CERVIS v5.5.0 - April 29, 2017

New Features:

Please note, not all new features are available to Basic and Standard Edition customers.

Enhanced Volunteer Experience

- Mobile Volunteer Self Sign-in - Volunteers are the life-blood of most non-profit organizations. When a volunteer is giving their valuable time to serve with your organization, they want to get to work as quickly as possible. The last thing they want to do is stand around and wait in line to sign in for their shift at a kiosk. However, organizations need to be able to accurately track who is showing up for their shifts, and who is not. So, how can you speed up the volunteer sign-in process and still have accurate tracking at the same time? The answer is Mobile Volunteer Self Sign-in. With CERVIS’ new mobile sign-in functionality, a volunteer can use their mobile phone to sign in for events with just a few simple clicks - no waiting around, no standing in line, just sign in on your phone and go! Mobile Volunteer Self Sign-in is also a great solution for organizations who host opportunities outdoors or off-site from their main location and do not have internet access for the kiosk.

- Updated CAPTCHA Technology - CAPTCHAs (those squiggly bits of text that you have to enter when submitting a form to prove that you're human and not a malicious robot) are very important for the security of websites, but they don't have to be a hassle for your volunteers. Last year, we implemented a new CAPTCHA system that allowed volunteers to simply click an "I'm not a robot" checkbox which made the process quite simple, but now we're taking it a step further. With this new update, there is no text to enter and no checkbox to select; most users will not have to do anything at all. This new system works in the background to detect suspicious activity. Legitimate users will be let through without requiring any additional action, while suspicious users and robots will have to solve a simple on-screen challenge.

 - Group Participation Request Form - Whether it be local community groups, civic organizations, businesses, youth organizations, social clubs, or churches, volunteer groups are a key component of most volunteer-oriented organizations. With the new Group Participation Request Form in CERVIS, you can now make it easier than ever to get groups involved with your organization. Group organizers can easily submit their contact information and desired participation level, and after reviewing their information, you can create their group in the system and get them started quicker than ever.

 - Location-based event search for international customers - For years now, our customers in the United States and Canada have enjoyed the ability of allowing their volunteers to search for events based on the physical location of the event. This is great for volunteers looking for opportunities close to where they live or in a specific area. We are happy to announce that this functionality is now available to all of our international customers as well!

Improved Event Management

- Rolling open time slots - Organizations that have recurring opportunities every day of the year, often have a difficult decision to make. Do you create an event and list out all of your opportunities for a long period of time because it’s easier for the volunteer manager, or do you only display a short time frame worth of slots to make it easier for the volunteers? CERVIS has solved this dilemma with the implementation of Rolling Open Time Slots. With this new functionality, you can create a time slot event covering a long time frame (e.g. one year), but set the event to hide slots until they are within a certain range (e.g. three months). With the event configured in this way, both the volunteer manager and the volunteers benefit.

 - Sign Volunteers in and out from the event registration page - The sign-in kiosk and the new mobile sign-in system are great at allowing volunteers to self sign-in and sign-out for events, but they aren't quite as useful for event organizers who prefer to manually sign-in volunteers for events. With this new update, event organizers have the ability to sign volunteers in and out directly from the event registration page. If 10 volunteers show up at the same time, you can easily select all those volunteers at once, then sign them in with a single click. When the event is over and you need to sign out all the volunteers, it's as easy as selecting the volunteers again and signing them out with a single click.

Upgraded System-wide Functionality

- Various minor bug fixes.

- Assorted minor functionality enhancements.

- Numerous performance optimizations.