One of the core goals of the ITOMIC system is to manage a trainee through predefined programmes of training, completed through the completion of any number of Unit Standards. The Framework in ITOMIC holds the definitions of all the programmes offered by the ITO in their hierarchy of Sectors, Programmes, Qualifications & Strands and the compulsory and elective sections within them. NZQA defines a hierarchy for Unit Standards, and this structure is fully replicated in ITOMIC with a history of Unit Standard Versions within their relevant Fields, Subfields and Domains. Further modules allow the automated import of this entire Unit Standard framework.
Organisations and Contacts are held within ITOMIC with all the richness offered by the Microsoft CRM solution, including the ability to hold multiple addresses for each. Additional to this is the custom ITO specific information such as a breakdown of the account type, for example Employer, Provider or Supplier and all the relevant items of information required for that account type. A Contact is a person. They may be linked to an organisation and may have a number of roles, such as an Assessor, Moderator or Student, or a mix of these. ITOMIC allows all of this information to be held in a structured and easy-to-maintain format. Any Contact may be a Trainee, and for Trainees extensive information can be recorded in a standardised, extensible and reportable manner, including attributes such as Ethnicity, Previous Highest Qualification and Training Status.
To help manage and improve the marketing effort of the ITO, Info Packs containing any number of documents may be managed in the system. Leads for possible Assessors, Trainees or Employers are fully managed and may be simply converted into Contacts and Accounts as appropriate.
An Employer may have a Registered Training Workplace (RTW) Contract with the ITO. This will lay out the details of the agreement between the two, with annually renewed criteria for the conditions for each year. These Contracts and Schedules are managed within the ITOMIC system.
Trainees on some qualifications receive products to assist them in their study, where the products can be goods or services. ITOMIC allows such products to be associated with qualifications and then manages the allocation and distribution of the products to the trainees registered on these qualifications.
The core of the TMS (Trainee Management System) is to manage the individual Trainee through their training. Using the frameworks defined within ITOMIC, when a Trainee signs on with an Employer, the system provides detailed management of all Training Agreements, including management of Training Agreement Transfers. On signing a Training Agreement the Trainee will be allocated any number of predefined Programmes and the management of these Training Programmes and Qualifications are fully managed within ITOMIC, in many cases automatically.
Joining a Programme will automatically create a Training Programme for that Trainee, containing all of the Qualifications for the Programme. With the creation of each Training Qualification, its relevant Strands and Sections are all created along with any compulsory Training Unit Standards, allowing them to be easily and quickly added to that students Training Plan.
The full history of assessment of a Unit Standard by a Trainee is captured, and when a Unit Standard is deemed completed – either through training or from the import of a previous completion record – an automated real time check is carried out to see if this effects completion of any of the Qualifications or Strands of the Trainees Programme. As such, completion of the last unit required by a Trainee will automatically flag their Strand, Qualification and even Programme as having been completed, without any need for user intervention.
The issuing of Certificates is also captured within ITOMIC.
Finance approval and payments are all managed as automatically as possible within ITOMIC and Invoice requests can be automatically generated.
On Job training involves a process of assessment by registered Assessors.
ITOMIC allows the ITO to fully manage their Assessors, from application through registration. This includes a full definition of each Assessor’s scope at a Unit Standard and Domain level, using predefined default Scopes if desired to streamline the process. Other aspects of Assessor management are also held within ITOMIC, such as the capture of proof of Assessors previous Qualifications.
Assessments are captured and ITOMIC automation allows Scopes and Contracts to be checked before the result is applied to the Unit Standard, automatically making that Unit Standard reportable. Assessments may take place as part of a Training Visit, and may be part of a Training Plan, both of which are also managed within the system.
Off Job training is carried out through the provision of courses. The management of Courses can be planned and carried out in ITOMIC, holding information on Courses at a planning and schedule level, including tender management, the planning of classes, and storage of venue information for reuse. As Programmes can have Courses associated with them, and Courses may be associated with Training Unit Standards, with the registration of a Trainee on a Programme, a Trainee’s course-based needs can be simply managed, from the Course level right down to their registration for classes within a Course. This association of Unit Standards with Courses allows the completion of a Course by a Trainee to be automatically recorded upon completion of the relevant Unit Standards by that Trainee, invoking the automated Qualification completion checks mentioned previously. Other features delivered include the automated flagging of a Trainees need for a Course on signing up to a Training Programme, and the management of Trainee allowance claims.
As part of the Quality Assurance, Assessments are moderated. The large amount of time consumed in planning the periodic moderations of Unit Standard Assessments for both internal and external Providers, is minimised by the moderation planning and management capabilities in ITOMIC. Moderation cycles and plans can generate assessment intention plans and/or individual Assessor moderation plans, manually or automatically. The moderations themselves can be recorded within the system, as can the moderation appeals process. Assessment materials can be stored in a managed process, as can the pre-assessment moderation of this material.
All of the standard ITO imports and exports to NZQA are automatically generated and handled using ITOMIC, including
- Qualification reporting and checking (incl certificate issuing) F22 & QRx
- Record of Learning Import and Exports
- PMS Extract
- MA Extract
- NSN Requests and Imports
A website with underlying database and access management allows course Providers and Employers to view and manage course-based training, including the capture of completions.
Postal Address Finder
Imperative for direct marketing campaigns and Trainee management in general, is quick and accurate address capture, including post code accuracy. The PAF functionality available in ITOMIC uses the NZ Post delivery point database to seamlessly validate and populate addresses at time of capture.
SMS
With text messaging being the communication channel of choice for the majority of trainees in NZ, OA Systems has added a standardised front end to allow SMS to be sent to Contacts, Users and Marketing lists from within ITOMIC. These communications are captured and tracked as with other channels. The SMS functionality is layered and standardised to allow out of the box interfacing with most third party SMS providers.
All of the above is functionality specific to the ITO arena, and leverages the power of Microsoft CRM, including functionality such as
- De-duplication of records
- Automated and user definable workflows
- Mail Merge to MS - Word templates.
- Email merges, sending and automated tracking
- Reporting in Excel or Reporting Services
All of these and more are described in detail in Microsoft provided materials and on the web.