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The new Tasks feature changes Stages, Tasks and Users (External Assessors) in SmartyGrants

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SmartyGrants advise that the feature will automatically be enabled from 1 December 2018 for accounts that have not enabled it before then. Accounts set up from 29 August 2018 come with the new feature enabled.

 

After testing the new feature extensively, here are some general tips that might help you decide when to enable the feature and what preparation might be most effective.

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   NOTE: This is not tailored consulting advice - please consider your individual account setup and how you use

               SmartyGrants when planning and preparing to enable the new Tasks feature, and read and follow the

               advice in the SmartyGrants Help Hub documentation. The documentation shows you how to enable

               the feature and the detailed functionality available. Note that enabling the feature cannot be undone.

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When is the best time to enable the feature?

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​If any of your programs have External Assessors, you will be using Stages & Tasks to manage assessors' access to applications. The new Tasks feature:

• changes the way Assessor users are set up, and

• changes the mechanism whereby assessors are given access to applications.

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   See Assessors.pdf

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If you have External Assessors, one of the planning considerations is when your external assessments are taking place across your whole account, finding the optimum time to manage the change. Ensure you allow yourself time to understand how you will use the new feature from both an internal manage user perspective (for setup and managing the assessments in SmartyGrants) and an Assessor perspective.

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The External Assessor process had some limitations which the new Tasks feature helps to overcome. This may be a good opportunity to explore how the new Tasks feature could be used to streamline your assessment setup and processes. A couple of examples are shown in Assessors.pdf.         

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Another planning consideration is if you use Tasks to manage any of your internal processes. When you enable the new feature Tasks will be separated out from Stages. Tasks will be managed differently in SmartyGrants with a lot more functionality, including the ability to assign a Task to a user/s. There is a new Stages and Tasks snapshot report which will give you a list of all your Tasks - it is suggested that you run the report before enabling the feature to help with your planning, and keep it as a reference report.

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Preparing and cleaning up your External Assessors, Stages and Tasks

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•   External Assessor users

If you have External Assessor users that are no longer being used, you may want to change them to ''No Access''. This  can be done in ACCESS TYPE if the user is not going to be used across your whole account, or in ACCESS LEVELS, to remove access for a particular Program + Stage.

This will prevent former External Assessors from being set up as ''Program Specific'' users with access to that Program/s when you enable the feature.

Tip: Once you have enabled the feature, you will be able to download a User Access report, so for some accounts it may be easier to do this cleanup after enabling the feature.​

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•   Stages

When you enable the feature, all Tasks will be removed from all Stages and created in a new Tasks tab. Stages will still be used to help you manage where applications are in your process and you may use them to trigger Tasks. A word of caution: when you create Task templates with triggers based on a Stage, bear in mind that it will trigger Tasks for all Rounds in that Program unless you deactivate it. Ensure that you keep your Assessor access up to date from Round to Round.

The management of Stages becomes much easier and more flexible eg. you will be able to re-order Stages, and delete Stages that have no applications in them. If you have Stages to manage External Assessor access, you may not need those Stages after you enable the feature and there may be an opportunity to simplify your Stages. 

Tip:  For some accounts it may be easier to clean up your Stages after enabling the feature. 

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•   Tasks

Tip: Once you have enabled the feature, you will be able to filter Tasks and mark them complete and/or delete them in bulk. For some accounts it may be easier to clean up your Tasks after enabling the feature.​

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Consider opportunities to streamline your processes

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The new Tasks feature offers great new functionality which might help you use SmartyGrants to streamline and support your business processes better.

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Feel free to get in touch

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