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DayPoint Provides Seamless Answer to Multi-Application Challenge Collaboration System Serves as Portal Cornerstone  
Providing software applications housed in a common and easy-to-access location for their dozens of partner companies became more than a challenge for Career Partners International (CPI), a group of human resources consulting firms. Information was everywhere - at least pieces of it - without being linked together. Various applications required different licenses, creating a management headache for CPI, not to mention their partner companies, which provide career transition and management consulting for candidates on a daily basis. A particular frustration was the inability to post, disseminate or manage information within a single application that also provided calendaring and contact management functions.
One partner that experienced this frustration was Kensington International located, near Chicago. Kensington provides executive coaching and outplacement services. For years, Kensington had assembled information on paper and diskettes to distribute to their job-seeking candidates on a weekly basis. This time-consuming and costly manual process proved to be inefficient and often resulted in information discrepancies. According to Ann Richards, Kensington International vice president of administration and technology, candidates found it difficult to navigate from one application to another because of the disunity of the systems. "While the dollar cost wasn't extraordinary in our previous manual process, the lack of efficiency was painful," Richards stated. "We needed a way to improve our communications and streamline how information was distributed."
To remedy the problem faced by CPI and its partner companies like Kensington, CPI decided it was time to make changes. Under the direction of Katy O'Leary, CPI's technology manager, an existing application portal was completely revamped so that all applications would work seamlessly with one another. In order to include the appropriate application for file storage and retrieval, calendaring and task management, CPI set out on a search via the Internet. As the search was conducted, it was important to find an application that demonstrated the ability to integrate with the other applications within the portal. After reviewing numerous collaboration solutions, they determined DayPoint Enterprise by TeamPoint Systems best fit their needs and criteria for the new portal. DayPoint Enterprise was selected not only for its depth of functionality, but the ease of integration within the portal to create a seamless user experience for CPI's partners and their employees. O'Leary then mobilized her CPI technology development staff to re-create a portal with DayPoint Enterprise as a focal point. Specifications were drawn up and ideas were discussed as input was solicited from partner companies via a survey about what they wanted and needed in this portal. A mock-up design was developed and presented during one of the partner meetings at which time the partner companies gave their ideas and suggestions on the portal design. O'Leary's team then worked on all the changes and prepared the portal for beta-testing. Once the beta tests were completed, the portal was officially launched. The portal design allowed each partner company to customize the portal's look to reflect their own branding and establish a sense of ownership. Because of the intuitive design of the portal and the ease of use of the DayPoint Enterprise application, partner firms began using the portal almost immediately upon launch. Little training was required, allowing the candidates of partner companies instant access to the information they needed for their career searches. The candidates quickly embraced this seamless application access through the new portal. It became clear from this initial launch that DayPoint Enterprise had become a critical component of the portal because of its import/export function, file and link storage capability, contact management, calendaring and task management functionality, all housed within one application. CPI referred to DayPoint Enterprise within the portal as 'My DayBook,' wherein candidates could easily manage the information pertaining to their career transition. Of the CPI partner companies using the portal and specifically DayPoint Enterprise routinely, Kensington International emerged as a front-runner. The Kensington consultants are able to group their assigned candidates into similar categories and inform the entire group simultaneously about events and other related information. Much of this is accomplished through DayPoint's import/export function, which provides a simple method for candidates to upload information to the portal and download as necessary. This capability is especially important to Kensington as it can be done without involving a consultant. In the past, consultants had to be available to field telephone calls, faxes and other correspondence that is now handled within DayPoint Enterprise through the client portal. Not only does this save money, it streamlines the communications between Kensington candidates and consultants. And, CPI can easily post updates to all of their partner companies using a similar process without having to make multiple postings to reach all personnel. "From an administrative standpoint, we're able to use the portal to instantly post news, events and important information directly into DayPoint Enterprise," O'Leary said. "Then, with a simple email notification, we can quickly alert and notify all of our partner companies about news and informational postings. The administrative burden of mobilizing a large team to handle these same tasks is completely eliminated." With the newly designed portal and DayPoint Enterprise collaboration tool, CPI has successfully provided their partner companies a means of improving operational efficiencies. Candidates, like those working with Kensington, now need only to log-in once, which provides access to all the applications and tools housed in the portal. "The single sign-on capability was important," O'Leary stressed. "We recognized it was cumbersome and inefficient for a candidate to log-in to each application. The single sign-on not only resolves that issue but relieves our staff from having to set up every application for each candidate or partner company." Consistency in communication has greatly improved. The DayPoint Enterprise application has become the primary depository of all critical, time-sensitive and confidential information. Candidates have 24/7 access to all of their contacts, career opportunity files, resumes, event notifications and schedules. And, when a candidate moves on with a new career, their data can easily be downloaded and exported to take with them. "It's a value-add," Richards said. "We're in the business of helping manage careers. Having the right tool in place makes this process as smooth and simple as possible. That makes all the difference in the world for a positive client experience." O'Leary added, "This is only the beginning. We're constantly looking for ways to help our partner companies cost-effectively gain the greatest benefit from our portal applications. Technology and people change constantly. It's our job to stay ahead of the curve to deliver the solutions that improve business processes."  Visit Career Partners International's website. |
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