Category: Technical Updates Page 5 of 7

Are you ready for GDPR?

By

On 23rd April 2018

In Application Features and Tutorials, Policy and Operations, Technical Updates, Whitepaper

A whitepaper to help you get ready for GDPR and find out what it means for your data.

Whitepaper – Are you ready for GDPR – Download the paper here.

What should you be doing now?

If you haven’t started preparing your organisation for compliance then the next 3 months are crucial. If you have started getting ready for the GDPR deadline,  keep going.

Make sure your board is bought in to the importance of the project. Having the support you need from the top is vital to the GDPR compliance process.

ONCE THE GDPR COMES INTO FORCE, YOUR BUSINESS MUST:*

  1. Keep a record of data operations and activities and consider if you have the required data processing agreements in place
  2.  Carry out privacy impact assessments (PIAs) on products and systems
  3.  If applicable to your organisation, designate a data protection officer (DPO)
  4.  Review processes for the collection of personal data
  5.  Be aware of your duty to notify the relevant supervisory authority of a   data breach
  6. Implement “privacy by design” and “privacy by default” in the design   of new products and assess whether existing products meet GDPR standards

 

What are TeamKinetic doing right now

See what we have already put in place, to be ready for 25th May 2018.

https://teamkinetic.co.uk/blog/2018/02/07/teamkinetic-updates-new-eula-and-data-policy/

We continue to work with our customers to ensure compliance and understanding.

Are you ready for GDPR?

Deadline – 25th May 2018

Information sourced from UKFast, Berwin,Leighton,Paisner and Onside Law

Contents

Let’s refresh

Why has the GDPR come about?

What about Brexit?

What should you be doing now?

Data security is EVERY business’s business

Key changes to consent

Key changes to breach notifications

Are the rules different for electronic communications?

What is TeamKinetic doing right now?

Disclaimer: The information in this whitepaper is for your general guidance only and is not and shall not constitute legal advice. If you need advice on your rights or responsibilities or any legal advice around data protection matters, please obtain specific legal advice and contact an adviser or solicitor.

Let’s refresh…

What is the GDPR? The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a binding legislative act from the European Union for the protection of personal data. The Regulation tackles the inconsistent data protection laws currently existing throughout the EU’s member states and facilitates the secure, free-flow of data.

Why do you need to know about it?

As of April 2016, businesses have been preparing for the legislation coming into effect on 25th May 2018. Although we are in the process of leaving the EU, working towards GDPR compliance remains crucial.

If you fail to comply with the Regulation you could find yourself being fined up to 4% of your company’s global annual turnover and your reputation damaged beyond repair.

That is 4500% increase on current fines that can be issued by the ICO!!

Now that the deadline is just 3 months away, is your organisation ready?

Why has the GDPR come about?

There is a need in Europe and beyond for a standardised data protection framework that addresses the rapid technological advancements that have taken place in recent years, putting the personal data of the masses at risk.

Where do vulnerabilities lie?

Everywhere. All organisations are at risk of a cyber-attack, despite common misconceptions that some industries are more secure than others.

The results of a survey carried out by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) of 173 councils at the end of 2016 reveals that more than 15% of councils do not have data protection training for employees processing personal data and a third do not carry out privacy impact assessments (PIAs) as required by the GDPR.

The survey’s release coincided with the news that the ICO had fined Norfolk Council £60,000 for a data breach in which social work files were discovered in a cabinet bought in a second-hand shop by a member of the public.

Capgemini: The Currency of Trust, February 2017

74% of UK SMEs had a security breach in 2016.

While leaving vulnerable information in a cabinet or on a train may seem like a problem from 1997 rather than 2017 – when cloud technology means physical files never need to leave the office – the overarching security challenge remains.

Professionals across the public and private sectors must be aware of the nature of the data they are accessing from their home networks and ensure they are doing so securely.

Computer Weekly: Many Councils Still Unprepared for GDPR, March 2017

What about Brexit?

Despite the vote to leave the EU, UK businesses must continue to work towards GDPR compliance. Not only has the UK government stated that it is good business practice to do so, but the legislation applies to all businesses working within the EU and with EU data. A failure to comply can lead to significant fines and irreparable damage to a company’s reputation.

The latest thinking is that the UK could replace the 1998 Data Protection Act (DPA) with legislation that mirrors the GDPR, enabling the UK to achieve free data flow with the EU post-Brexit. The government has warned that it may take two to three years for the European Council (EC) to decide that the UK has an adequate data protection regime.

