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Vacancy Search and the South Yorkshire Apprenticeship Hub
EdTech News - Digital skills shortages, artificial intelligence and open access to academic research
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Digital skills gap - could the new apprenticeships be the solution? We want to create an outstanding alternative to university. With the tech skills gap, which is being exacerbated by Brexit, we need to fill the pipeline of talent.
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Plundering the academic publishing establishment. Sci-Hub and open access to academic research.
Technical consultancy for Coventry Independent Advice Service
Sheaf Digital has completed a consultancy project for Coventry Independent Advice Service (CIAS), a charity that provides free advice and support to residents in Coventry. Residents currently contact CIAS through the website or by phone and can book an appointment for face to face advice.
Sheaf Digital were asked to look at how other social media/communication tools could be added to the CIAS website so that residents have more choice when they want to contact CIAS.
Consultancy support on the staff individualised record (SIR) project for the Education and Training Foundation
Sheaf Digital has just finished a piece of software/technical consultancy for the Education and Training Foundation. The Foundation is responsible for the annual collection of staff individualised record (SIR) data from English FE colleges. The data - anonymised information about FE staff pay, qualifications and contracted hours - is used by the Foundation and the Department for Education to better understand the FE workforce.
Submission of SIR data by FE colleges is voluntary. Most of the data comes from college HR systems but some of it can be in other IT systems in the college or even on paper in a filing cabinet. There’s a technical data specification document that describes what should be submitted and the format of the SIR upload file.
Using measures and filters to show two sets of data on a Power BI Radar Chart
The Power BI Radar Chart is a nice way to show how a set of values varies across multiple categories. And you can add further sets - so one radar chart shows two or more sets of values against the spokes. You then see at a glance how the different sets of values compare.
I used the radar chart to compare ‘predicted’ and ‘actual’ attainment levels in different subjects for school students. The table of sample data is shown below. The attainment levels are in one column and the type - ‘Predicted’ or ‘Actual’ is in another column. I’m interested in the average predicted and the average actual attainment level for each subject category.
Why bespoke software can be a cost effective alternative to off-the-shelf software
Do you want to change the way you collect and manage data? Perhaps you’ve been using MS Excel to record information about potential customers and now you need a better alternative - a single database that holds one consistent set of data and makes reporting easier.
One option is to go down the off-the-shelf application route. Sign-up for a online customer relationship management (CRM) system like Zoho CRM. You replace the ad-hoc MS Excel solution with a third party web application.
How much does it cost to develop a web application?
What does it cost to develop a typical custom web application? Perhaps a bespoke customer relationship management (CRM) system that medium sized business might use for tracking customer enquiries and orders?
Let’s say that a client asks us to develop a web application that does the following:
How to make money with your Software as a Service (SaaS) idea
The Software as a Service (SaaS) model for business software is now common. Software isn’t hosted on a server at the client’s site, instead it’s run from the vendor’s own servers. And most modern systems are multi-tenancy - that means there’s only one actual instance of the software running. Each client uses the same instance, seeing only their own data. The benefits of SaaS and cloud hosting should be clear - client’s don’t need to worry about hardware or local software installations and the software vendor can roll out fixes and updates more easily.
Web applications - what technology should my software be built with?
You should talk about the technology stack when you decide to ask a software company to develop a bespoke web application. A lot of clients miss this because their supplier has only one preferred technology and so there’s never really a serious discussion about its advantages and disadvantages.
5 things you should know about bespoke software development
Here are 5 useful tips for anyone who is about to commission their first bespoke software development project. I think these are common sense but they may not be obvious to someone who doesn’t have a technology background or who hasn’t worked with a software development company before.
How do I get a failing IT project back on track?
IT projects that hit the rocks are not that uncommon - most people who work in IT know about at least one project that was delivered late, over budget or didn’t meet client/user expectations. There are things you can do though - even quite late in the day - to limit damage and perhaps recover ground. These five suggestions are a good starting point for anyone who is struggling to manage a difficult project.