All the Team at SMI, wish you a very Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2020.

Zero Three Care wanted to combine an HR solution with an efficient eRostering solution. Having started their implementation last year, they have already realised huge benefits managing their staff with Staff.Care. “Our payroll used to take 2 staff members 2 days to process – now it just takes minutes”. Click to see the Case Study.

Come along and meet the team at the Hospice UK National Conference in Liverpool on 20th, 21st and 22nd November. An amazing special offer will be available to all attendees, so make sure you visit the stand to register.

SMI enjoyed another successful day meeting all the HR Teams attending the Hospice UK Conference yesterday. We are amazed at the fantastic reception Staff.Care received and looking forward to welcoming more Hospice customers in the future.

The dates for the popular SMI User Groups have been announced, being held in Edinburgh and the Midlands. Book your place today.

14th January 2020, Edinburgh – Staff.Care
28th January 2020, Midlands – Staff.Care
29th January 2020, Midlands – iCare.

Contact elaine.parker@smicare.com for further information.

As our customers are aware, major development has taken place with Staff.Care over the last 12 months. Dashboards have been a fantastic success with amazing feedback from our customers. Expenses and the Payroll Interface are more popular than ever too, both providing huge cost and time benefits for every organisation. More developments are planned to improve the HR module even further to make Staff.Care the only clinical ‘all in one’ solution for healthcare organisations.

Our iCare customers can look forward to the new HTML5 iCare which is currently being developed. The new OACC’s Reporting Suite (Phase 2) is also being improved to provide even greater Reporting and Graphical capabilities.

SMI are proud to support Hospice UK at both Coventry (October) and Liverpool (November) Conferences, please come along to our stand, it’s always lovely to speak to our customers face to face.

SMI continues to grow year on year and it’s great to know our software developments are proving most popular, as we continue to listen to our customers and provide the software packages they need to support their organisations, now and in the future.

The European Court of Justice have ruled that employers must have a system in place to record not only the hours worked but also the break times too. This rule is linked with the Working Time Regulations to stop staff working over 48 hours per week. But don’t panic, SMI can provide everything you need. Our Biometric systems link directly with Staff.Care so all break times are recorded and monitored for you. Plus, don’t think that Brexit will offer an escape route, this law is binding whatever happens. SMI can provide everything you need whether you are an existing or new Staff.Care customer.

Sharley Brown from The Children’s Trust says “The SMI system is a clear and simple system to use and provides the opportunity to manage your staff efficiently. We have continuously turned to SMI and Staff.Care to enhance our staffing information, rostering and we like the flexibility of the system. Customisable to your needs whilst maintaining a core software provision and to add to a great all round product we have also found the support and aftercare service to be excellent and friendly. No question is too small and they always have time for us! We value their expertise and trust their system.”

Feel free to speak to our friendly team today. No high pressured salesman, our Software and Services speak for themselves. Email support@smicare.com with any queries you have.

Wigan & Leigh Hospice has now started their Staff.Care implementation for their eRostering and HR requirements. Welcome aboard. We’re all looking forward to working with the team at the hospice.

“I just wanted to write to give you some initial feedback on our iCare Overview Day that we had today. It takes a lot for me to sing out the praises, but I cannot fault Chris (SMI) in any way. Not only was he extremely professional, but his enthusiasm was obvious and very infectious” says Gerry Crow, Mary Stevens Hospice.

SMI are currently working with a family healthcare group to deliver new features in Staff.Care! This will see the implementation of room bookings. This allows you to easily assign staff to rooms, giving real time information and alerts where rooms are over subscribed! Watch this space for more info.

SMI have partnered with a leading Paper Scanning company which allow you to quickly and easily scan all paper Patient and Staff Records. SMI can then implement software to manage all your Patient and Staff Records for the future. iCare can provide everything you need for Patient Management including Home Care and Staff.Care provides all your Workforce Management requirements including eRostering and HR.

Major development continues on the HR aspects of Staff.Care, ensuring SMI continues to be the market leader in eRostering and HR Solutions for the Healthcare Marketplace. SMI are working closely with top HR Management Teams to provide the only ‘all in one’ Workforce Management Solution of its kind.

Hot off the press. A new Case Study which literally answers all the questions everyone has about Staff.Care. A customer has answered the questions honestly and we've simply transcribed without any sales gimmicks or prompts from SMI. This is one Case Study you will want to read! Click here!

Thank you for your continued loyal custom and best wishes for 2019 from all the Team at SMI.

“Staff.Care allows us to do so much more with the resource we have, concentrate on the innovative, interesting people-centred work while the payroll and staffing admin is delivered by the system” says Clair Watson, Workforce Lead. Complete Case Study available soon.

SMI are working closely with iCare customers to re-establish iCare, drive confidence and efficiencies across each Hospice. Two Hospices have recently contacted SMI to review their existing use of iCare, both fully aware in the knowledge that they are only using minimal core functionality of iCare and getting frustrated with in-house practices. Both customers implemented years ago and key knowledge has dwindled over the years due staffing changes. Sound familiar? Just one visit to each Hospice has realised MAJOR results. St Francis Hospice in Romford said “we ran an IPU report this morning………………and it only took 20 MINUTES !!! yippee “jumping people” !!!! Before it took TWO DAYS….!!!!”

