Quantum staff presented 15 significant InPlace enhancements released in the last 12 months and outlined the major roadmap items for the upcoming 12 months.
All attendees participated in an active discussion about potential improvements that could address individual pain points in the universities. A consolidated summary list from that discussion will feed into the development plans for InPlace over the next few months.
The University of Ulster presented a session on their experience with the deployment of the product to the School of Nursing over a six month period in 2013. That deployment included three significant product enhancements and is the UK’s first full end to end implementation utilising pretty well all of the Health focussed functionality of InPlace. The presentation concluded with an award of a Gold Medal for customer service to the UK support team (Glenn and Tom).
KCL conducted a walkthrough of their Nursing and Midwifery School implementation which highlighted many interesting features and opportunities. KCL are looking at a university wide rollout in the near future.
Breakout groups focussed on Health and Education had highly productive sessions exchanging ideas about the use of InPlace to support their respective disciplines. The UK move toward School managed teacher training (School Direct) presents a most interesting opportunity to universities using InPlace to deliver a full service model to School partners using university supplied standards through InPlace functions to help schools manage the whole process from acceptance of a student or placement through to assessment. This would significantly reduce the burden of managing the process for schools and ensure consistent application of standards across many schools for the universities.
Nottingham Trent demonstrated their implementation with a focus on the new Opportunities functionality which supports interaction with employers and students for the advertising and assignment of students to Internships. NTU went live on 6 January five months after contract execution, and have received very positive feedback from students and other participants. The full university rollout is proceeding under an exceptionally well managed project.
A Quantum funded dinner on Wednesday night, whilst possibly not a fair representation of the finest of London’s dining offerings, was very memorable.
Dinner aside, the first User Group meeting was a very positive and affirming event. Both current and future users left reassured by the direction of the product and agreed to reconvene in 12 months with a university organised User Group, at a venue to be determined.
