CHARMS Social Care Community Newsroom

"Bury MBC are getting their free upgrade to CES Version 3 which includes full bar coding features, serial number tracking, stock catalogue production and many more features. We are proud of the fact that in 5 years of intensive use, CES has not suffered one day of downtime. However, in response to users' changing needs, CES3 includes many new options to help run a busy community equipment service. CHL have also taken the opportunity to add many more reports, including performance indicators.

For more news and events relating to the integration of community equipment services please see the ICES website."

Thanks to Suzi Heybourne and the team at Meridian East for making us welcome when we installed ASSET on their new network in Norwich. Both me, Mike Barlow, and Jim Moores - CHL's MD - spent an interesting couple of days on site, setting up ASSET. The next stage is to set up remote access from the organisation's other sites in King's Lynn, Yarmouth and Magdalen Road, Norwich. STOP PRESS - the new synchronisation version of ASSET will be finished before the end of February and meridian east will be the first to see the benefits. (Thanks to them for their patience).

"Computing Help Limited (CHL) has been working in partnership with the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) to overhaul our methods of maintaining our membership and training services. The new membership and training database, which was the brainchild of Jim Moores of CHL, has been adapted over a number of months to provide a tailor-made system which will not only automatically generate letters and emails but also provide a comprehensive processing system for our new training division - the College of Personal Injury Law. The scale of the project was huge and we always knew that it would take some time to consolidate all the various fields on our 12 main databases which are constantly in use. With the patience and determination of the CHL development team, APIL is delighted to announce the successful completion of the initial brief. The next stage will be to integrate the database with our Sage accounts system … watch this space."

We are pleased to announce that Citi Capital Fleet have chosen to use CHL’s Asset Management system. As with all of CHL’s systems it has been designed to be intuitive and easy to use as well as being extremely reliable. Management reports and detailed statistical information can also be produced at the touch of a button.

Bromley Social Services & Housing have chosen to use CHL’s CHARMS system. CHARMS (Computing Help Adoption Register Management System) will allow them to record and monitor children and families and produce detailed management reports at the touch of a button

East Sussex County Council have chosen to use CHL’s CHARMS system. CHARMS (Computing Help Adoption Register Management System) will allow them to record and monitor children and families, find matches and produce management reports and detailed statistical information at the touch of a button.

In the last quarter CHL’s turnover was the highest it has been in the company’s 6 years of trading.
Sales of systems have shown a huge rise and local authorities and voluntary agencies are becoming more aware of how CHL’s systems can help towards the eGovernment initiative. All of CHL’s systems are written in Microsoft Access and data may be stored on just about any platform and linked using ODBC (Open Database Connectivity). A number of our systems are now on SQL Server and the change for users has been seamless. In the next 6 months we hope to take on more people to help make sure that existing customers continue to get the service they have been used to and to “spread the word” about the benefits of using CHL’s systems. Two of the main drivers of our growth have been CHARMS ( Computing Help Adoption Register Management System) and ASSET (Access System for Supported Employment and Training). Thank you to the users of those systems – and please keep feeding us your thoughts.

The Enrolment, Training and Certification (ETC) system has been used by 11 Authorities for up to 6 years and is recognised as one of the most versatile training management systems in the public sector. It includes a range of new features :
Even easier user screens, Automatic email of course confirmation letters, Word merges that are easy to use and offer huge flexibility, Store and print location maps, Improved course evaluations, Excel exports, Enhanced reporting facilities, Workforce analysis/qualification reports. ETC 7 has also been modified so that it may be equally useful to private sector organisations. It can fit any organisational structure and existing data from spreadsheets or other databases may be imported to give you a head start.">

CHL's new training suite was opened on 1 April 2002. Already a number of local authorities have taken advantage of the facility and have gained the benefit of the in depth training on database systems that CHL can offer. Our Schedule of courses is soon to be published on the website and will offer training at introductory, intermediate, and advanced level in : Database design (based on Microsoft Access) Using Spreadsheets (based on Microsoft Excel) Wordprocessing (with Microsoft Word) Computing principles - Windows 95 onwards… Email and Web browsing If you would like dates and course programmes in the meantime please contact our office on 0870 112 0421 or email us at training@chl-systems.co.uk.

We are pleased to announce that Barnsley Adoption & Fostering Unit are now one of the increasing number of users of CHARMS (Computing Help Adoption Register Management System) around the UK. CHARMS is perhaps the most widely used database system specifically for Adoption and Fostering and will allow Barnsley Adoption & Fostering Unit to record and monitor children and families, produce management reports and detailed statistical information at the touch of a button and print off referrals for the National Adoption Register for England and Wales – themselves users of the CHARMS System.