Number 23 / Summer 2005 Newsletter for Residential Management Systems ® INSIDE How to manage judicial issues Users corner ......... 2 Walking about with RMS ............. 3 Advice for technophobes ....... 4 RMS Lifeguard ... 4 Send questions or comments to: Residential Management Systems 7701 Six Forks Road, Suite 120 Raleigh, NC 27615 Phone: (919) 845-9004 Fax: (919) 845-9005 Email: sales@rms-inc.com Website: www.rms-inc.com A ... and make paper disappear! nnouncing a completely pure internet judicial affairs management tool assisting you with your campus judicial issues. Gathering, managing and reporting judicial information on your campus, just became a whole lot easier! RMS has the solution for you, your staff and your campus. Completely web based judicial means granting controlled access to other staff easily and efficiently. Allow other areas of the campus to file reports, follow up on meetings, hear a conduct case directly through a web browser. Paper will virtually disappear! Completely customizable lists, types, classifications, labels and more make the Judicial Affairs Manager unique to your site. Talk to your peers and then talk to us! For the very best call RMS! Get parole from paperwork with Judicial Affairs Manager. A module that manages all of the judicial processes on campus from incident to outcome. Users Corner Hello everyone, W ELCOME TO summer, like most of you, we are deep into allocating students for the fall term. Your executive committee is hard at work in develop a new user’s group web site. J.D. is currently on his honeymoon (Congratulations J.D.) and will resume work on the site when he returns. Also you can look forward to receiving the business survey shortly. Finally, we are starting to plan next year’s conference, so start thinking about suggestions for possible sessions. Reminder: Do not forget to check the RMS Web site for manual updates and “Phil’s” Room Assignment/Management Cliff Notes. The following tip works with either MS Word or Excel (2003) for an oracle installation. Setup an ODBC connection to the Oracle database. This will require the installation of the Oracle client on the workstation. Create a connection called RMSREPORTS, which should be similar to the ODBC connection setup on your server. Next, your MS Office needs to have MS Query installed. For Word, You can do a mailmerge document and used an MS Query data source. If you get stuck send a e-mail to th e user’s group listserve. (Time Saver Tip: Do the hard work of your query in a view on the Oracle side then reference the view in MS Query data source). For MSSQL sites, you should be able to do a similar procedure. In closing, remember that we are here for you, so do not hesitate to contact any of us! Susan ® Harry JD Trevor Susan Strobel Hogan Harry Boumeester J.D. Wallace University of Arkansas Trevor Joubert University of Capetown sgstrobe@mail.smu.edu boumeest@post.queensu.ca jdw@uark.edu Trevor@ITS.uct.ac.za Add your school to our growing client list Abilene Christian University Babson College Baylor University Boise State University Brigham Young University, Hawaii Brigham Young University, Provo Butler University California Polytechnic State University California State University, Chico California State University, Northridge Camden Living/TAMU-CC Central Missouri State University Colorado State University Columbia International College Columbia University DeMontfort University DePaul University Eastern Washington University Educational Housing Services Emporia State University Fayetteville State University Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University Florida International University George Mason University Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Southern University Iowa State University James Madison University Kent State University King’s College London Kingston University Lincoln Hospitality, Christchurch NZ Longwood University Loyola University, Chicago Loyola University, New Orleans Marquette University McMaster University Memorial University Mercer University Michigan State University Middle Tennessee State University Montclair State University Moody Bible Institute New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State Univ. North Carolina Central University Northeastern University Northern Illinois University Northern Kentucky University Northwest Missouri State University Northwestern College & Radio Northwestern University Olivet Nazarene University Oregon State University Penn State College of Medicine Hershey Purdue University Queen’s University San Diego State University San Jose State University Sonoma State University Southeast Missouri State University Southern Methodist University Stevens Institute of Technology Student Village, Victoria University SUNY at Stony Brook Tarleton State University Temple University Texas State University, San Marcos Texas Tech University The Art Institute of Chicago The Evergreen State College The University of Mississippi The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina, Charlotte The University of Southern Mississippi Towson University Tulane University University Center of Chicago University of Akron University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa University of Arkansas University of Buffalo University of California, San Diego University of California, Santa Barbara University of California, Irvine University of California, San Francisco University of Cape Town University of Central Florida University of Cincinnati University of Denver University of Derby University of Georgia University of Hartford University of Houston University of Kansas University of Louisville University of Maine System, Southern University of Maine, Farmington University of Maine, Ft. Kent University of Maine, Machias University of Maine, Orono University of Maine, Presque Isle University of Manitoba University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth University of Massachusetts, Lowell University of Minnesota University of North Alabama University of North Carolina, Wilmington University of North Florida University of North Texas University of Notre Dame University of Pennsylvania University of Pittsburgh-Bradford University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown University of Pittsburgh-Oakland University of Pittsburgh-Titusville University of Prince Edward Island University of Southern Indiana University of St. Thomas University of Surrey University of Tennessee, Chattanooga University of Texas, Tyler University of the Free State University of the Witwatersrand University of Toronto, Mississauga University of Toronto, Scarborough University of Waikato, Hamilton NZ University of Waterloo University of West Florida University of Wisconsin, Green Bay University of Wyoming Utah State University Wake Forest University Wichita State University Winthrop University Wright State University Xavier University A w D