While the impact of the Investigatory Powers Act on the UK’s GDPR compliance has yet to be fully understood, it is possible that the mass surveillance and data retention practices carried out under the Act could cause issues when the EC comes to decide whether the UK’s practices are adequate. The existence of these two extraordinarily contradictory legislations could result in a UK equivalent of the Privacy Shield agreement held between the US and the EU to facilitate secure transatlantic data flow.

If your business activities are contained within the UK or elsewhere within Europe, you will have to observe the protections afforded by the GDPR for citizens.

What happens if my business is not complaint?

The GDPR introduces a two-tier fine system that emphasises just how small a financial deterrent existed under the Data Protection Act (DPA).

As of the 2018 deadline, any data controller or processor that fails to comply with the Regulation will face the following fines:

 

Tier 1

If a data breach occurs that puts highly important data at risj, the data controller/processor will be fined upto €20M (£17.25M) or 4% of the previous year’s global annual turnover, whichever is greater.

Tier 2

Any other data breach could lead to fines of up to €10M (£8.6M) or 2% of the previous year’s global annual turnover, whichever is greater.

 

It is estimated that if breaches remain at the same level as in 2015, the fines given will raise 90 fold from €1.4 billion to €122 billion

Key changes to consent

Do you ask your customers for permission before you use their data? Do you go a step further and tell them what it will be used for? If the answer to either – or both – of these questions is no, you could be in trouble if you don’t start changing your ways before the GDPR deadline.

 

Why is consent important?

Consent enables your business to lawfully process data.

Organisations applying the GDPR’s standards are giving individuals greater control over their information and, in turn, building trusting relationships that ultimately keep customers coming back for more.

Any business found to be misusing personal data will be fined according to the highest level of the two-tier system and – most poignantly – is at serious risk of damaging its own reputation. When is consent required? You must have the data subject’s consent to lawfully process their data. However, just to confuse things, there are instances that will call for consent to be acquired via alternative methods; we’ll clarify this shortly. Consent is also needed under ePrivacy laws if you’re in the business of tracking communications and installing software and apps on devices.

If you want to use someone’s personal data they must give you explicit consent to do so. This means in practise no pre-ticked boxes, a user must always choose to tick the box.

If you want to use an individual’s personal data for multiple purposes, they must give consent for each purpose, separately

 

Who might need an alternative method of gaining consent?

Most commonly, data controllers in a position of power such as public authorities and employers who are likely to find getting valid consent challenging and so must consider the alternative options.

For example, if you are a highly successful eCommerce business is bringing on board a new supplier of garden furniture, you will need a contract with them that clarifies the role of each party and enables you to lawfully process their data.

Whether you are the data controller or processor, you must always record how consent was given, who from, when, how, and what the interested parties were told.

You must not bundle your consent request with your standard terms and conditions.

 

Does your consent process meet GDPR standards?

Carry out a thorough review of existing consent processes and asses whether they meet the Regulation’s requirements. if they do, there is no need to request consent from the subject again.

Key changes to breach notifications

Europe had a phenomenally inconsistent data protection landscape. It meant that when a Switzerland-based business suffered a data breach affecting people in Greece, Italy and Spain, the organisation would need to comply with the breach notification standards of each of the three member states.

This lack of uniformity throughout Europe means that while some member states, such as Spain and Germany, are recognised for their rigorous data breach privacy laws, there are also member states with minimal to no regulations in place.

In this environment, organisations in lax member states have not needed to notify an authority of a breach.

The GDPR smooths all this out with the introduction of a single breach notification requirement.

 

What is a personal data breach?

A personal data breach is not simply the loss of data but a breach of security, resulting in the destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of or access to personal data.

When must the relevant supervisory authority be notified?

The relevant supervisory authority must be informed of any data breach that puts an individual’s rights and freedoms at risk. This includes a loss of confidentiality and financial loss.

Data controllers must inform the supervisory authority without undue delay and within 72 hours of learning of a personal data breach. They must state:

  1. Its nature
  2. The approximate number of people affected
  3. The contact information for the organisation’s DPO (if one has been appointed)

The controller must also pin-point the likely consequences of the breach and the measures taken to reduce further risk to those affected.

Data processors must tell the data controller about a data breach without undue delay after having become aware of it.

If a breach is significant enough that it is in the public interest, those responsible – be that the controller or processor – must do so without undue delay.

