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Case study - Quality Housing Services Ltd (QHS)

www.qhs.org.uk

Brief

QHS stimulates and supports Housing Associations in their development to become customer focused. As such, they wished to provide a system for their members so that they could evaluate and report on the quality of their services to their stakeholders. QHS have a set of criteria which each member can use to rate itself. Focus Systems were asked to provide

1. An Admin database to be used at QHS head office. This would be used to set up all the criteria and build the databases for each Member. It would also be used to receive the results back from the members. This Admin database would then be used, in conjunction with Crystal Xcelsius, to compile the overall results and comparatives.

2. A Members database, customised for each Member, to contain all of the criteria questions, complete with screens for input and the ability to report. It also needed to have a function for sending the data back to QHS.

The solution

It was decided to use MS Access to develop these 2 databases.

The Admin database was designed in such a way as to ensure uniqueness of data across both this database and all of the members’ data.

Screens for the creation of the criteria were designed to match and ‘look like’ the document which all members had previously received. The content of the criteria were editable only on the Admin database. Once this was all entered and validated, it was just a simple step (as far as the user was concerned) to build a member database. This function created a brand new database specific to each member and copied the appropriate tables. Once created, then the relevant files could be burned onto a CD and posted off to the member.

The Members database was packaged with Access ‘runtime’, and was therefore easy for the member to install. The Member then completes their own rating against each criteria. On completion, the member uses an inbuilt function to package up and email their data back to QHS. The Admin database then has a function to import and then update the main database with each Members data.

Once all the data is received back from the Members this is then used with Crystal Xcelsius.