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Update Software Ltd designed and implemented a web-based report
authoring and assessment system to manage the Department of Health's
R&D Annual Reports. The system was commissioned at short notice
and to tight deadlines in 2003 and was delivered on time and on
budget. It has been used annually since 2003 by around 600 users
to write reports for almost 300 NHS organisations.
The system allows users in NHS organisations to:
- link sections of their current report to their reports from
previous years;
- see which sections need editing as a result of feedback from
the Department of Health from previous years;
- use context-sensitive help buttons that point to relevant sections of Department of Health guidance notes;
- follow electronic links to their organisation's National Research Register records;
- attach external documents to their reports;
- check spelling;
- calculate and cross-reference financial tables;
- manage user accounts through which report authors give their colleagues and co-authors access to the system;
- produce printer-friendly versions of their reports.
The report authoring system is also used by the Department of Health
to assess the annual reports. The assessment component allows the
Department to assess individual sections of each report, to write
feedback reports for each organisation, and then allows organisations
to respond to the feedback by amending their reports.
The annual reports and their assessments are stored in a secure
online database, and are additionally exported to a Microsoft Access
database which is delivered to the Department of Health. A number
of reports were produced by Update Software analysing the 2003 annual
reports showing where and how the Department's R&D budget is
being spent by NHS Trusts.
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