The impact of data breaches If we hark back to our real world TalkTalk and Yahoo examples, we can see that the severe consequences each company experienced following their respective breaches were related to how they handled the aftermath of the breach and not simply because the breach happened in the first place.

What should you be doing now?

A personal data breach is not just the loss of that data but a breach of security, resulting in the destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of or access to personal data.

  • Educate your employees about    personal data breaches and how to   spot when one has occurred.
  • Set-up an internal process for reporting   a personal data breach.
  • Make sure you have the internal resources and processes in place to   detect and investigate breaches. Speak to any third-party data processers if they are storing your data.
  • Put an incident response plan in place.

Are the rules different for electronic communications?

No, not really. The EU has introduced a complementary legal framework to the GDPR to clarify exactly what data controllers and processors must be doing to protect individuals’ communications; electronic or otherwise.

  1. New cookies responsibilities   for browser providers Users must be given the choice to consent to cookies as part of the browser software set-up. This should reduce or eliminate cookie banners on websites entirely.
  2. Extra-territoriality and 4% fines The Regulation no longer applies solely to the EU. It applies to anyone in the world that provides publicly-available “electronic communications services” to acquire data from the devices of EU citizens. Any organisation that breaches the Regulation will be subject to the GDPR’s two-tier fine system. That means you should be paying attention even if your business is contained within the UK.
  3. The Regulation application is expanded Unlike its predecessor, the ePrivacy Directive, the ePrivacy Regulation goes beyond the traditional telecommunications organisations and internet service providers. It incorporates messaging apps like WhatsApp, and email providers, amongst other communications suppliers such as Facebook and Snapchat.
  4. New rules for processing communications data The Regulation introduces new rules for handling: what was said, who said it, where and when. This data is confidential; interfering with it could result in a Tier 1 fine.
  5. Exemption analytics cookies Businesses are exempt from the cookie consent requirement when using firstparty analytics. However, using third-party analytics platforms such as Google Analytics requires user consent.

For the non-techy amongst you, ‘party’ refers to the website that places the cookie. So when you visit www.ukfast.co.uk, and you find the domain of the cookie placed on your computer is www.ukfast.co.uk, this is a first-party cookie. If you visit www.ukfast. co.uk and a cookie by a suspiciously dissimilar name appears, this cookie has been placed by a third party.

Like the GDPR, the ePrivacy Regulation will come in to effect on the 25th May 2018.

Source: http://privacylawblog.fieldfisher.com/2017/the-new-e-privacy-regulation-what-you-need-to-know/

Introducing ‘Focus’, TeamKinetic’s design principle for better volunteer management

By

On 4th April 2018

In Application Features and Tutorials, Policy and Operations, Technical Updates

TeamKinetic is now a mature and fully featured volunteer management solution. As it has matured we have been able to more rigorously enforce a design principle for better impact across all user interfaces that we call Focus.

Focus is a collection of typography, grids, spacing, colour, layout and sizing rules that aim to achieve consistency of design, fluid layout for smaller screens and help to retain user focus on important tasks.

Volunteers, providers and administrators are presented with large amounts of information and we have been working hard to make this volume of information easy to digest in our Volunteer management application so the individual user focus is on the most pertinent information.

The biggest layout difference you will see is the support for a two-pane design with navigation elements in the left pane and the action area in the right pane. This layout also encourages the collection of tasks into one area, either functionally similar tasks or tasks commonly undertaken at the same time.

ocus-two column or two pane layout

A two pane layout with a navigation bar on the left and the action panes on the right

Colours are restricted to a limited palette so that actionable areas like buttons, menus and links, are obvious and easy to find.

Font sizes are consistent and changes in font size are restricted to key text and headings.

Animation are used to indicated areas of focus when information is updated or the user enters a new area.

Panels are elevated when active using an animated shadow effect

Message and information areas are distinguished by a thick left border, the colour is contextual and can refer to the category, message type or other information.

Thick left borders indicated messages or important content areas

Where possible we want to avoid page refresh as this slows the users experience and can break their focus on the task at hand.  Volunteers, Providers and Admin users all want to be able to undertake tasks with the need for a screen refresh.  Extended use of AJAX , a method of performing user interactions immediately without reloading a new page, enables us to keep the user focused on their task without the interruption of a page refresh and the subsequent visual scan of the page to locate the last point of focus.

AJAX methods are employed extensively across the admin area, especially when editing opportunities or volunteer profiles.

Grids and spacing automatically adjust to screen size and allow navigation areas to collapse to icon only links and wide content to collapse into vertical stacks keeping readability high.

