Activity Management in TEA 10
Managing your organization's activities is a critical step in understanding how your internal resources are being utilized and for determining how to allocate resources in order to achieve your organizational goals and mission. Many organizations fail to track how internal human resource time is allocated to the specific activities that achieve the goals of the organization. As a result, there is no quantifiable data to make accurate decisions for human resource requirements, for the allocation of overhead to programs or departments, and for key decisions surrounding growth.
Client Relationship Management (CRM) seems to be a buzz word in many organizations but the reality is most organizations fail to implement key systems to monitor and maintain client relationships. Whether you are a not-for-profit or a corporate entity, it is imperative to operate under the customer service principles that dictate success and that means you must understand your clients, set aggressive goals to meet their expectations, and most importantly, set key metrics and monitor your performance in achieving these goals. Unless you manage your activities effectively, this data is a “best guess” which ultimately is very subjective and therefore is an unverifiable qualitative approach. There is no need to introduce subjectivity to a process that can be clearly defined.
At CommonGoals Software, we have developed software that enables organizations to define and track the core activities they employ to achieve their goals. TEA allows the definition of your primary Programs/Departments, the core activities required to achieve organizational goals, the services you provide and most importantly, the ability to allocate your time to the aforementioned key areas. By providing simple methods to record/log all your core activities, the information you need to make key decisions is at your fingertips. Activity Management in TEA can be broken down into three primary sections:
- Scheduling and planning of Activities (Tasks, Scheduled Activities)
- Monitoring and Alerts for managing Scheduled Activities (Calendar, Reminders)
- Activity Logs (Time/Program Allocation and Activity Details)
The Scheduler
The new Scheduler in TEA 10 provides all the flexibility you would expect from a high-end software solution. The Scheduler allows users to view multiple calendars on a single screen for all the analysts within your organization. It also provides a vast array of views including Day, Week, Work Week, Month, Year and Time Grid. Each view can be printed and the reports are highly configurable to ensure you get the information you need.
The Scheduler also incorporates a comprehensive Alert system that notifies you of all scheduled activities that are due. From the Alert system, you can reschedule appointments, open the scheduled activity, create an activity log and record time (program allocation), see all pertinent details regarding the activity and schedule follow-ups. With this kind of flexibility, you are able to manage all of your tasks and activities directly from the Alert/Reminder system without having to go into each client or activity record.
Figure 1 below illustrates the new look and feel of the Scheduler in TEA 10.
Figure 1. TEA 10 Scheduler
Scheduling Activities
The Activity section in TEA 10 has been expanded to allow for many additional features when scheduling activities. The new version enables the association of multiple persons with a single activity. For example, if you had a meeting with three other staff members, you can schedule the activity and, providing you include them in the ‘With’ section of the activity setup, it will be included in their respective schedules. Each activity can be associated to any object (module) in TEA using the ‘Regarding’ feature. By allowing users to associate activities with any object/module in TEA, activities can then be centralized to a common module such as Accounts. This becomes very important as TEA allows users to create activities in virtually every module of the system. Without centralizing the activities via the ‘Regarding’ feature, activities would be fragmented among each module and a centralized view for activities would not easily exist.
Figure 2 below illustrates the new Scheduled Activity screen in TEA 10.
Figure 2. Scheduled Activity Screen
Scheduled Activity - Recurring
You can now make any activity a recurring event and set the specific recurrence pattern in addition to setting the range of recurrence or termination of the activity. Therefore, any staff or client meetings that have regularity in both time and frequency can be automatically scheduled with an associated Alert/Reminder as well.
Figure 3 below illustrates the new Scheduled Activity - Recurring screen in TEA 10.
Figure 3. Scheduled Activity – Recurring Screen
Also added in TEA 10 is the ability for attachments to be added to any scheduled activity which enables you to associate any documentation you require (spreadsheets, Word files, scans, etc.) to complete the activity efficiently. In addition to being available at the activity level, the attachments can also be centralized/associated to any other module in TEA using the ‘Regarding’ feature during the activity setup.
Figure 4 below illustrates the new Scheduled Activity - Attachments screen in TEA 10.
Figure 4. Scheduled Activity – Attachments Screen
Scheduled Activity -Availability
Figure 5 below illustrates the new Scheduled Activity – Availability screen in TEA 10.
Figure 5. Scheduled Activity – Availability Screen
Time Allocation
Of all the exciting new features added to support Activity Management in TEA 10, the Activity Log is the most powerful. Activity Logs are similar to Contacts in TEA IX, but we have added additional flexibility to support better time classification in addition to the ability to allocate activity time to multiple programs in a single activity record. Basically this means that if you have a client who has received services under two specific programs, and you complete a single activity that was related to both programs, you can specify the amount of time associated to each program individually within a single activity record.
This feature is what will allow you to calculate the amount of time that internal resources have spent on each program and allow you to allocate staff wages and overhead to each program in order to truly report the cost of services for each program.
Figure 6 below illustrates the New Activity Log screen in TEA 10.
Figure 6. New Activity Log Screen
Activity Classification
TEA 10, as with TEA IX, provides the facility to define both a Category and Sub-Category to clearly articulate the nature of your activity. For example, your Category Sub-Category could be Loans Collections. Whereby the Category ‘Loans’ specifically identifies that your activity is related to Lending and your Sub-Category ‘Collections’ specifically identifies the nature of the loan activity. By providing this breakdown, you are able to effectively report on any type of activity completed in your organization and provide a granular detailed analysis on how internal resources are utilized.
Activity Logs - Services
Another addition is the ability for you to associate the specific Services that were included as part of your activity. For example, you may have provided specific documentation or services like a business plan, application, Internet access, etc. These services can now all be associated to the Activity as outlined in Figure 6. No matter how many specific Services are provided during your meeting/activity, they can all be associated to a single activity record. This allows you to determine what primary services and documentation are required most frequently.
Activity Logs - Attachments
As with Scheduled Activities, you can also add Attachments (spreadsheets, Word files, scans, etc.) to the Activity Log to ensure all pertinent information related to the activity completion is associated to the record.
Activity Logs – User Defined Fields
Finally, as with most modules in TEA, you have the ability to create User-Defined Fields to track any other pertinent information related to an Activity Log. There may be some social or performance metrics you wish to associate at an Activity Log level and this is easily achieved with this new feature. You can create up 240 user-defined fields and they can be any type of field you require (numeric, alphanumeric, Boolean, date, etc.).
Summary of Benefits
Overall, once you experience the new Activity Management features in TEA 10, the benefits and enhancements that have been added to help you get the best possible results out of your organization and TEA will become quite obvious.
Some of those primary benefits are listed below:
- Enhanced Scheduler (multiple calendars, new views, detailed reports)
- Add Attachments to an Activity or Activity Log
- Activities and Activity Logs can now be associated to multiple persons
- Activities and Activity Logs can be associated to any module in TEA
- Time Allocation to programs in Activity Logs
- Add unlimited Services to an Activity Log
- New Alert system to keep you informed of all activities
- User-Defined Fields available for Activity Logs
- Global Views for Activities and Activity Logs
In general, you will find TEA 10 extremely efficient for the management of all core activities and for the reporting and outcomes associated to those activities.
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