CMIS is the application that University of Sunderland uses for timetabling, and it has recently completed its annual upgrade.
Every year Technical Services complete the upgrade to the timetabling system, it is now on version 18.1. This release includes general maintenance, bug fixes and ensuring the University offers the most up to date version available. The upgrade also means the supplier of the software will continue to support it. Therefore, if something goes wrong with the system, they have an obligation to support and resolve issues.
The upgrade took a couple of days to complete, with testing by the key users before allowing all staff and students access to the upgraded application on 26 April. The upgrade meant that users now have access to three new useful enhancements.
One of the new features is the speed which student lists and module associations are retrieved has increased. The second enables you to run reports on the audit trail, which is helpful for when the timetabling team need to resolve any queries or complaints about bookings. The third now gives users the ability to set mandatory ‘fields’ when booking rooms, as a number of members of staff within different services across the University have access to CMIS. By making users select details while booking rooms, it allows other users who may also be after the same rooms to contact their colleagues to find out if there is any way they can change rooms.
