Department Manager Software Highlights
- Obtain better
control of account and project expenditures
- Increase
office efficiency
- Set quality
control standards
- Provide
flexible, easy to read reports to faculty and senior administrators
- Project
and encumber personnel costs from multiple funding sources
- Generate
consolidated reports from multiple corporate entities
- Manage special
commitments & information unique to your department with user-defined
coding systems
- Track pending
grant proposals, future personnel actions, and information for
faculty evaluations
- Electronically
interface to your college or university financial system
- Allow simultaneous
data access to multiple users
- Obtain training,
continuous user support, and software modifications to meet unique
departmental needs
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User
Comments
“It’s
a more advanced level of department managment. Reports generated by these
administrative financial planning systems provide the tools I need to track history, analyze the
current climate, project and identify future needs, and develop
long-range plans. I expected increased efficiency in department
operations, but the feeling of self-esteem and team building among
employees now managing their own day-to-day operations has been
a major bonus!”
- Annie
Schilling, Basic Sciences Department Administrator
“The greatest
benefit we receive from Department Manager Software is its flexibility
and reporting features. Many Department Manager Software packages have the ability to perform
data entry, but few have the capability to transfer the data into
so many reporting formats. I couldn’t do without Department
Manager.”
- Mark
Kramer, Cancer Center Administrator
“Monthly
administrative financial reports that took five to six weeks are now typically
generated in two days.”
- Neil
F. Holsing, Technology Manager
“In today’s
business environment we need to be fast, fluid, and flexible.
Now Department Manager Software provides us with these capabilities.
-
Kathy Qualls, Director of Business Operations
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Department Manager
Software Customer
Stories
Re-budgeting
faculty salaries in under two hours: An account of an actual situation
that occurred in the Department of Physiology at a major state
owned Medical School.
The Dean of
the School of Medicine was in the final stages of recruiting a
new chairman for the department. During the final negotiations,
the School’s Dean of Administration gave the department
two hours to identify additional grant funds in their existing state
budget to be applied to the chair’s salary. Because the
previous chairman had only stepped down to continue his research,
the state-funded portion of his salary was not available.
The solution
to this problem would require the university grant manager to quickly identify
sources of cost sharing in the department’s state-funded
positions that could be alleviated. The business manager solved
this problem by using Department Manager Software from IT
Works. First, the Grant Module
was used to produce reports that compared the effort individual
faculty had committed to their grants versus what was actually
being paid by the grants. Combinations of faculty and grants with
significant levels of cost sharing were quickly identified. Effort
reports from the Personnel Module were used to double-check the
results. The Accounting Module was used to verify that the grant
balances were sufficient to reduce the cost sharing. New salary
distribution information was entered into the Personnel Module
for the candidate. Existing salary distributions were ended for
several faculty members. New salary distributions providing more
compensation from grants and less from state funds were added.
The Position Control report in the Personnel Module was used to
verify that the necessary funds could be correctly moved to the
new chairman’s position. All of this was accomplished in
less than two hours. An offer could then be made to the chair
candidate.
Using user-defined cost centers to improve the day-to-day operations of a business
office: An account of the use of Department Manager Software in the Department of
Internal Medicine at a major Medical School.
The
financial administrators
of a Department of Internal Medicine were using fifteen accounts
(funds) to pay for over two hundred special commitments made to
department faculty. One accounting technician was available to
balance the commitments. This problem was easily solved with Department
Manger Software, because it allows both the official university account
number and the commitment cost center to be entered in the same
transaction. Thus, when the accounting technician balanced the
fifteen accounts each month, the commitments were being balanced
at the same time.
Using user-defined codes to classify expenses for better management: An account
of the use of Department Manager Software in a Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The Department
Manager Software Accounting Module is used in a Comprehensive Cancer Center
to help center administrators classify expenditures based on cost
criteria that help them manage the center. Codes have been established
for different types of expenses. For example, a code was established
to track photocopier expenses. Since copier expenses could be
charged to numerous accounts and multiple object codes, (copier
expenses can be charged to capital equipment, lease, service contract,
and supply object codes) the official university account coding
system was not adequate. By adding one extra code to each purchase
requisition, check request, or etc., these administrators are
able to monitor areas of expenditures that are important to the
center while maintaining compatibility with the university accounting
system. By transferring Department Manager Software summaries of these expenditures to a graphics
program, Cancer Center administrators are able to monitor expenditure
trends from year to year.
