Difference between revisions of "Quick Start Guide for System Administrators"

Latest revision as of 10:48, 23 August 2024

The system is an all-in-one contact management (CRM) and data logging system for charities and Third Sector organisations. It is internet based, and so is accessible from anywhere you can get an internet connection. It is designed around desktop/laptop use, but works well on tablets and even smartphones.

Ideally your whole organisation will use the system as much as possible. This means that the organisation gets maximum benefit from the software, a maximum amount of data is captured for logging and reporting, and a minimal amount of paper is used.

The system is not bespoke; rather, all our customers use the same basic system. This means that we can properly support everybody, and the system is very reasonably priced, unlike a fully bespoke system which usually requires a high upfront cost and then expensive development or extension work if required. Of course, the system is hugely configurable, and can be set up to meet the needs of your organisation in any number of ways.

So, you've decided to go for our system...what happens next?

First of all, congratulations and thank you!

You are probably already in touch with our staff team, but here's who you are likely to be dealing with and when.

• For the sale of your system, you've probably been dealing with our sales team.
• For ongoing support through the process, when you telephone us, you are likely to speak to one of our support team.
• For implementation and issues around getting up and running, this will be handled by our Implementation Manager.
• For Data Migration, you will probably deal with our data team.
• For your on-site sessions, you will be assigned an implementation consultant who will guide you through the whole process.

Timescales

There is no "correct" timescale for implementing the system, and it will depend on the size and scope of your organisation. For small organisations with one or two services, it is perfectly possible to complete all training in two or three days, and have the system live by the end of the training. For an organisation of significant size, we recommend at least six training days, but this is a minimum.

If your staff are going to carry on working as normal around the implementation, your training days should not be taken all at once, as there is a lot to take in on each day. Of course two days involving different groups of people can be taken together and this is often convenient.

Your assigned consultant will discuss your overall implementation timescale with you on the initial training/process mapping day, but we recommend it should take no longer than two or three months between initial process mapping and going live.

Implementing the system

You will need to fill in some Pre-Implementation Spreadsheets so that we can prepare your system for you. It is important that these are done early and thoroughly, as this will speed up implementation.

You may also need to have data migrated into your new system from an existing database, or more likely, a series of your own spreadsheets. For full details on this, please see the Data Migration Guide.

Choosing your in-house administrators

You will need some staff to be in-house administrators of the system. They will be able to control access rights, and configure the system the way you want it. These will be the people who are most involved in the training and implementation, and are also likely to maintain the system as time goes on. We suggest you should have at least three administrators. You might like to consider the following when choosing administrators.

Should you be on the administrator team yourself?

The vision of the system is that the whole organisation uses the system to maintain their contacts and record their work, so we recommend that chief executives use the system along with everybody else.

Some CEs like to be involved in the running of the system, whereas some take a more hands-off approach, but we advise that you should have administrator rights, and should take some training so that you know your way around the system. This will help you understand the ways that your staff are trained to use the system.

Reporting needs

To be able to create the reports that you need, the right information needs to be put in at the start of the implementation process. Therefore, it is very useful if a service manager from each service/project is on the administration team. They may not administer every part of the system - they may end up focusing on their own service/project - but it is vital that each service "has a voice" during implementation.

IT literacy

It's not essential that all members of the administration team are skilled with computers, but if someone in the organisation is particularly good with them, it will probably help if they are on the team.

How you can support your staff

The best support you can give to your staff is to make the time available for them to take training. This might mean -

• Helping them to arrange work so that they have a full day free for training
• Lending them a laptop so that they can have a look at the system at home
• Shutting the office for a day so that a large group of staff can receive training together

Another thing you can do is to let them know that they are not alone! The system always works best when the staff team work together, so help and support them whenever you can, and direct them to our helpline whenever they need it.

Finally, it will really help the whole process if there is clear direction "from the top" that everyone is to use the system, and timescales are clearly communicated. For this reason, we very strongly recommend that you email all staff after the first process mapping day, communicating the overall timescale for implementation. Your assigned trainer can discuss this with you on the first day.

We believe that using the system should always result in less paperwork for an organisation. Therefore, if everyone uses the system, volunteers included, this will mean the organisation will benefit. Indeed, the more people in an organisation "take on" the system, the greater the organisation's chance of success. It is best not to pitch the system as optional in any way. Rather, make it an organisation-wide change - "this is a new system which we are all going to move to". It sounds blunt, but having a definite decision like this will actually help staff get on board with the new system.

Training

Training will be carried out at your venue, or you are welcome to book an external venue if you feel it would make training more effective.

What do we need to provide to make training effective?

• The training environment should be free from distractions. Training in the office/at desks is possible, but is likely to be less productive than working in a training room, because staff can be distracted by work. A meeting room is ideal.
• Ideally, everyone attending should have the use of a computer, so that they can practice.
• Sometimes your assigned trainer will require the use of a projector. They will discuss this with you beforehand.
• It is vital that the training venue has reliable, and reasonably fast, internet access.
• You will also need to make some lunch arrangements for the training. This doesn't need to be anything fancy, it can simply be a close sandwich shop for staff to go out to - but the arrival of lunch and cakes at the venue can be a great motivator for staff at lunch time!

