Since our first newsletter in April the SMSS team have been concentrating on resolving the issues you raised at the recent Road Show. Over a three month period, starting with NorthTec in mid February and ending with a visit to Te Whare Wānanga o Awanui a Rangi on the 2nd of May, all client sites received a visit from the SMSS team and board representatives. The Roadshow team experienced a few bumpy starts with flights cancelled due to weather related problems, plus an unexpected bus trip through Arthurs Pass due to an engineering problem in Hokitika. We were really appreciative of the warm welcome we received and the open and honest participation in our meetings. The result being SMSS listened to the concerns you raised and through the subsequent releases have been able to resolve many of them. The release in September will address requests in the support and international modules.

A couple of the issues raised needed more discussion and further analysis as they are bigger projects of work. These projects have been discussed and prioritised with your Artena Business Owner and are currently being scoped. Two of the biggest are the fatal errors some of you experience and the lack of reporting capability in Artena. A significant amount of time over the last few months has being dedicated to trying to resolve these fatal errors and we are very appreciative of the support from EIT and SIT who have been working closely with us. As a result of this working group SMSS has been able to isolate a potental cause. This is currently being tested so watch this space for further developments.

The other project at the top of the list is reporting. A project plan is currently being scoped and we will have a brief ready to go out to the Artena Owners shortly. TPP and a couple of other clients have indicated they are happy to participate in this project.

Towards the end of last year we asked each client to appoint a senior representative to join the Artena Owners forum. SMSS introduced this forum to encourage wider participation in the growth and development of the Artena product. It is absolutely key that Artena is meeting your business needs and for this to happen we need to know what you want and for you to participate fully in any development. The first meeting of the forum was held on 19 April at the SMSS offices. Future changes to Artena will be signed off by this forum and prior to sign off the forum owners will discuss with their users the benefits and reasons for the change.

If you would like any clarification on the Artena Owners forum, would like to discuss our recent Road Show, or just want to chat you are very welcome to give me a call.

Cheryl Horo
Client Relationship Manager

The 18th Annual General Meeting of the Artena society took place at the offices of SMSS Ltd on Thursday 24 May 2012. Two members have been newly elected to the board, unopposed. They are:

• Patsy Eade, Southern Institute of Technology
• Blair Keily, Tai Poutini Polytechnic

They join

• Lawrence Arps of Whitiriea NZ who was elected to the Chair
• Kerry Marshall (Independent)
• Richard Handley of Western Institute of Technology Taranaki (Chief Executive Representative)
• Patrick Jones of Eastern Institute of Technology

The Board would also like to thank departing Board members Christa George, Waiariki Institute of Technology a long serving member whose skill and expertise will be missed and Alan Cadwallader who resigned during his term due to work commitments. SMSS look forward to the next 12 months as the Board work closely with the Management Team.

Release 9.04.00 was released to sites on 30 April after user testing through March and April. This was a huge release with 61 tickets. The new format, rolling out for user testing the month prior to the production release, was well received. Representatives from NorthTec, EIT, WITT, TWOR, Whitireia NZ, WelTec and SIT spent three days at the SMSS offices, testing 9.04.00. Very favourable comments were received from those attending. SMSS will continue to invite clients to the SMSS offices for user testing each new release of Artena.

Release 9.04.01 was released on 20 July 2012. This release is a special Road Show release specifically addressing those frustrating issues you have experienced. Take a moment to look at the latest release notes which include additional information. There is a copy on the On-line community download page.

A reminder that we are coming up to the August SDR submission period, beginning on 1st September 2012 and running through to 15th September 2012. Before you can submit your August SDR, remember you must first submit your organisations Workforce Questionnaire (Staff Return) on the STEO website. The Workforce Questionnaire is a snap-shot of employees at a Tertiary Organisation during the week of 31 July. You can find out more information about the submission of the Workforce Questionnaire (Staff Return) on the STEO website.

When you are ready to process your SDR files, please remember that you are able to process test SDR files on STEO before the SDR start date (1st of September). This will give you the opportunity to sort out any errors before the start of the SDR round and will help you submit your SDR on time. Also remember that if you have changes to courses or qualifications, submit these for approval by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) before you submit your SDR. Submit a change request if you intend making changes to credit, fee, level, or classification fields via the STEO website.

A common SDR error is the differences in NSI student data. To ensure that any NSI errors are cleared up or avoided, it is recommended that any outstanding Change Notification file(s) are processed in Artena and NSI records updated. All Change Notification files for your organisation can be downloaded from the NSI Website.

If you require any assistance regarding the SDR or NSI, please contact helpdesk@smss.org.nz.

Have you registered on the SMSS website? We encourage staff of all client sites to register and become part of the SMSS online community. We invite you to visit the site and take some time to become familiar with it: www.smss.org.nz

We were delighted with the response to our recent Code-Cracker competition. Many thanks to those of you who took the time to register on our online community and respond to the competition.

The goal of increasing the numbers of clients registering and visiting the On-line community was certainly successful.

Congratulations to the winners:

• Roanna Moore from SIT
• Val Dowman from WITT
• Allan Officer from Laidlaw
• Leigh Gravestock from Whitireia

The winners each received a lovely cake to share for morning tea with their teams.

Swetha Dasari is one of our essential behind-the-scenes development team members. Swetha is thorough and resourceful in her role

What do you do at SMSS? How long have you worked there?

I have been employed with SMSS for 20 months in the role of Analyst Programmer.

I’m working as a junior developer and I’ve been involved in developing the version releases. I took a lead in implementing ERS and Public Trust and I’m also involved in testing the releases.

What did you do before joining SMSS?

I completed my Master’s Degree in software engineering in the United States. For a year I contracted to three different companies. After that I went back to India and joined an IT company developing an Android application with Incube Solutions Ltd. I was married in India and came to New Zealand with my husband.

What do you like about working at SMSS?

I enjoy great support at SMSS. I receive support in all areas of my work here.

When you’re not at work, where will we find you?

When not at work you're most likely to find me in the kitchen. I love to cook and get a lot of pleasure from trying a variety of different dishes. I cook Italian, Chinese, Mexican, Malaysian and of course Indian. During weekends I cook all day and then invite our friends to come and join us to enjoy it.

I hate windy Wellington weather!

SMSS is on the search for the person who has been using Artena the longest.

We know Blair Keily has been at Tai Poutini for nine years. Who at your campus can beat that?

Results will be published in the next newsletter.

Please email details of the length of time you have spent using Artena to: lynne.currie@smss.org.nz.

Reports are generally accessed by clicking the printer icon button in Artena.

This will open the report directly, or take you to a folder with many reports in it. If it takes you to a folder, click the arrow icon beside the folder to see the reports listed in it.

1. The first report you run after you have logged in will take longer than usual. This is normal. Subsequent reports will run much faster. Often the report will give you "parameters" which are options of what data you want included in the report (e.g. address type or a date range). Generally you can just click "Run" and choose your parameters when you get to the report viewer. Clicking "Run" will take you to the report viewer where you can select the parameters.
   
2. When you have run the report use the print button to print the report.
3. To run the report again using a different parameter, you don't need to return to Artena, just change the parameter and click on "View Report". This will rerun the report using the new parameter.

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