Using
reports developed for specific funding agencies: An account
of the use
of Department Manager Software in an NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The Department Manager
Software Grant Module is used at an NCI Comprehensive Cancer
Center to help prepare their NCI Core grant applications. Center administrators
have developed sophisticated coding systems that utilize the user definable
category, program, research type, research area, and interactive fields
of the database in order to track active and pending grants according to
rules defined by the National Cancer Institute. Database reports, such
as NCI Summary Form 2, Membership Lists, Tables of Existing/Pending Funded
Projects, etc. that utilize these fields are printed annually and included
in the NCI Core applications.
The implementation
process, from start to finish: The story of the Department of
Internal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati.
(Right click
and "Save Target As" to save, click link to view)
Case
Study
Department Manager
Software Brochure
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Department Manager
Software
Customer
Service
At IT Works,
customer service is our first priority! Our staff is committed
to customer satisfaction. We incorporate this attitude in all
aspects of our work, from product development to customer support.
Our approach to customer support begins with the initial installation
and continues with a long-term, service-oriented relationship.
The
Initial Installation of the Department Manager Software
We begin providing
individualized attention to each new client during the initial
installation process. We strive to make the transition to our
grant
management software as smooth as possible for everyone involved. Our Software
Installation Service involves more than merely copying some software
to a client’s computer. It includes:
- Installing Department
Manager software on a client’s network fileserver
- Preloading
Department Manager databases with data provided by the client
whenever possible
- Defining
users and setting up Department Manager Software security system
- Helping
develop client-specific data coding systems
- Developing
a customized training schedule/plan for the installation
Customer
Training
Our Training
Program is designed to help clients get the maximum use out of
our financial administration products. To accomplish this task, we use a series of face-to-face
training sessions, supplemented with on-line documentation and
Internet services. Our Training Program includes:
- Training
classes, tailored to meet the needs of individual clients,
are held for
both administrative and end users. These classes are held
at either the client’s offices or our training facility
in North Carolina. The typical training schedule includes
two two-day classes scheduled
two months apart and another day of training a few months
later. The actual schedule and number of days depends on
the size of
the installation and number of software modules installed.
- Supplemental
training sessions are held over the phone with the software being
controlled/displayed via the Internet using remote access software.
These sessions typically last about one hour.
- Additional information
about our software is provided to clients via either the on-line
documentation within the Department Manager software or a list
of answers to frequently asked questions in the customer-support
section of our web site.
Long-Term
Support
Once our
department manager software
is operational, the staff at IT Works is committed to helping
each client continue to improve in its use. Our software development
staff is constantly improving our products by adding new features
and incorporating new computer technologies as requested by our
clients. Our support staff is available to clients from 8:30 AM
to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday and provides long-term customer
support by:
Answering user
questions via telephone and e-mail
Remotely accessing a client’s system to troubleshoot problems
Providing supplemental training via telephone and remote access software
Making monthly software updates available for download from our web site
Constantly updating our documentation and web site to provide answers to frequently
asked questions
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Product History
In 1988, Information
Technology Works, Inc., began developing database applications
at the request of several medical school managers and administrators.
Independent systems were installed initially for maintaining the
balances of department accounts and special commitments, managing
active and pending grants and tracking upcoming personnel actions.
Over time, capabilities for protecting personnel expenditures
and producing new reports were added. Through this process, we
learned the relationship between grant, personnel and account
information from the departmental perspective.
Meanwhile, department
administrators began to realize the potential advantages of merging
their databases into an integrated application. By combining the
features of the department-specific databases, they could produce
(1) a more powerful system and (2) a standard for which accounting
and administrative staff could be trained. In addition, by installing
the modules on a Local Area Network (LAN), the applications would
increase office productivity. Administrative assistants could
pull information for projecting and encumbering personnel expenditures
in the Accounting Module. Likewise, the Grant Module could share
previously entered codes, as well as compare the productivity
of faculty.
Over time, Department
Manager has grown and expanded into additional university departments
and centers to aid decision makers in the often difficult task
of pulling relevant information together in a short amount of
time. For the first time, administrators are utilizing a “state-of-the-art” management
information system that was developed from their point of view.
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Technical
Requirements
Department
Manager is a Microsoft Visual Basic application. It can be installed
with either a MS Access or SQL Server backend. Reports are generated
with Crystal Reports.
Minimum
Workstation Requirements
500 MHz Pentium
II, 128 MB RAM, 1GB Free Hard Disk Space
Windows 98,NT,2000, or XP
Laser or Ink Jet Printer
Recommended
Workstation Configuration
700+ MHz Pentium
III, 256 MB RAM, 1GB Free Hard Disk Space
Windows 98, NT, 2000, or XP
600 by 800 Resolution
17 inch Monitor
Fileserver
Requirements for Server Installations
Microsoft NT,
2000, or 2003 or Novell Netware
1 GB Free Hard Disk Space
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