Collapsible elements retain readability and usability for small screens

We just wanted to let you know what’s behind some of the design decisions in the brand new TeamKinetic v1 release and our design intent going forward.

Please add any comments you have below, thanks, The Team.

Accessibility and TeamKinetic

By

On 29th March 2018

In News & Views, Technical Updates

I wanted to talk a little about how we adhere to the accessibility standards laid out by the W3 web consortium. These are termed Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG.

The WCAG documents explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. Web “content” generally refers to the information in a web page or web application, including:

  • natural information such as text, images, and sounds
  • code or markup that defines structure, presentation, etc.

These guidelines help people using assistive technologies, such as screen readers and text-only browsers, to navigate ever more complex websites.

An example of how the correct mark up can help is in navigation elements. We’ve all seen the standard top or side navigation bars in websites, that often have multiple sub-menus and let a user navigate quickly to any area of the website.

For instance, the Amazon navigation bar has over 100 such links hidden away in the navigation bar.

What is not apparent to users that are not using assistive technologies is that this navigation bar appears first in the content flow of the website. As a visual user you can quickly skip over that part and get on with buying a new TV by just averting your eyes. A screen reader however must read over that entire navigation section and read out every link, EVERY time a page is loaded, can you imagine the inconvenience and annoyance that would cause!

To overcome this web designers can use a specific HTML 5 element, plus a few other attributes from the ARIA set, to define a navigation section. This lets assistive technologies know that everything following that declaration is navigation, and the user can skip over them easily if they want to.

Check out this YouTube video of the old inaccessible amazon website to see just how annoying this would be.

So as you might imagine the first thing we do here at TeamKinetic is to make sure all the navigation elements are enclosed in the correct element tags so assistive technologies can render them correctly.

At a minimum, we seek to make sure every public page has no errors when scanned with the WAVE accessibility checker and on each audit we attempt to address any alerts that appear.

This is the list of major conventions we use to help us adhere to the WCAG standards;

  • All navigation elements are enclosed in an HTML 5 nav element that is given the role=”navigation” so that newer and older assistive technologies will recognise the enclosed section as navigation
  • All images have a meaningful alt tag so the user gets an idea of what the image means
  • All anchor or link tags have meaningful text, this is sometimes hidden from the non-assistive browser in the case of icon buttons for instance.
  • Text colour and the background is selected to have a contrast exceeding that recommended for the text size.
  • All input form elements have a label tag which describes what data should be inserted into the form element.
  • The tab order of form elements is logical and follows the on-screen order so that people can tab through a form easily.
  • ARIA roles and landmarks are used where appropriate.

In our next audit, we are attempting to improve the experience for our dynamic content. This is content which may appear or disappear without a new page being loaded. This means that users of assistive technology may become stuck on an alert or page overlay without knowing that it is there.

There are always ways to improve and if you have any comments or suggestions we would welcome them below.

TeamKinetic: New EULA and Data Policy

By

On 29th January 2018

In News & Views, Policy and Operations, Technical Updates

On Friday 26th January 2018 our new EULA and Data Policy was enacted.

Since 2016, organisations have been preparing for the reformation of data protection in the form of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). For many organisations operating within the third sector, a certain apprehension has loomed, driven by concerns for their volunteer database.

TeamKinetic, as providers of volunteer management software, wanted to offer reassurance to our beloved customers and those interested that we are aligned with the new legislation in preparation for the 25th May 2018 deadline.

The Changes

As the biggest change to data legalisation since the Data Protection Act, GDPR is poised to revolutionise how individuals can manage organisations using their data. TeamKinetic have undertaken an extensive review of all our policies and procedures with the imminent launch of GDPR and have made some changes to some of our most important agreements.

Below is a concise summary of the major changes made. However, we strongly recommend you read the more detailed policies accessed in our Terms & Conditions which includes full details [click here]

If you have any concerns after reading this, please get in touch with me at chris@teamkinetic.co.uk.

Things that have not changed – TeamKinetic will still never sell your data to a third party.

We are still registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioners Office (ZSA036104)

Privacy by design, Privacy by default

We have always taken user privacy seriously at TeamKinetic, carefully balancing that with the desire by our users to access the opportunities they are most interested in seamless fashion.

