CERVIS v6.0.0 - Nov 24, 2017

Re-designed Volunteer Interface

The volunteer interface has been re-designed to make it easier-than-ever for volunteers to find the opportunities they are interested in and get signed up as quickly, and easily, as possible.

- Cleaner Design - The volunteer interface now features a more streamlined workflow, larger fonts, better spacing, and a more modern design.  

- Mobile Improvements - Although the new design makes the system easier to use for all volunteers, those who use the system from their mobile devices will experience the most significant improvements.

- Step Indicators - After signing in to the system, step indicators have been added to the registration pages to help better guide volunteers through the registration process. 

- Page Width Options - In the past, CERVIS has been locked into a 450px page width (for both the iframe integrated view and the stand-alone console view). With this update, you can now select a width of anywhere from 450px to 700px (we recommend 550px) to allow CERVIS to integrate more seamlessly into your organization's web page.

- Page Customization Options - We have added more customization options into this update than ever before. You can now hide different page elements, such as the search options or mini-calendar options on the event listing page, and even customize the colors of your event listing boxes.

Introducing CERVIS QuickReg

- A New Way for Volunteers to Sign up - CERVIS has always been a great solution for managing the day-to-day requirements of complex volunteer programs.  However, sometimes organizations have opportunities that pop-up outside the normal scope of their program and they just need people to quickly sign up and help. We are excited to announce CERVIS QuickReg! When you choose to enable QuickReg for a specific event, volunteers can easily sign up for the event by just providing their name, phone number and email...that's it!  There are no profiles to create, no login to remember, no long list of questions to answer.

- Customize QuickReg Fields - Although QuickReg is designed to collect only a small amount of information, it wouldn't be a part of CERVIS if we didn't offer ways to completely customize the functionality to meet your needs. You can customize the fields to include any combination of the fields that you already collect with your normal volunteer profile.

- Walk-in Registration - If you use the CERVIS sign-in console and allow "Walk-in" volunteers, then you know that it can take some effort for volunteers to create their full profile using the touch-screen kiosk (with everyone waiting in line behind them to check-in). You now have the capability to use the QuickReg profile for your new walk-in volunteers as well, which will make the sign-in process for new walk-in volunteers much quicker.

New Volunteer Management Capability

- Default Custom Field Values - Custom volunteer profile fields have always provided a powerful way to customize the volunteer experience for your organization. Now, to further enhance that experience, you can specify default values for your custom selection fields. When a volunteer is creating a profile, you can set the default value for your custom fields, even including hidden fields, to allow for greater control of how information is tracked and managed.

Improved Group Management

- New Group Status Option - If your organization relies heavily on group involvement to fill volunteer opportunities, you most likely have noticed that over time, your group listings can fill up with groups that are no longer active with your organization. With this update, you can now mark a group as "Inactive" to hide them from the system.

- Group Merge Functionality - This update also brings the ability to merge 2 groups together in the system. If you've ever had 2 groups accidentally created for the same group, you realize what a nightmare it can be to manually merge those 2 together. Now, the process is as simple as a few mouse clicks.

- Bulk Update Groups - This new functionality can be a real timesaver if you've ever needed to change information for multiple groups.  When a staff member or key volunteer leaves your organization, you may need to update several of your groups to reflect this change. With this new feature, now you can easily bulk update information for your groups.

Enhanced Event Management

- Administrator Waitlist Registration - In the past, the only way that a volunteer could be added to the waitlist for an event is through the self-registration portal. This meant that if an administrator wanted to add a volunteer to the waitlist, they would need to assume that volunteer's identity in the system and then register for the waitlist. The CERVIS 6.0 update has added the ability for administrators to add volunteers directly to the waitlist via the normal registration process.

- Reorder Waitlist - The waitlist in CERVIS (and most waitlists everywhere) are designed in a first-come, first-served manner. However, there are always times when you need to move a volunteer up on the waitlist or change the order of the individuals currently waiting for an event. The ability to reorder the volunteers on the waitlist has now been added to the system.

- New Location for Managing Time Slots - When CERVIS was first created (and for many years), the event details for an event and the time slots for an event were included on the same page, with the goal of keeping everything in the same place. However, over time, the way organizations use time slot events has changed and now many organizations use time slot events with hundreds, or even thousands, of slots in the same event.  For this reason, the time slot management functionality has been moved from the event details page to its own dedicated page. Also, time slot events now hide past slots by default, providing a much cleaner and easy-to-use experience for event organizers.

- Group and Event Leaders Creating Events - With this update, you now have the ability to allow your users with Group Leader or Event Leader level access to create events in the system. This is a great way to delegate different aspects of your program without giving too much access to users who don't really need it. If you're worried about Group and Event Leaders cluttering up your event listing, you can even set up the functionality so that they can only create hidden events, which will allow them to create their own events and send out links to register, but not fill up your public event listing page with opportunities that aren't geared toward your public audience.

- Reservation Code Logos - The use of reservation codes has long been a favorite way to facilitate external group participation with your organization. You can now further customize the experience by associating a logo/image with your reservation codes. When this has been implemented, volunteers will see their organization's logo included on the landing page for their reservation, providing a more personalized volunteer registration experience.   

- Event Registration Notes - CERVIS has always included the ability to track a registration note along with volunteer registrations, but the volunteer has never been able to directly input this note. Now, you can enable your events to allow volunteers to include a registration note when they sign up for an event.   

- Mobile Sign-in for Service Projects - As soon as we released Mobile Sign-in, earlier this year, to allow volunteers to sign in for their events using their mobile devices, it became an instant hit.  The most common question that we have received regarding mobile sign-in is: "When will be able to use Mobile Sign-in for our Service Projects as well?"   The answer to this question is: "Now!".  This update enables Mobile Sign-in for Service Projects, so that volunteers can sign in and out of all their service project activities, just like they have been able to do for other types of events.

Upgraded System-wide Functionality

- Various minor bug fixes.

- Assorted minor functionality enhancements.

- Numerous performance optimizations.

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