Department for Education

EduBase is an online register of educational establishments across England and Wales, used by a variety of stakeholders and the general public to search and retrieve information. Texunatech used the tried-and-tested Soltex solution to develop EduBase, resulting in the delivery of five web-based user access portals providing: improved search workflows; eForms; data extraction; bulk upload tools; personalisation; and support services.

Highlights

Launched in September 2008, the solution incorporates:

• full passport control with comprehensive security permissions at record and field level;
• comprehensive relational data model to enable recording and reporting on the complex links and relationships of establishment records;
• validation rules and reports to improve the quality of the information captured and stored in the database;
• interoperability, supporting integration with stakeholder systems, including full XML and web services support;
• automated correspondence and workflows to manage the verification and approval of information;
• news features for information dissemination and marketing to users;
• integrated GIS to map establishments geographically;
• subscription processes, including eCommerce, subscriber management and activity reporting;
• integration with Google analytics to provide key usage statistics, allowing the set up and tracking of ‘goals’ to identify conversion rates for particular tasks or processes;
• OLAP reporting enabling full interrogation and reporting on all variables stored in the dataset;
• Customer Relationship Management features to manage all EduBase related communications, including call logging and tracking facilities; and
• personalisation features for users to tailor their homepage and reporting features.

Soltex’s comprehensive security module used to provide complex field-level permissions. Users can only access data items where they have been assigned permission, providing high levels of data security and personalisation. Pre-determined data owners, enable updates to be verified and approved, prior to being reflected on the database. All actions performed are fully auditable and traceable, and stored in the establishment ‘change history’. Users can determine exactly when a specific data item was altered and who approved the change. A web services client allows users to integrate their internal systems, accessing XML data feeds as required by their internal business processes. The web service provides interoperability across different systems, eg., DfE, UKRLP, DirectGov and Ofsted. Texunatech have worked in close partnership with stakeholders to achieve a high-level of integration providing, data dictionaries, specifications, guidance and technical support. Integrated help features, FAQs, news, etc, provide support to users within the solution. Workflows allow administrators to manage the information published, eg, news items can be published to specific user groups. This support is enhanced with integrated CRM tools, providing a central area for all communications with the EduBase service desk.