This document is a brief summary of enhancements and features of PowerForce Release 8.0.

The principal reason for this release of PowerForce is the development of web accessible services. The database product upon which PowerForce is developed has brought out new tools, features and functionality and therefore we are in a position to enhance the PowerForce application. This document is a brief overview of some of the initial enhancements made and also an overview of the development schedule of PowerForce for the next 6 – 12 months.

PowerForce as a product has had a number of industry strands, where each industry has its own nuances. These nuances have in the past been “customised” on a per industry basis. However, as newer development technologies and techniques have become available; we have taken advantage of the opportunity to merge these strands into a single product line.

The new development is comprised of a number of stages, beginning with the immediate release of “Release 8[1]”, which will be followed by further enhancements as outlined in the “mid-term schedule” and “new features” sections (below).

PowerForce has largely been a self-contained application which includes its own database manager and development tools. The new environment now has the ability to more easily integrate into other windows applications. New facilities which we will develop include:

·         Cut / paste and drag and drop

·         The ability to auto-create Microsoft Word & Excel documents from PowerForce

·         The ability to reach out into other SOA (windows) applications over the Internet

·         The fact that your PowerForce application can be available via the Internet

·         OLE integration allowing for the integration of PowerForce into other Windows based applications.

As you can see, these are all technology advances, and you might be asking what the benefit to your business is and why you need to migrate.

·         The single most important reason is that we can now advance the development of PowerForce with the introduction of more flexible interfaces (screens) and PowerForce will be easier to integrate into other technologies and services, such as the web.

Not withstanding the ubiquity of Windows XP is the fact that Windows Vista will emerge at some time in the future as the next desktop environment and we must maintain PowerForce as close to the next Windows release as possible.

PowerForce has had an SMS module for some time; however, it has been one of stand-alone use. As you can see in the screen shot above, the module is integrated directly into the Scheduling workbench as well as the new Search facility, which enhances the use by directly integrating the details of the shift you’re looking to fill.

New features include the ability to template your messages, again relieving you of the tedium of putting the messages together.

Finally a new display gives you immediate feedback on the successful delivery of your messages to your SMS gateway.

At this stage we have scheduled the development of the automated integration of an employees’ SMS response into the scheduling workbench for a subsequent release of PowerForce. This will further relieve the operations staff from telephone tag and assist in the streamlining of the overall rostering process.

Release 8 extends the generic printing giving you the option to export the report into any of the formats noted above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The popup have been enhanced to provide sorting by generally every column on display, as well as the alternating colour to enable your eye to follow the text more easily.

The task management screens have a new PRINT option allowing you to send what you see on the screen to the printer or any of the print options as noted above.

Release 8.0 is the first step to our developing a totally new module for Employee Self-Service. Whilst the module will be delivered as part of our mid-term strategy, the Release 8 platform is the base upon which the new functionality will be made.

The days of calling helpdesk to un-commit a pay-run are over with the Payroll Un-Commit screen. The system will maintain an audit of each un-commit to maintain data integrity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have enhanced the integration between the scheduling workbench and payroll process, such that once payroll is running for a period, the shifts for that period will become Read only for operations staff.

This is to ensure data integrity during all payroll processing. Once the payroll has completed, the shifts will again become available to processing.

Where the 3 levels of overtime are not enough to define your awards, we have developed a multi-level overtime award platform where you may expand the levels as you require.

The Award Interpreter is a payroll pre-processor, which means that various entitlements are only calculated at payroll time, and not at the time that a shift is created. To provide for more visibility at roster time the Award Interpreter has been extended into the scheduling workbench.

E.g. an employee has an allowance per shift, and that particular allowance has a maximum per pay period. With the new processing you will be able to see the capping at the roster level prior to the payroll having been run.

Shift type changes are now audited, and clearly visible from the new tab on the scheduling workbench.

A new view “Cancelled Shifts” has been added to the Scheduling Workbench to maintain a history of cancelled shifts.

When you need to find / replace an employee to a shift, the new Search Facility puts a tool at your disposal to help you with the task.

The new features can be reviewed from the screenshots of the various tabs as shown here.

To give you a quicker confirmation of an employee’s credentials, new tabs show you all pertinent details without a need to flick to the biographical module.

Confirm immediately that the correct accreditation is held.

 

 

 

You have the ability to link preferred employees to client sites to help deliver better quality of service.

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re not satisfied with the Search results returned by the system, we draw out in detail the reasons why a particular employee was selected. This relieves you from guessing what the programming code is doing as well as allowing you to better tailor the selection criteria for the search in the first place.

Some of the new features include:

·         The ability to link to an employees availability screen.

·         Shift offer history is maintained, giving you details of all shifts offered, accepted and refused so that you can concentrate on the task at hand and field any related questions from your staff.

·         You can send an SMS immediately from the screen to the employee with the shift offer.

For those of you who are analysing the above results, the screen shot is against random data and hence the reason for 0% suitability.

This option provides the ability to define a gender for a shift.

This options speeds up the creation of shifts by enabling the default setup of shift parameters from the actual scheduling code.

This is a reporting enhancement whereby you may want to report a shift not by the elapsed time of the shift but rather by a set time. E.g. the elapsed time is 08.00 hours, yet the actual worked time to be recognised for calculation and reporting is to be 3.5 hours.

This option enables you to define a number of split-shifts as being one consecutive shift for the purpose of data processing.