The new policy is much more detailed. Significant changes include:

  • As a company, we have explored in much greater detail the role of data usage across our business. Our policy introduction, legislation, and scope reflect this. We felt it was important to establish what parts of the business this document will directly address.
  • A much greater level of detail on what user data is collected is now required by GDPR. We have tried to make it clear what data we are collecting and in what context we will be using that data.
  • Since our last policy review, we have added iPhone and Android applications which make use of additional phone features. As part of our GDPR policy review, we have added a stand-alone “Mobile” section. This section addresses the specific differences between mobile and traditional desktop usage.
  • Data sharing is essential for the operation of the TeamKinetic. We want our users to feel confident and safe with the data they share with us. Our new Data Protection and Privacy Policy identifies what data is shared with whom in much greater detail.
  • TeamKinetic collects a range of data including personal data. Some of this is of a more sensitive nature. We also collect a range of metadata which we use to improve the performance of the software. Our new Policy identifies the types of data that are collected and how we use, share and store that data.
  • Tracking and analytics systems such as Google and Nielsen are fundamental to the operation of the internet. These systems track user and site behaviour online and require TeamKinetic to provide a range of anonymous data. The new policy explains our approach to these systems.
  • Social media plays a significant role in TeamKinetic. As such, we have identified the role of social media specifically in the use of data on these platforms.
  • We explicitly define that all TeamKinetic data is stored in the UK.
  • As part of our policy review, we have established Information Governance best practice guidelines. These now form part of all company employee training and induction.
  • Finally, we have added sections to our policy that deals with “Subject Access Rights” and “Compelled”

These policy changes have been reflected in our whole business and our updated End User Licence Agreement.

Kind Regards,

Chris

If you have concerns about the new EULA and Data Policy or wish to discuss what it might mean for you and your application, do not hesitate to get in touch.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

 

Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

Plugin with Do-It and TeamKinetic

By

On 28th November 2017

In News & Views, Technical Updates

Here at TeamKinetic we’re excited to tell Volunteer Managers about the launch of our new Do-It plugin. We believe we are the first volunteer management application that offers a direct method for leveraging the power and reach of Do-It’s opportunities finder right there on your dashboard.

Do-it.org is the UK’s largest database for posting volunteer opportunities, with an established presence and heritage since 2000. Since then it has connected millions of volunteers to opportunities available throughout the UK. The database hosts more than 50,000 volunteer opportunities which appear in the top results of Google organic searches for volunteering in the UK. As a result, Do-it.org is a great platform to promote volunteering opportunities to a wide audience of potential volunteers and is frequently the first port of call for first-time volunteers.

TeamKinetic understands that it is great to be able to post opportunities nationally, but organisations also need to be able to track the attendance of their volunteers, receive feedback and produce data driven reports. Since its conception, these functionalities have been core to the TeamKinetic software service.

For the last eight years, TeamKinetic has been improving volunteer manager’s ability to manage their workforce through the intelligent volunteer management software. It has been used by Local Authorities, Universities, National Governing Bodies and a host of other third sector organisations. Collectively their volunteers are quickly approaching the one million hours logged and tracked through TeamKinetic software.

We believe that by combining the use of Do-It.org with TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software, third sector organisations will be able to harness the full potential of both systems. Do-it.org is a great place to advertise opportunities and TeamKinetic is ideal for managing the volunteers to fill those opportunities. Our new plug in will let you do just that.

When creating new opportunities, simply enable the “share nationally” option and that’s all there is to it. In the background, the plugin creates the opportunity and uploads the provider details. The opportunity is searchable on Do-it.org and Google almost instantly.

After a prospective volunteer finds the opportunity they will be directed back to your opportunities page, where they can then sign up and join in. You’ll get the benefits of TeamKinetic’s management tools plus the advantage of being listed on Do-it.org, the UK’s largest volunteer website. Win-win!

Stevie Wonders: Signed, Sealed and Delivered (V 7.3)

By

On 21st November 2017

In Application Features and Tutorials, Technical Updates

 

Stevie Wonders: Signed, Sealed and Delivered (V 7.3)

Breathing a sigh of relief following the successful release of the latest update for TeamKinetic, I wondered just how many changes and tweaks we had made to the system since our last update. Although tempted to create a song about them, our initial pre-production proved more challenging than expected. We decided a list would have to suffice (for now at least).

We acknowledge as a tech-based company there is a certain expectation that we release regular updates, debugging our system, improving functions and performing general maintenance. But I would argue that TeamKinetic take customer feedback to a whole new level in terms of integrating it into our updates, where the vast majority of new functions come directly from customer requests and workshops.