Gerry Crow from Mary Stevens Hospice said “I just wanted to write to give you some initial feedback on our iCare Overview Day that we had today. It takes a lot for me to sing out the praises, but I cannot fault Chris in any way. Not only was he extremely professional, but his enthusiasm was obvious and very infectious. We had a lot of staff that attended the morning briefing session (which went on longer than planned as there was so much interaction) and I think that I can quite honestly say everyone was shocked by the potential and functionality of the system, most of which we have not used as the knowledge was never shared.”

Speak to SMI today to realise the full potential of iCare.

The feedback from the HR Conference was fantastic. Nikki and the team thoroughly enjoyed the day demonstrating Staff.Care, proving SMI can provide the ‘whole package’ for Hospices for eRostering, HR, Training, Recruitment and Volunteer Management. It was great to put faces to the voices and meeting our loyal customers again. If we missed anyone, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

We’re excited to introduce our new Sister Company in Auckland for the distribution and sales of Staff.Care, iCare and iPlanner. Rota IQ are a relatively new company but their expertise within software solutions is vast, in fact, Craig Shearer, Technical Director, has been involved with SMI for a number of years and Susan Shearer (Sales and Marketing Director), has expert experience within the software and IT fields in both New Zealand and Australia. We are all looking forward to exciting times ahead for both organisations. https://www.rotaiq.com

Following the amazing success of the User Groups, SMI have quickly upgraded all customers to the latest Staff.Care upgrade and the feedback has been brilliant. “With the integration of new HR Workflows to Staff.Care, setting up new starters or changing/ending contracts has never been easier. Now, for instance, if you need change a unit for a member of staff it can be done with just a few mouse clicks. We are also tremendously happy with the new Annual Leave calculations, which are tailored to suit our organisation’s accrual policy. SMI have really gone out of their way to make Staff.Care a much more streamlined system to use!” says Jonathan Goldsmith – Systems & Management Information Co-ordinator at St Elizabeth’s Hospice.

Customers are especially keen on:

1. New HR Workflows
2. New Leaver and Termination Workflows
3. Additional Rota Save Controls
4. Enhanced Leave Reporting
5. Quick Insert of a Training session into an existing shift.

SMI welcome everyone to visit us at the Hospice UK HR Conference in Leeds on 27th September 2018. As well as providing a Supporter’s Update, you can visit our stand and meet the team. We look forward to seeing everyone again. Click Here for details You can also see more information on SMI and the software products we provide on the Hospice IQ Services pages Here.

Zero Three Care Homes provide high quality care services to adults with learning disability and complex needs in the Essex area. Following a thorough research of the market place, they decided to replace their existing HR software with Staff.Care for complete management of their workforce.

The team at SMI look forward to working with Saint Catherine’s Hospice, who have recently began their implementation of Staff.Care for eRostering, Human Resources and a customised Payroll Interface. We look forward to providing major time and cost savings for the hospice.

Staff Expenses can be managed directly within Staff.Care including via the ‘My Staff.Care’ self service portal to allow staff to upload their receipts against each expense and submit quickly and simply. This can also be linked to payroll. Contact us today for more information.

Having sampled another rostering supplier, the group plan to roll-out Staff.Care across their organisation following initial pilots across 2 sites with over 600 staff with further acquisitions to follow.

SMI have upgraded our biometric terminals. Don’t forget these link directly with Staff.Care allowing you to check your T&A against rotas to avoid payroll mistakes. Swipe cards, key fobs and face recognition are also available plus door entry systems. Ask us for more details.

User Groups are being held in The Midlands and Edinburgh in March. Contact SMI if you want to reserve your place(s). We are showcasing our latest upgrades with lots of great new features including the HR Workflows. We guarantee you will learn something on the day.

SMI have been providing software for nearly 30 years, another equally amazing fact is that 2 staff members have been with SMI for a third of that time, both reaching their 10 years of service within months of each other. Nicola Waite, SMI’s Operations Manager and Chris, our Technical Support Analyst are both valuable members of the team and SMI hope we continue having them as treasured colleagues for many more years to come. Two other employees, Matthew Webster and Sean Wright are both coming up to their 10 year and 6 year milestone, respectively this year. Who say’s Staff.Care doesn’t help you retain staff!

SMI’s payroll partner LivePay have once again been selected as the preferred provider of a payroll bureau service to one of our customers. SMI are working with them streamline their monthly payroll by providing a payroll interface between Staff.Care and LivePay, which includes automatic enhancement calculations, multiple contract payments and conflict alerts.

Staff.Care is already fully GDPR Compliant. Full security measures are already in place to ensure your organisation manages your staffing data in line with GDPR guidelines. One of the main advantages of Staff.Care is having all your staffing records managed within one software solution including HR, eRostering, Training Management, Skills & Competencies and Payroll Interface.

