Coming in 2010

2010 is finally here and we have a lot of new and exciting things happening this year.  Starting with the release of HR Manage 3.6 later this month and a lot more functionality and modules scheduled for release later this year.  We will also be upgrading our infrastructure and we are developing a new online support system that will be integrated with our own Business Management System.

Release of HR Manage 3.6

This is the next release of our very successful Human Resources Software suite of products.  This version is still based on the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and like version 3.5, is fully compatible with all the latest operating systems from Microsoft.  This includes Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2008 R2 and works in both 32-bit and 64-bit mode.  This new version includes several new features to increase performance or to make the system even more user friendly.  Some of these features include:

• Improved installation and updating
  
  • Thanks to the new tools being used, the installation files are now half the size they used be, making it faster to download and install
  • New versions can now be installed over the existing version without the need to first uninstall the previous version
  • HR Manage will automatically check for updates when starting up, ensuring that all the client computers are always up to date
• Integrated Spell Checking
  • Spell checking will now be included in all areas of HR Manage with similar red underlining and correction options as MS Word
• Main integration application improved
  • HR Manage is divided into separate modules which can be run either directly or via the main program.  This main program has been improved to provide a more integrated look-and-feel with the other modules and also includes a new dashboard  with summarised statistics of each module.
• New 3rd party components
  • We've bought new 3rd party software components that will be included in this new version.  The provider of these components is an American based company who has been in the business for more than 20 years and their products are of high quality.
  • These new components will improve performance and visual effects throughout the program making HR Manage even more functionally rich as they are implemented
• Outlook-style calendars
  • These management tools will be viewable from the HR Manage windows application as well as the web and will be available for modules such as Training Administration, Leave Administration, etc.

All existing clients with maintenance agreements in place with us will receive this upgrade as part of our agreement.

New functionality planned for 2010

With the release of HR Manage 3.6, most of 2010 will be spent on expanding and improving on our current modules.  This will include making more of the modules accessible via the web interface and implementing some of the nice-to-have features (like the Outlook-style calendar) in other parts of the program.  We will also focus on improving our recently released Survey & Assessment module.

One new module that will be introduced in the next couple of months is a new Incident reporting / Quality management system.  This will allow employees to log into the web and log an incident which will then be sent to a specific list of people (based on the type of incident) to deal with the matter.  The system will manage the reporting, tracking and management of all these incidents.  A release date will be announced soon.

Then finally we are also looking at providing HR Manage as a software service for smaller companies (less than 50 employees).  We are still investigating the options and will publish more information at a later stage.

Our server is moving

Due to an increase in customers being hosted on our server and our company's plans to expand further internationally this year, we're upgrading our server and moving it to Johannesburg.  The new server is 3 times as powerful as the previous one and will be connected directly to various networks including the MTN Business Network.  With the increased capacity, bandwidth and network speed, all of our clients being hosted on the server should benefit from this.  The new server will also host the installation / update files for our various clients with the new Automatic Update feature in HR Manage.