This approach is very efficient, reduces the chance of errors and requires considerably less time.
Educational institutes operate in an environment with specific and complex regulations. For that reason, many schools use external specialists for managing their financial, personnel and salary administration. To enable schools to carry out their administrative tasks efficiently themselves, educational service provider Metrium, together with IT service provider Inter Access, developed a software solution for personnel and salary administration. This is based on Oracle technology and available On Demand. The solution is hosted, managed and maintained from Inter Access’ No-Limit data centre.
Metrium supports more than 800 schools for primary, further and special education in the field of personnel and salary administration, financial administration and management consultancy. The organisation arranges amongst other things, the monthly payment of salaries to approx. 25,000 teachers and school employees. Metrium has offices in Emmen, Enschede, Groningen and Leeuwarden. General Manager Jan Harm Klekamp: “Educational institutes are faced with complex and fast-changing laws and regulations in the field of personnel and salary administration. The number of variables in these processes is enormous. There are different types of positions, variable working times and approximately 22 leave codes. To support schools in their salary processing, Metrium used a software package. However, this proved to be insufficiently prepared for future customer needs.”
In preparation for the development of the new solution, Metrium organised workshops with customers, in which the vision of customers towards the future organisation of administrative processes was the central issue. The most important results from this inventory were the need for flexibility and the possibility for customers to have access to the system themselves. Other requirements were minimal complexity and built-in intelligence, as a result of which incorrect entries could be detected as early as the start of the entry procedure. This avoids time-consuming problems in a later stage. It also turned out that customers needed clear and easily compiled management reports.
The development activities were placed into separate organisation, Passoa ICT BV. In this organisation, Metrium participates for its functional knowledge and experience, and Inter Access for ICT knowledge, development and support. Klekamp: “The cooperation is excellent. Inter Access possesses the knowledge and ability to translate the dynamics of the educational world into practical solutions. In addition, their hands-on mentality matches our way of working very well. All this lead to the software solution Personnel and Salary Administration On Demand (PSOD).” PSOD was developed using J2EE and uses an Oracle database and Oracle Application Server. The reporting tool is based on Oracle Discoverer. The complete set runs on HP Bladeservers with Linux in the No-Limit data centre. The solution is provided based on an ASP model. Inter Access was responsible for the entire development project, from information analysis and project management to building, testing, documentation and complete support.
PSOD has been developed in such a way that education-wide laws and regulations, as well as specific needs within schools, can be integrated into the system easily. Changes are possible at detailed level without complex programming work. Another important advantage of PSOD is the central management of basic data in combination with entry from the source – at school. Klekamp: “Previously, a sickness notice was sent to an education office on paper for further processing. With PSOD, an employee enters the notice into the central system himself via the internet at school. This applies to other mutations as well, by the way. The system uses user-profiles and an authorisation structure enabling us to record per customer who has access to specific parts of PSOD. Inexperienced users can get started with the system quickly after a brief instruction as well. Customers receive a URL, a user name and a password and they can get started. This approach is very efficient, reduces the chance of errors and requires considerably less time.”
To meet the need for management reports, PSOD offers extensive facilities for making reports and analyses, using the Business Intelligence functionality of Oracle Discoverer. “Reporting used to be a very time-consuming process for schools until recently,” says Klekamp. “It was usually done based on data from large piles of paper. The introduction of the ‘lumpsum’ financing asks for detailed financial reports. PSOD provides an answer to this. Authorised users can quickly generate various reports from the databases themselves based on parameters. That way, there is continuous insight based on the most up to date data to control and correct policy.” Following on from the reporting tool, a simulation tool has been developed to determine various ‘what if’ scenarios. This provides educational organisations a means to test the effects of plans or changes in a reliable manner.
By now, PSOD is widely used. Moreover, Metrium and Inter Access have developed an environment that can act as platform for other modules. These modules, such as the one for administration of appraisals and personal development plans or a student tracking system, can easily be integrated into the existing environment. Klekamp: “A major benefit is that the modules can use the data structure and the database as it is set up now. With this integrated educational system we are currently in the lead in the educational market. And by continuing to combine Metrium’s knowledge of contents with Inter Access’ ICT knowledge, experience and services, we can quickly respond to the needs in the market and translate these into solutions that offer educational institutes real support.”