Cover System

[Reaper]

Hi all

 

Does anyone use software to do their Cover system that isn't their MIS system? If so is there anything anyone would recommend?

 

 

 

Thanks

[plexer]

Ours is done in excel with a new sheet for each day, would like to see what other people are using.

 

Ben

[vikpaw]

I believe that the Timetabler ™ program did cover too, though it probably relied on having the timetable present.

To make it easy it's always going to need access to the timetable so it makes sense to be part of the MIS. We use the one built into SIMS, works like a charm and publishes to the intranet.

What makes you look elsewhere?

[Sivadam]

Sorry,

Can't recommend anything that is better than Cover7 in SIMS!

That is if you are a SIMS user obviously!

[pshuttle]

I find the cover system in Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter to be up to the job....

[Reaper]

@vikpaw, we use Facility and the cover system for that is crap I'm told.

 

I'll look at TimeTabler, thanks for all the answers

[Reaper]

@pshuttle

 

My manager wants me to mark yours as the most helpful response ;-)

[pshuttle]

@pshuttle

 

My manager wants me to mark yours as the most helpful response ;-)

 

Much obliged!

[JPS]

@vikpaw, we use Facility and the cover system for that is crap I'm told.

 

I'll look at TimeTabler, thanks for all the answers

 

You ought to use it/see it before you accept its crap. I have been operating the Cover system in Facility for years now and I am a firm believer that it is very good and works really well. As long as your timetable is correct then you should have no problems. I wouldn't use anything else to do the job.

[Reaper]

The comment that it was crap came from my NM who has used it, so it's not an opinion he has just heard and reiterated

[TechMonkey]

We used to use one I knocked up in PHP and an Access database. User entered the data into the data base frontend and then a web page displayed the results. It had very basic stats for who had done how much cover but was very simplistic.

[plexer]

Google docs?

 

Ben

[michael2k6]

I used cover for two years before working for Serco, and back in those days, it was no where near what it is now, and I still didn't have any issues with it, other than it not being very friendly (greatly improved now).

It has to be said, of the complaints or requests I do get from schools, almost all of whom are using cover, cover is hardly ever mentioned, unless it's to ask about a piece of functionality within it they don't fully understand.

 

Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion, had the network manager had any training on it and tried using it on a day to day basis, or just having a gander? And a little off topic, but why is the network manager doing the cover?! Or was that in a previous post?

 

Mic

 

 

My opinions are my own and not necessarily the view of my employer or those associate with my employer.

[Reaper]

I don't know how much time he has spent on the cover system but he knows the rest of Facility pretty thoroughly. He doesn't do the cover itself but tends to learn how to use the systems so he can support the stuff that do eventually use them.

[john]

@vikpaw, we use Facility and the cover system for that is crap I'm told.

 

I'll look at TimeTabler, thanks for all the answers

How do you find it bad? I find it an excellent tool and the fact its practically automatic now and can be done via ePortal or Facility makes life great to work on it anywhere at any time for the approved users. You do have to set it up though and a lot of people don't seem to understand that, but as ever its all in the Facility guide books available via the support site.

[vikpaw]

It doesn't make sense to use something that isn't tied to your MIS, so unless it's really unusable the user should try to learn it better and live with it.

It will end up being more work in terms of support and config if you use something separate and then try to recreate functionality and / or take data from your MIS, it will end up being a hassle and you'll probably move back. Unless you really are happy with just a basic spreadsheet format or something.

The benefits of the built-in system are the reporting you can get. I know here they like the brownie points i'm sure it's the same elsewhere.