First training day

The first day will mainly be spent process mapping with your service managers, and showing your administrators around the system. The aim by the end of the first day will be -

• For your assigned trainer to have a good idea of how your whole organisation works. From this they can plan which parts of the system will need to be used and by which service.
• For your administrators to have a good idea of how the system works. They will not need to know every last detail, but they will have a broad overview.

Subsequent training days

Subsequent training days will be spent doing more targeted training within each service, with the service managers. This will involve setting up each service with the relevant parts of the system. For example, a befriending service will probably make use of the "Volunteers" functionality; a "Help at Home" project is likely to use the Support Worker module; an "Information & Advice" project may only use the core setup ... etc. The aim of each of these days will be to show the relevant staff around the parts of the system they need, and to make progress on setting up the live system. The aim will be that by the end of each day, the service manager and/or the adminstrators will be at least part way through the setup of their part of the system, and armed with all the relevant knowledge to complete it.

Going live

When you take the system live is entirely up to you, but the most important thing is that there needs to be a definite date when the whole organisation goes live. This will give all staff and administrators something to work towards. You might like to consider the following when setting a date to go live;

• Most organisations start their accounts and reporting on the 1st April. Therefore, some organisations choose to go live on a reporting quarter - i.e. April 1st, July 1st, October 1st or January 1st. This means there is a definite and immediate crossover from an older reporting system to your new system.
• It's best not to pick a date to go live when there are a lot of other things going on in the organisation, for example...
  • Summer holidays are a difficult time to go live, as staff tend to be away.
  • Christmas can also be difficult, for the same reason.

Having your assigned trainer present when going live

If at all possible, it is a great idea to have one of your training days dedicated to the day when you go live. This is because no matter how much training and practice staff do, there is no substitute for working with actual live data. The chances are that on the go-live day, everything will fall into place (even more so than it has by then) and staff will suddenly have a lot of further questions. Of course it is perfectly possible to just use the support line to answer these questions, but having your trainer on site is very beneficial if at all possible.

What about end user training?

You may have noticed that there isn't very much "traditional" training listed above, where everyone sits at a computer and is taken through exercises with a trainer. There will be some of this - for example, it may well be appropriate to run a session like this near to the go-live date, to refresh everyone's memory about the basics like recording contacts, client searches and the Action List - but generally we try and keep this to a minimum. Your training time is precious and we find it is best spent getting the administrators up to speed and making sure that the service managers have plenty of input on how the system goes together.

End users should always be aware that the support line is there to help them, and of course this manual will help them to get around the system and refresh their knowledge whenever they need to.

Security and GDPR issues

You will want to be assured that your data is safe; so we have taken steps to secure your data every step of the way.

To ensure your protection, we comply fully with the General Data Protection Act 2018; our system is accredited to IS0 27001:(current standard) Information Security Standard and is registered with the Information Commissioners Office.

We are also accredited to ISO9001:(current standard) International Quality Management Standard.

In addition, the system is fully web based, which means that no information is held on your local computers, servers and laptops. The data is held in a highly secure data centre in the UK operated by Rackspace, who are also accredited to IS0 27001:2015 Information Security Standard and are one of the most respected data centre operators in the world.

As the information is never stored on your premises you are also protected from losses through fire, flooding, burglary or equipment breakdown.

Each piece of information is accessed through rigorous security systems which make sure only the right people get to see each piece of information.

Every organisation has its own database on the server, so there is no danger of data getting mixed up. When a user logs in there are a range of controls over what they can see, what they can alter and what projects they are allowed to work on.

When accessing the system, you do so using SSL, the standard encryption process which protects data in transmission from the server to your computer.

In terms of the data protection issues around recording details of service users and contacts with them, you are probably already recording this data in many different forms, and the system simply provides a way to centralise this data. However, implementing the system often provides a natural time for an organisation to take stock of its data protection policies and to start taking formal consent from service users to store data, if it is not already doing so.

If your organisation has an umbrella body, they may have guidance on data protection which they can give you. For example, the PRTC has some excellent guidance for carer organisations.

If you have questions around data protection, please be aware that trying to address them in training days may not be the best use of training time. It is much more helpful if you can decide on your internal data protection policies and then discuss how to implement them on your system with your assigned trainer. Actually trying to assess and re-write data protection policies on a training day can take up a lot of time.

Escrow agreement and your own backup

The system has a "backup" menu item, located in the Administration Menu. This will allow you to download a complete copy of your data from the system. All data is securely backed up by the data centre, however we recommend completing your own backups in line with your internal policies. In the unlikely event of your system becoming unsupported, you will be able to obtain a copy of our source code. You can use the source code and the backup to restore your data and carry on working.

If you need to get figures and data out of your system for reporting purposes, you can do so using the Reports menu item. The backup file is a compressed SQL file. Some of our clients build a local database from this backup, and run their own queries, although this is not officially supported. The data is structured using relational tables that any database professional should be comfortable with.