Our first method is our annual TeamKinetic Conference, hosted in Manchester, where we spend the whole day listening to our clients and industry leaders t0 construct a roadmap for the development of our system.

The second is through speaking and listening to our clients through regular phone calls, emails, conversations and training sessions.

Knowing we take the time to listen and deliver to our customers gives us great satisfaction, and I believe sets us above the rest.

Having gone through the extensive testing process to get our latest version of VolunteerKinetic signed off. I re-examined the list of updates and thought a few of our customers would appreciate the shear number of changes that have been made, and would probably identify many updates in relation to conversations they have had with us.

We understand that for many, just knowing that the functions work is satisfactory, but for those who express a greater interest in our system we thought we would share a complete list of version 7.2 updates.

Volunteer Registration
New address lookup and controls for provider, Volunteers, Opportunities, System Profiles, TryVolunteering registration
The ability for Admins to HIDE emergency contact from volunteer registration pages.
Ability for Super Admin to change REGISTER AS PROVIDER button colour
Make Vol and Prov registrations optional via admin switch so the functions are hidden from the homepages

 

Volunteer Opportunities
Move Opportunity Categories to the SUPER ADMIN menu, under OPTIONS
Create more help videos for creating opportunities
Create one-way sharing limiter on the search, so linked organisations can opt to share opportunities one way with other systems
Remove Add Event section from CREATE OPPS page as this can be confusing to users
Allow providers to convert opps from regular to flexible.
Allow admin to action MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES at the same time (including authorising opportunities)
Update: Ability for OPPS to be filtered by ACTIVITY (providers & admin)
Time stamp when volunteers join an opp (this will be used for reporting and export functions)
Set character limits on the PERKS and SKILLS boxes?
Allow Documents to be uploaded to opportunities, which are visible to volunteers

 

Volunteer Manager Reports
Change provider reports so they reflect only their volunteers (YOUR VOLS and LINKED VOLS) not a global report on ALL vols on system
Move reports to 2 columns with a SIDE MENU
Volunteer HourTrades
Ability to download hourtrade data
Add toggle for HourTrade, remove from menu when off
Move HOUR TRADE VOUCHERS page to menu

 

Volunteer Surveys
Change hover over tip to Survey field – Volunteer ID Parameter Name
Add Survey links to opportunities
Add Survey link Unique Parameters (so each volunteer gets sent a unique survey which can be traced back to them)

 

Events
When a volunteer is not on any events, a notice should reflect this on their EVENTS page
Improve the layout of the EVENTS PROFILE edit box
When an admin or provider adds an EVENT there should be a default banner image

 

Address Lookup
EDIT  address lookup and controls for ADMINS, PROVIDERS, and VOLUNTEERS in 17 pages
Add select COUNTRY to all address pages
make ADDRESS LOOKUP field RED (so it is highlighted) on the Volunteer EDIT page

 

Volunteer Achievement Badges
Improve achievements page and added a download format
Allow download of achievement badges and who has attained each badge level

 

User Guides
Create PROVIDERS online user guide page
populate PROVIDERS guide with relevant information on every function

 

Volunteer Timelines
Add timeline and stats to volunteers achievements page
Allow admin to view volunteers timelines

 

Courses
Ability to DELETE an application form from a course

 

Other
Download Volunteer or Provider DATA should show ACTIVE or REMOVED fields
Auto Refresh page after a group is added or removed.
Change provider link to only show currently linked and then have a search bar/auto suggest adding new links. Only include active providers.
Ability to sort feedback on provider or volunteer by thumbs up or thumbs down
Remove the CLUB tab from providers page, if the org hasn’t purchased the module
Put Clients T&Cs above our T&Cs

Why TeamKinetic has gone mobile

By

On 4th May 2017

In News & Views, Policy and Operations, Technical Updates

As TeamKinetic makes it iOS application available to its customers and existing volunteers, we discuss the evidence that has driven this change and our hopes of making volunteering even more accessible.

The march of technology is relentless, and the pressure on organisations in sport and the 3rd sector to offer multi-channel and multi-platform solutions to better engage with their stakeholders continues to grow as they compete for attention against a sea of other content. These trends mean that making TeamKinetic available on mobile was essential.

mobile usage by country – Comscore

The data shows that the time spent on mobile has surpassed that spent on other web-enabled devices, and this trend is consistent in developed and developing economies. It is not a case of “if mobile is important?”, but to acknowledge its predominance in the decision-making process for future development.

