Dear extremely hard working VET Gurus!
The last release for the year!
It is massively busy in the Gecko Silos as we get lots of new clients live and get ready for the break. Today sees the final release for the year as we ready for the AVETMISS 7 release of VETtrak. We have held back the 13.11.1 release until now to fit in a few last minute client requirements pre-Christmas.
Release management and testing:
- Please do a test enrolment on your site this morning and let us know if you see anything unusual
- Customisation needs to be tested as usual
- Own-server clients please discuss the release plan with Troy today or tomorrow.
News
- Enrol to Apply or Register: Heads up, some auditors are insisting on changing enrol to apply or register due to LLN and documentation requirements. We can now make this change easily for you.
- Mobile Add-on: Our enrolment app has been approved by iTunes which means that you can have YOUR mobile app with YOUR logo in the iTunes and Google platy store after Christmas.
- Multi course Add-on is now out, ask Sascha or Troy for a demo
- Enterprise Group Enrolment Add-on is out too – wow! Definitely worth a demo for clients with corporate or JSA clients
- Wait Listing work flow: Enables RTOs to work flow clients before creating enrolments, really useful for funded training.
- Enterprise RTO add-on: When training your own staff is a big part of what you do, be sure to see how we manage the process in an advanced version of VET Campus.
- Christmas Break: We break from the 20th December and are back on the 6th January – servers are monitored 24/7
- AVETMNISS 7 & VETtrak Release: Week commencing the 23rd January – dependent on when we receive the new API form OzSoft.
- Massive VET Campus release late January – lots of support for students with contract, non-contract and unit enrolments. Improved attendance and assessment mechanism as well.
- Students collect their own avetmiss 7 data after sign-up: Cool new tools to help with collecting avetmiss data without adding a barrier to payment – Shhh! J
Cherry CMS 13.11.1 21st November 2013
Enhancement or New Feature [included]
- Show a server too busy message instead of error page when request takes too long
o Previously we used the same message as a page error, now it is easier for you and our team to better understand where and why an issue is happening.
- Improved automatic PDF generation for better looking documents
o Creating good looking PDFs for receipts, invoices and enrolment forms has been a long and frustrating search until now. This new rendering engine will allow us to better translate your existing forms into printable PDF web pages.
- New What’s Happening pod in admin shows activity occurring on site and admin in real time
o Ideal for the news junky, activity messages appear in the right nav. when logged on to the Cherry Admin – especially interesting at busy times.
- Improvements to support requests listing
o We had a consultant in last month with a view to improving our Support Request functionality – he was blown away. We have created a few more features – we see this interface as being really important.
- 301 redirect for old page URLs now on by default, and old URL page deleted automatically after 90 days
o The balance between being SEO friendly and keeping old version of pages for Google always has to be evaluated against choosing the correct page to link to in the link manager. We have added some new code and reports to make this a lot easier without compromising your SEO rankings.
- New Page and Resource usage reports and tools in Site Integrity
o This is a huge WOW … you can now easily find unused pages, images, objects and the like and then delete them. Where names have changed we automatically updates links in content and the Item manager – website customers who have seen this LOVE it J
VETtrak Online 4.3 21st November 2013
Enhancement or New Feature [included]
- Better support for occurrence publishing and enrolment where class locations are different to the occurrence location
o This solves a dilemma when a workshop is in a different location or state than the Occurrence is reported.
- Support for optional DOB enrolments
o There are at least two reasons to use our products for enrolment, reduce administration costs and to increase sales. Sometimes one affects the other and we have decided to provide support for enrolments without a date of birth. It is not a standard feature and will require setup however it is available in the core product.
- Enhancements to online signing to within VET Campus
o Signing Attendance and Assessment reports is now even more practical and easy to use on tablets.
- Improved dashboard charts for VETtrak Online admin
o Get excited about data analysis – change the date range … woohoo J
- New config option for showing start time for all day/multi day occurrences on calendar
- Remove un-necessary fields on Simple Enrolment form where only one payment option available
o A one page simple enrolment form that makes closing the sale on lone far easier
o Currently only available on a site wide basis – worth a look for single units training in competitive markets [set-up fee]
- Payment plans are now calculated within the occurrence dates
o Deposit and then fortnightly or monthly payments with full payment calculated to be completed ‘x’ days/weeks before the end of the Occurrence.
- New payment plan schedule can be dynamically attached for student confirmation
o Additional ability to output the payment plan with amounts and dates on the confirmation email
- New activation procedure for students logging into VET Campus
o Activation email with link to reset password page, low stress high security
- Review alerts for API issues to prevent excess notifications
- Additional options for user to retrieve log on credentials
o VETtrak uses first and last names with date of birth to retrieve log on credentials, we have added the ability to retrieve credentials using logon or email address as well – less stress for users!
- Occurrence display offset (stop display ‘x’ days before occurrence) can now be set at site level as a default
o If you ALWAYS want to step promoting a site ‘x’ days before the occurrence commencement we are now able to set it for you as a default – less work for administrators.
- New Programme Funded flag to allow for controlling funding logic per programme
o We have lots of clever tools to deduce if a programme is funded however this is a simple way or setting a flag on the programme – additional simplicity.
- Finance -Optional sequential invoice number generation for enrolments
o In the past we have used an algorithm to create invoice numbers based on date time and occurrence ID however now we are able to use invoice numbers pre-allocated by your finance system.
- Maps – Can now turn on / off display of address, map and course dates for a given location page
o Simply adds more granular controls for administrators
- A parental consent form can be dynamically attached to a booking
o We have the ability to set age parameters on a programme to automatically inject a step for students between say 16-18 as on the date of the Occurrence to mandate parental consent and now add a parental content attachment to the notification – so easy!
Updated Add-on
- Mobile Add-on -Adding functionality for better homepage support and selecting VETtrak programmes for mobile template default page
o In the same way SEO specialists may require different home pages for search engines you now have the ability with our mobile product to set a specific home page for mobile devices – BTW our/your Apps may now added to iTunes! J
- Multi course selection is now a step on enrolment
o This is a cool and effective add-on to sell more courses to client while they enrol AND to stay compliant it automatically adds up the cost to determine if the payment plan or deposit functionality kicks in – ask Troy to demonstrate it for you.
Bug Fix
- Address issue with manual programme updates not reporting as complete when they were – less stress!
- Resolve issue with browser checks on every log in to VET Campus for some users – an annoyance removed!
LMS 2.8 21st November 2013
Enhancement or New Feature [included]
- Performance enhancements and optimisations – faster better and even cooler!
- New enrolment status available for RPL so students don’t have to undertake course – another time saver
- Find a broader range of students for enrolment check against a programme – more tools to help admins,
Bug Fix
- Show quiz content in View as Admin – much better!
In case I don’t get a chance to catch up with you before the break be sure to have fun!
It has been an awesome year and we look forward to an AVETMISS 7 New Year J
Thanks,
John Wooding