Because our customers continue to reap the multiple benefits of Staff.Care, they’re opting to renew their contracts without hesitation. Once implemented our customers don’t look back and can’t imagine returning to their old ways. Staff.Care is one certainty for the future and customers are signing 3-5 year contracts knowing their return on investment is realised immediately AND year on year.

New HR workflows are now available for Contract Changes and new Staff Contract’s. Staff Contracts are now completed with minutes with new automatic calculations and balance transfers. Prompts enable you to complete all the requirements whilst linking seamlessly with the rotas.

Over the past few weeks SMI have completely overhauled the autofill making it faster, better and more importantly easier to run.

Faster – the performance has been vastly improved meaning complex fills with 100’s of rules now run up to 10 times faster.

Better – ensures all fill stretch rules are allocated fairly, keeping your staff happy whilst still meeting your operational needs.

Easier – Autofill will never break a rule and will roster staff based on their skill mix and service requirements.

SMI have successfully re-launched our iPlanner Scheduling module with more functionality added, providing more visibility across your staff and patient bookings. Ideal for Home Care and clinic bookings, iPlanner links your staff shifts to patient requirements, which in-turn can interface directly with payroll and invoicing. Job lists are sent via texts to staff with an integrated messaging service. Contact SMI today for more information.

SMI welcome two new customer's this month. Arthur Rank Hospice Charity, based in Cambridge, are looking to implement the full suite of services that Staff.Care can provide including eRostering, HR and the T&A interface. Alice House Hospice, based in Hartlepool, have also come on board this month, who want the iPlanner Scheduler module for their homecare services too. SMI look forward to working with both hospices over the coming years.

Having successfully implemented Staff.Care for HR and eRostering purposes, the next stage for our customers is the Payroll (T&A) Interface. This interface simply streamlines the whole payroll process – automatically. Because Staff.Care provides precise data directly to your payroll software, you are assured the data, enhancement calculations and pay are accurate. The Payroll Interface has proven to save money and hours of administration time. This service is available to ALL Staff.Care customers so if you haven’t implemented it yet – what are you waiting for?

The SMI Team simply love the User Groups. Meeting our customers and seeing their enthusiasm for our software is one of the most rewarding aspects of the service we provide. Again, lots of wonderful comments about the new look and feel, words like ‘WOW’ and ‘Brilliant’ in adundance. As well as demonstrating Staff.Care, we also discussed further improvements with everyone, gaining invaluable feedback from our customers. We’re now all looking forward to Phase 2 of the development program – watch this space and see you all again soon!

Following up from a previous news story, hear what one of our customers had to say on the new Staff.Care system: “The new Staff.Care front end is a much more professional, sleek and all round easier to use system than previous. It is clear that every effort has gone in to making sure that Staff.Care has a more refined look whilst also maintaining the same ease of use as before, with some great added extras!” – Jonathan Goldsmith, iCare & Staff.Care Administrator at St Elizabeth Hospice

The first of the SMI Staff.Care User Groups started with a roaring success. Delegates enjoyed seeing the new HTML5 Upgrade and learnt lots more about the new functionality whilst having their say about future developments planned for later this year. The feedback from our customers has been fantastic – the day was enjoyed by all, thank you to all those who attended.

“I have demoed the new front end of Staff.Care to all customers whom have moved across so far and the feedback has literally blown me away.

I have heard more than a few ooh’s and wow’s over the past month or so upon showing off the new look Staff.Care to our current and some prospective customers” – Sean Wright – Software Project Integration Manager

The latest major Staff.Care release passed successful BETA Testing and is now in the live stages with customers already having upgrades completed today (6th March 2017). Feedback has been very positive and those customers who have already upgraded have increased their already high levels of enthusiasm for Staff.Care providing eRostering and HR functionality. Overview demonstrations are available to all customers prior to the upgrade. Have you booked yours? You will sure want to... "We want it now!" and "How soon can we be upgraded?" has been the re-occuring theme for those who have already had the demo!

Contact SMI today via our Contact Page for your demonstration and to book your upgrade.

The project involved bespoke creation of an HL7 Queuing system for specific data entered within iCare for patient demographic, assessment and medication information. This is then fed via an HL7 service to a central patient information system covering the whole of West Kent CCG. SMI were involved from the very beginning all the way through to implementation.

“SMI provided Heart of Kent Hospice with a great service when implementing the CPMS project. The team were always there for us and were never fazed by any questions or queries. They were a great support to us throughout” says Christina Eldridge, Information Manager.

Having Staff.Care embedded within the organisation, Bolton Hospice reached the final phase of the project by implementing the T&A (Payroll) interface. “Staff.Care and the T&A works to the rules provided and therefore inconsistencies no longer occur. Now all the rules are established, an accurate and reliable payroll run is able to be delivered instantly” says Julie McArthur, Data & IT Manager at Bolton Hospice. Click for Case Study.