This option disables the ‘delete’ shift function from your users, on a per user basis. That is, you configure whether your operators have permission to delete shifts.

An enhancement to the OH&S processing allows operators to quickly enter relevant incident details reported by your staff in the field.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following in the steps of the new incident entry screen is the expanded reporting facility for the incident in your system. The operator has a wider selection of sorting and selection criteria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This new feature allows you to define a time-based pay class structure. Where this is setup, award interpretation will follow the definition of pay classification codes.

For businesses that wish to give more information to their scheduling staff in respect of the costs of shift allocations the above screen should serve to provide you the detail required.

Give your operations staff a budget to work against and this new scheduling screen will ensure that your staff are aware of the guidelines.

You provide the time clocks, and we’ll ensure that they integrate into PowerForce.

 

 

 

 

The time and attendance module now supports the following vendor clocks:

·         Biometric Innovations (Biometric)

·         BRS (Biometric)

·         Sagem (Biometric)

·         Daelibs (PC based)

If your time-clock does not appear on this list, we are generally able to develop an interface within one day.

In the interim period as you migrate to Release 8 and beyond, you will have access to the existing report writer and a couple of new ones. Once the new report formats are completed, we will remove support for the current report writer.

This will be managed by incremental updates once release 8 is installed.

 

 

The Time Clock Interface window for those who utilise external payroll, we have enhanced the processing to allow you to have more control over re-running the exports as well as the supported payroll systems now include:

·         WageEasy

·         Micropay

·         AussiePay

·         Neller

In keeping with giving you more control over your PowerForce application, we have provided a flexible interface allowing you to patch your PowerForce application and removing the reliance on Helpdesk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To keep track of who is using PowerForce you now have the ability to track their use of the application.

This new report gives you a pictorial view of how well you have covered all the shifts for any outlet. (Hospitality Module only).

 

 

 

 

 

The planning of your proposed schedules will be managed through a new screen (above) to help plan large numbers of shifts and seasonal demands. These planning tools allow for the generation of proposed schedules well in advance of the actual scheduling period (Hospitality Module only).

You now have the ability to define your season, to the level of season type. Basically you define the standard season levels, and then the proposed schedules are automatically forecast from this base. You then make the smaller adjustments in the scheduling workbench to reflect the actual detail of the immediate period in question. (Hospitality Module only).

New Scheduling Workbenches	Currently we have 4 scheduling workbenches, and whilst they started out with different goals, over the years these goals are merging and hence we have undertaken a major project to re-write these into a more dynamic and flexible new scheduling workbench.
Data Warehousing	Reporting is a “CPU-hog” no matter what system is running. In recognition of the ever increasing demand for reporting during the running of rostering and payroll processing, we have committed ourselves to develop an SQL based data-warehouse for the purpose of user reporting, and to relieve the online system of the stress that reporting imposes. This development will be a gradual progression from the most popular tables to the whole of the system at the end.
Web enquiry into PowerForce	Release 8 is based on the development environment which provides us a platform to develop web access into the PowerForce database. This of course will evolve over time, with the first deliverables being Employee Self Service style facilities such as picking up rosters and enquiring on entitlements.
Online Helpdesk	We are investigating an integrated help desk system to run along side the PowerForce helpdesk portal, to allow you to follow the status of outstanding issues.
Sub-contractor specific versions of PF.	In the security industry many of our clients are either master accounts or sub-contractors to other security companies. To help expedite the communication of data such as roster requirements and time sheet approvals, we are developing a communications interface over the PowerForce web portal to allow the flow of information and to expedite information exchange and improve information turnaround.
Payroll Reports	It is our intention to re-write all of the payroll reports formats.
Software Updates	Our intention is to develop an automated software update facility via our web portal. Your PowerForce application (if configured) will be able to reach out to our support site and inform you of any new software updates immediately that they are created.

Life-style rostering	The rostering will be pliable around the commitments and life style of the employee, where the company publishes a roster for an employee, and then marks rosters which may be “swapped” and where the employee has an opportunity to swap / change / accept the shifts.
Equitable rostering	Making sure that every employee has a fair allocation of all available shifts.
Self rostering	Allow the employee to fill in their availability for future shifts.
Shift swaps	Allow for the employee to swap shifts with each other (under parameterised controls).
Self rostering of overtime	To allow for additional overtime hours to be spread across the work base, and delivering the employee the option to select an available amount of overtime.
Automated software updates	The PowerForce application will in future be able to check its own software release levels, and prompt the operator for a request to auto-apply the updates. The updates will continue to be managed by you the clients, and will not become automated.

Select Speedup	We have undertaken considerable work to review the major processes & evaluate the data selection to review processing time in continuing efforts to speed system response.
4K blocks data sizes	We continue to work on speed improvements to the data. This innovation currently in testing is intended to increase the data throughput for the new web module.
Detailed entitlements analysis	To help with staff enquiries regarding their entitlements, we have created a detailed report which maps out how entitlements have been calculated and the running value of those entitlements.
Multi-week roster print	You now have the ability to print more than one week’s roster view at a time.
Award based billings	We have enhanced the integrated fee interpreter to follow rules similar to the interpretation of your staff payroll award.
Avery Labels	The new system is preconfigured with pre-configured Avery Label formats.

Enhancements for the transport industry including the ability to synchronise data with external sources for initial data upload. These processes are now able to be run by the user. (Transport Module only).