Do yo again group If th soluti releas compo conne RM mind your s the fu room sion o Usi a web netwo functi • Ch enc • Ch to a • Cre nan • Up item • Sea del • Vie req • Up reg wh RM enhan Loo ware a ment g ’s an g le d all nn d. a er ce o ct n g oga h Z Anywhere you want it! D RMS Walkabout puts most RMS functions on most handhelds O YOUR STUDENTS often complain about your lengthy check out process? Do your staff experience long lines during check in and out of students or conference delegates? Would you like to track and manage damages and inventory at the students’ room? Do you often print roster reports for RA’s and RD’s only to have to print it again the next day due to changes? Would you like to greet a conference group in the parking lot to complete their registration process? If these scenarios are near and dear to your heart, RMS has the solution for you! RMS Walkabout is the latest in module releases from RMS that allows you to interact with core components of RMS in real time and through a wireless connection. RMS Walkabout has been designed with you in mind and to eliminate the headaches of your staff and students. We have taken all the functionality you need at the students’ room and incorporated it into a ‘lite’ version of RMS. Using almost any handheld device with a web browser and wireless connection your network, you can perform the following functions: • Check in and out of students and conferWe have taken all ence guests • Charges and credits (ie: damage billing) of the functionality to a student or delegates’ room account • Create work orders and define mainteyou need at the nance issues from anywhere • Update inventory and the status of the studentsʼ room and items in the room • Search for information on students or incorporated into a delegates • View rosters and other reports as ʻliteʼ version of RMS. required • Update housekeeping information with regard to what rooms need servicing and when these task have been completed RMS Housing and Conference software provide an extended and enhanced solution to you and your customers! Look for additional functionality as we integrate with our partner software applications. Meal plan changes, lock encoding, parking management and maintenance system updates will soon be possible. Reader lost in Acronym Land T HIS PAGE is dedicated to you, our readers. If there are issues you would like to see discussed in this newsletter, please write to us at RMS at sales@rmsinc.com Dear RMS, I hear so many acronyms from RMS Support, occasionally I get confused. What does WPP, SWSA and MTV mean? ~ Lost in Acronym Land Dear Lost in Acronym Land, Sometimes we get so used to these terms in our office, that we occasionally forget that some of our users don’t know what they actually mean. We’ll try to do better! For the record: WPP means Weekly Production Patch. For RMS they are fixes and new functionality, generally sent out (installed) due to a request from the client, or we identify a site as needing it due to an issue that has come up. receive a tracking number. The tracking number then allows you to follow up on the status of the request and ensure that it is resolved to your satisfaction. A couple of notes about RMS Support: • 1) The RMS support staff are very good at what they do, however, they are not mind readers. If you find something that is bothering you, submit it through HelpStar. Don’t let an issue simmer, please submit it via HelpStar so we can review and respond to the issue. • 2) There are times of the year that are busier than others. The Summer time frame is extremely busy for all clients as they run assignments and letters. That means it is also extremely busy for us, taking in anywhere from 20-30+ calls per day. As you are well aware, sup- porting our clients is not like desktop support. The issues are not resolved by reciting lines from a manual. The issues are complex and involve business practices that always must be considered and in doing so, adds to the time to resolve an issue. Please be patient, we do our best to get back to you in a reasonable amount of time and attempt to resolve your issues as quickly as possible. A few pieces of information that would be helpful for the support team would be to include the exact error message, the errordump file (if one is created), the steps to reproduce and also the absolute latest date that you need to run that particular process. If you feel that the assigned support member is not keeping you updated in a timely manner, please feel free to send a note to the Technical Support Manager (Derrek Jennings) at djennings@rms-inc.com for review. So get on the web and submit those HelpStar issues! http://www.rms-inc. com/ and click on the ‘Support’ tab at the top. music, and travelling. I help teach the four year-old Sunday school class and work in the nursery in the evenings at my church. The young ladies I work with have named me the “Baby Whisperer” which is a reference to a movie I have not seen called “The Horse Whisperer”, but if you have you’ll probably get it. I have enjoyed this first year working with all of you, and even getting to meet some of you at the user’s conference. I can’t really express how delightful it was to put faces to names, and I hope that as another year goes by that I will have opportunity to meet and get to know more of you. ASK OUR TECHS ANYTHING YOU WANT http://www.patchmanagement.org offers some good information on the topic. SWSA means Student Web Self Assign and is commonly used to describe our new version of the student web. The big enhancement of the newly designed student web is the ability for clients to allow students to self assign rooms. The whole student web module has been overhauled and we invite you to take a look at it anytime you wish. MTV....well we think you may have this confused with Music Television. Sorry. http://www.mtv.com Dear RMS, What is HelpStar and why should I use it? ~ New User Dear New User, HelpStar is the software our Support Desk uses to manage all of the requests coming from RMS Users, like yourself. It is a web-based tool which allows you to file the request online and Player profiles One of a series on RMS staff Luke Dary H Technical Support Specialist owdy! I write to you all after a year here at RMS on the support team, and for those who have not yet met or worked with me I want to tell you that anything you may have heard about me is blatantly false...unless it is good, and then it is true. I came here from working with the Resnet at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon (Go Beavs!). I have a B.S. degree in Business Administration with a minor in Athletic Administration. Some of my previous work experience includes lifeguarding, youth pastor, and computer specialist for an environmental monitoring project near my hometown. Other than spending my time supporting all of you fine folk I also enjoy swimming, disc golf, going to movies, making