Dominance of multi-platform applications

The evidence is clear; consumers now expect a multi-platform product that allows them to switch between the different versions of the platform, undertaking some tasks on their desktop and others on their phone or tablet. With other data suggesting these browsing choices are time of day dependent.

on-line device usage by time of day

When looking at how to engage with your audience, in our case volunteers. We have to accept these trends and offer a product that can cater to the desires and expectations of the user.

Using the mobile platform, both in its native application format and via the mobile browser, not only have we been able to increase the potential reach and time available to browse, we can also access additional functionality.

The use of GPS and geo-location services, open-auth protocols to make signing in and staying signed in easier and using the camera or address book are all examples of technologies that work particularly well on a phone to improve customer experience. Our founding belief at TeamKinetic is to always keep the volunteer and their experience central to our design philosophy, so the decision to create the app was easy to make.

This is our first step of many as a truly multi-platform company, no doubt we have plenty to learn if we want to recreate our desktop experience on a much smaller device, but working with our customers, that’s our ambition. The rewards for success for our customers, the Sports Clubs, charities and communities are potential too great to ignore.

We must constantly challenge ourselves to look at our organisations and consider how well we provide services and how accessible they are. We must push to deliver to stakeholders the experience they have come to expect.

TeamKinetic products will provide that level of service at a fraction of the cost of in-house development.  Please get in touch to see a demo of our system and how it might improve your stakeholder engagement, build your community and change your world.

Version 6.5 Update

By

On 10th August 2015

In Technical Updates

Version 6.5 of VolunteerKinetic has now been rolled out across all systems. It represents a minor update to the software and contains the following key features.

Ability to Share Opportunities With Other Systems

You can now request your system to be linked with another system, allowing you to promote your opportunities to a wider cohort of volunteers. This update originated from GreaterSport where all 10 local authorities and 3 university systems have now been linked together across Greater Manchester, so when a provider or administrator creates an opportunity in any of the 13 systems they are asked if they want to share with their larger network.

How To Link Systems

1) Raise a support ticket detailing which system you want to be linked to.
2) Once your system is linked, you will see an additional question when creating opportunities (shown below), if you change this option to YES then the opportunity will be made available across all systems within that linked group.

Example: If you are only linked to one other system, by selecting YES your opportunity will be viewed by volunteers on both systems.

Capture

These external volunteers will be able to join the opportunity and the provider of the opportunity will be able to see the volunteers basic information and communicate with them in the normal way. So it will look and feel no different to the volunteers or providers.

The logged hours will belong to the system the opportunity is created in. But admins will be able to see a report showing how many hours their volunteers have done on external opportunities.

If you would like your system to be linked to another organisation the please let us know (obviously this will require consent from all parties).

Custom Areas

Administrators can now setup and search volunteers via their own set of geographical areas. So when the admin goes to the FIND VOLUNTEERS screen and clicks on the TOGGLE MORE SEARCH OPTIONS button they can choose to search for volunteers who come from their defined area list.

To do this you will need to raise a support ticket requesting an AREAS template, we will then send you an Excel spreadsheet with a list of all Outcodes in the UK.

Note: Outcodes are the first part of a postcode eg. L2 4GH the outcode would be L2, or M32 5KG   the outcode would be M32.

Once you have completed the spreadsheet and sent it back, we will upload it to your system and the extra fields will appear on the RESIDENT IN AREA dropdown as shown below:

Capture

Provider Groups

A number of our customers will be using VolunteerKinetic to manage support programs such as Sports Leaders programmes or Duke of Edinburgh which includes recording and monitoring young peoples volunteering activity.

In this release we have enabled providers to create their own groups and move their volunteers between these groups. This will allow schools, that are providers to place their students in their corresponding class or Sports Leaders group and target opportunities and communications to them directly.

In addition we now allow volunteers to register via providers profile page, this automatically links the volunteer to the provider so the provider can see their logged hours and communicate with them.

Providers can also direct volunteers to a REGISTER AND GROUP page (shown below) this looks the same as the normal providers profile page but it allows volunteers to select a provider group when they register (eg. sports leaders L1) this will automatically put the volunteer into a specific provider group saving the provider the hastle of manually grouping them.

Capture

Reporting Snapshot

Just a quick change at the top of the REPORTING > REPORTING & ANALYSIS page to give some basic stats about your members. This shows the same opportunity stats as on the home page but also adds average age plus minimum and maximum age.

