunity to attend the recent PTE forum we hosted in Auckland on 15 April. Some of them will also attend the forums in Wellington in May. This is also a brilliant opportunity for you to meet the new clients and for them to gather some useful hints and tips from the experienced Artena users.

Another change this year was that Adapt IT Australasia (our shareholding company) purchased Meta Office on the 5th January. As a client you will experience no change to the way SMSS operates, we will continue to deliver the highest quality product possible. We will always remain a collaborative organisation, where your input is encouraged and valued. If you have any questions about this addition to the company, please do not hesitate to contact Cheryl either by phone or email.

Frans van den Berg, the General Manager of Adapt IT Australasia, who many of you met last year, has moved to Wellington on a more permanent basis. He joins us from Adapt IT in Pretoria, South Africa, and will oversee the subsidiaries of Adapt IT Australasia Ltd here in New Zealand. He has a long background in the education sector and we are happy to welcome him to the Wellington office.

Some of you would have phoned the office and were greeted by Angela Buchholz, our new Office Co-ordinator, replacing Bette who left in December. Angela works Monday through Thursday mornings, so say hi when you call the office, another friendly face in the SMSS team.

And last but not least, Rik Walker will join us on the SMSS Help Desk, replacing Rhian who left us in March. Rik will be working alongside Lian supporting you on the Help Desk.

If you would like to have a refresher on JIRA and Confluence - our Help Desk tools - or have new staff that have not used these Help Desk tools, please do not hesitate to contact helpdesk@smss.org.nz to arrange a suitable time for online assistance or training.

Upcoming Client Events in 2016

Please mark your calendar

• Online Session: Online Enquiries/Online Enrolments
  10 May
• Artena User Forum
  16 and 17 May
• Artena Owners Forum
  27 May
• Online Session: Introduction to API’s
  14 June
• Online Session: Refresher for using Jira and Confluence
  12 July
• Online Session: SCE
  9 August
• Online Session: Update on the latest release - Artena 09.12.00
  6 September
• Artena 09.12.00 User Testing
  12 and 13 September
• Online Session: End of year/setup for 2017
  11 October
• Artena 09.12.00 RTS available
  17 October
• Online Session: Finance in Artena
  8 November

We are looking forward to hosting you at our Forums in May. Full programmes have been scheduled for both forums. If you have not seen an agenda, please speak to your Artena Owner, or contact the office for a copy. This year due to construction at the back of our building, we are hosting the forums at the National Library on the Corner of Molesworth and Aitken St.

We look forward to seeing you either at the upcoming forums or when you next visit the SMSS offices.

Masked Date Input Control

A ticket was raised to address the issue of date fields in Artena that use an edit mask to control character input. Masked Edit fields are used to enforce the format of the text that is being captured or edited. The behaviour was updated with two objectives: Firstly to improve consistency in data input between controls in Artena, and secondly to make controls as intuitive as possible to behave in a similar way to other data entry systems. We have updated some of the date fields in Artena to use the new Masked Date Input Control and will eventually replace them all. One feature of the new Masked Date Input Control is that it will validate the date as you type it. For example it will prevent an attempt to enter an invalid month such as 13, or entering 31 as the day number with the month entered as February (02).

Online Help

To make it easier for you to search we have added two pages with links to all the help documents available in one place. Your browser search will allow you to search the topic you may need more information on.

Client

We added delivery mode to study contract and components and also added the class selection to be used while adding study contract components. Experian address verification was added to the SCE Addressee and to the Emergency Address in the live form. The institution email field was also added to Person and the Staff roles drop down is only available for current staff. Activity was added to Organisation for workplace and practicum purposes.

Teaching Structures

In prescribed there are a few funding categories and classification changes according to SDR and in Offered the MOE code gets populated from Prescribed when changing it, should you choose to do so. Regarding SDR, small changes were made by updating the secondary school list, adding learning hours and teaching hours to the courses in prescribed teaching, and displaying the validation ID in the validation rule. The MPTT age validation and Youth Guarantee funding age validations were also updated.

Admissions

We added the ID card button to the dashboard for easy access, Online Enrolment may import the major and delivery mode , and when you delete a student or study contract, the online enrolment application is retained. A record gets created in Study Link VOS when the pro-forma invoices are converted.

Student Support

A support service entry can be made for multiple students at once in the Admissions dashboard and the blank tab on student support is changed to show where content in the other tabs was added, without giving the detail.

Finance

History is available when changes are made on enrolment fees and the Organisation name may be 255 characters long when printing debtor statements.

International

Insurance records can be deleted, but an audit record is kept.

Marketing

Task list and Feedback clear buttons resets the details, and Updating date selection criteria in the marketing dashboard is also possible.

System

Obsolete system parameters have been removed and the lookup table Main Subject is locked. The helpdesk URL was also changed where it is still the default URL. An Unfunded International Providers screen was added here as mentioned in the new functionality section above.

Standard Communication Engine

Venue and Interview venue reference the correct lookup tables and sending debtor statements in batch is also available. Long email addresses are also allowed.

General

Local service is decommissioned and replaced fully by SCE. Some reports have been updated and tooltips were added to the parameters to help with the values. Security Administrator provides greater control when deleting a role. Populating the email address field from active directory is also possible.

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