HLC

Case Study

Humberside Learning Consortium

After seeing demonstrations of the VASCAT system that PACE wrote for VAS, HLC commissioned PACE to create a version of the system to meet their own needs.

HLC, in partnership with a number of other organisations in the Humberside area, wanted a system to monitor the work they were doing for voluntary organisations. Each partner organisation had its own systems, and the aim was to consolidate all of their data into a single application so that all the partners could share contact details.

PACE took the VAS system and modified it extensively to meet HLC's requirements.

One of the main uses of the system is for creation of email mailshots to contacts, where recipients can be selected from a wide range of criteria. This makes it simple for the partner organisations to send out newsletters to relevant people.

Complex working practices, anticipated as a result of government initiatives, will both force the Voluntary Sector in to collaborative projects and a more contract based culture, where funding is both retrospective and based on delivery of outputs. This only makes the introduction of a state of the art web based management information suite into our multi-partner sub-regional framework all the more necessary while creating its own difficulties. Fortunately, we were able to work closely alongside PACE to ensure the software they delivered not only fulfilled our present operational, procedural and security requirements, but also delivered an excellent platform capable of incorporating changes to meet future organisational needs. The end result is a system that will greatly enhance how our partners work together across the sub-region, and assist us in delivering an efficient range of services to our clients while maximising on the resources available to us. Add to this the fact that PACE delivered on time and within budget and HLC can attest to the delivery of a successful project.

Les Braim

Software

Key components:

  • ASP.Net 1.1
  • SQL Server 2000/2005

The system is an ASP.net web application with a SQL Server 2005 database running on an externally hosted server. This provides a robust solution, and means that users don't have any software installed locally - it all runs through their web browsers, and can be accessed from any location with internet access. The connection to the server is encrypted with an SSL certificate.

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Support

9am - 5pm, Monday - Friday

The following support call levels were used:

  • Critical: call must be responded to within four hours, a workaround provided within one day and a permanent fix within two days.
  • Non-Critical: call must be responded to within eight hours, a workaround provided within two days and a permanent fix within ten days.
  • Non-Urgent: call will be acknowledged within eight hours, a workaround (if required) provided within five days and a permanent fix implemented in the next release of the software.

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