Interestingly this has brought to light an issue where genuine accounts have been added with seemingly incorrect birthdates giving some very young volunteers! It appears that people are entering the right day and month but not the correct year.

We will look at ways to make this less likely and will also be contacted all younger members (<16) to ask them to check and correct their profiles if their birthdate is incorrect.CaptureThere are also the usual small improvements, bug fixes and layout changes that all help to put a shine on the user interface. Still big news to come about version 7, TeamKinetic and our national site.

VolunteerKinetic – Version 6.2

By

On 8th July 2015

In News & Views, Technical Updates

Version 6.2 is an interim release adding some sought after features and all the usual small fixes and improvements. It went live at the start of July, some of the new features include the following:

Provider Profile Page

provider profile edit page

EDIT profile page

Providers can now create their own web page which can be viewed by users even if they are not registered on the system.  All they have to do is goto PROFILE > YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE from their menu bar. Here they can upload their own profile images and descriptions, and preview what it will look like before they save it.

We have also added the ability for opportunity providers to set a custom website address making it much easier to promote (see right).

The providers custom web address looks like http://demo.volunteerkinetic.com/profile/custom-name-here

The biggest change was adding the ability to automatically link new volunteer registrations to an opportunity provider via the providers profile page. This is great for situations where an opportunity provider may need to communicate with a particular group of newly registered volunteers, even before they have joined any of their opportunities.

This is being used right now for schools, whereby each school directs their pupils to their profile page, when the pupils register by clicking the REGISTER TO ACCESS THESE OPPORTUNITIES button (see below) they automatically become LINKED to the school. The school can then contact all their signed up pupils and direct them to their new opportunities or add them manually, they can also track which pupils have signed up and how many hours they have logged on the schools opportunities.

Note: Providers can view all volunteers who have previously joined one of their opportunities via the MANAGE VOLUNTEERS > YOUR VOLUNTEERS screen, they can also view volunteers who have been LINKED to them either by the administrator or by registering via a providers profile page, by going to the MANAGE VOLUNTEERS > YOUR LINKED VOLUNTEERS screen.

PREVIEW profile page

PREVIEW profile page

Dont worry, all volunteer information and logged hours are recorded on your system in the normal way, the only difference is the volunteers are automatically linked to the provider.  This new approach encourages providers to promote their profile page, which will in turn promote your system and increase your volunteer workforce.

Geographical Grouping Of Volunteers

Finding and grouping volunteers is especially important for our national customers. There is now the ability to search for voluntees in a pre-defined geographical areas.  All you have to do is upload a custom area file that matches postcodes to your functional areas, be it counties, cities or something more abstract like north, south, east and west. You can also use this search criteria to send group emails to specific volunteers.

Other new features;

  • maximum age for an opportunity as well as minimum
  • its now impossible to remove (delete) an opportunity that has recorded hours
  • Search for volunteers depending on whether they have opted in or out of weekly emails

Keep an eye out for the V7 article which covers the major changes coming with the next version of VolunteerKinetic where it will morph into TeamKinetic, our new integrated solution.

 

VolunteerKinetic is a volunteer management web solution that makes it quick and easy to manage thousands of volunteers from one integrated dashboard.

TeamKinetic Version 6 – New Events and Provider Layout

By

On 8th March 2015

In TeamKinetic Features, Technical Updates

This is one in a series of posts where I will be discussing the new features and changes we have built into version 6 of our volunteer management software TeamKinetic.

We often get asked how providers can tell volunteers a little about themselves and promote their organisation to the volunteers. Previously the provider profile has been limited to a few words and a logo.

In TeamKinetic Version 6 we have improved the look and feel of the provider profile immensely. Providers can now add a large background header image, overlayed with their logo and organisation name. There is also a WYSIWYG* text editor where they can complete their profile text, choosing their own colour scheme and font sizes.

You take a look at First Choice Sports‘ profile on our demo site.

We have also added a similar layout for the events pages which advertise and promote an event and the opportunities and roles available within that event. In addition, the events home page lets you add documents for the volunteers to download.

We think these changes will greatly enhance the visual experience for the volunteer and hopefully lead to more volunteer signups for events.

*What you see is what you get – A text editor that allows you to see exactly how your text will appear to the end user.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

 

Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

Page 5 of 7

← Previous

Next →

Search

Subscribe to our blog

Enter your email address to subscribe to the TeamKinetic blog and receive notifications of new posts and stories.

Join 1,713 other subscribers.

Contact Details

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén