End-to-end recruitment management and information system

PRS Version 8

PRS Version 8 is a major release in terms of user functionality and scalability.

You can download the latest PRS updates from the PRS Updates web page.

What’s new in Version 8

Message Merge tool

../images/smallnew.png in version 8.0.1

The Message Merge tool is used to send Email or SMS message en masse to selected candidates and clients. It is fully integrated with the PRS Mail Templates. See our February 2010 newsletter for usage examples.

message-merge.png

Maximise long lists to full-screen

../images/smallnew.png in version 8.0.1

The following floating windows can now be resized and maximised to full-screen: Roster Tool, InBox Tool, Messages Tool, Reminders, Unpaid Invoices.

Very handy when working with long lists.

Just click the window maximise button or double-click the window title bar.

maximise-button.png

Street address Goto buttons

Clicking the Goto buttons next to street addresses on the Personnel and Site forms will display the location in a Google street map.

street_address.png

Smart phone number searches

Ever been handed a phone number and wanted to know who it was that called? You can now search for phone numbers using the Find command on the Personnel and Sites forms. Just enter the number or just the last few digits of the phone number and the PRS will search all the phone number fields, automatically ignoring non-numeric characters such as spaces and dashes.

phone_search.png

Search Vacancies by Job Title

A Job Title wildcard search has been added to the Vacancies Find command.

Enhanced and extended Mail Templates

  • Mail Templates can now be used with SMS messages.

  • You now have the option of sending Vacancy Activity messages as Email or SMS.

  • Updating the Filled by field on the Vacancies form now optionally prompts the user to send a customisable Placed message to the candidate; you also get the opportunity to notify the client.

  • The number of Mail Template placeholders has been doubled.

  • A Restore Defaults command has been added to the Mail Templates dialog (Tools→Settings→Mail Templates) — it allows you to add the example mail templates that we have written to your existing mail templates.

    message_prompt.png

Enhanced Consultant Client/Candidates Tool

  • You can now select and reassign just client or just candidates from the Client/Candidates Ownership tool (Tools→Client/Candidates Ownership).

  • The Client/Candidates Ownership tool displays the number of candidates and clients assigned to the consultant.

consultant_ownership.png

Messages inclusion in Email replies has been enhanced

  • Instead of being prompted if you want to include the sender’s email (when using the InBox Tool to reply to emails) an Include sender’s message checkbox has been added to the mail message form, it can be selected by default by ticking the Include sender’s message in replies checkbox on the Mail page of the PRS Tools→Options dialog.

  • The sender’s message is added to the end of the mail message after your signature and, in the case of HTML mail messages, is nicely formatted.

Note Types can now be edited

The Tools→Settings→Notes Types command now supports renaming and deleting Note Types.

This feature requires the PRS8 Shared Data upgrade.

Smoother entry of vacancy billing splits

When consultant commissions don’t add up to 100% (on Page 2 of the Vacancies form the PRS generates a red warning message rather than complaining noisily every step of the way.

billing_splits.png

Mail and Notes archiving

Old mail and notes can be moved from the database to separate archive files, this will both reduce the size of your database and improve Notes and Mail tool performance. Pressing the Options button on the Mail Archive and Notes tools opens a dialog containing commands to Create, View and Restore note and mail archives.

This feature requires the PRS8 Shared Data upgrade.

Other enhancements

  • Vacancy skills and vacancy billers are now copied when you select the Copy current vacancy details option when creating a new vacancy.

  • Notes now open with single click of mouse button.

  • Roster Tool sorts in reverse chronological order.

  • Added the ability to set Document Search folder anywhere in the Documents folder (the indexed documents folder can be specified separately on the File locations page of the Tools→Options dialog).

  • Existing Timesheets and New Timesheets forms now float.

  • Added Source selection option to Mail Messages tool Select command.

  • You can now reply to incoming Email messages that have been saved in the Mail Messages tool (a Reply button has been added to the Received Mail Message form).

  • Summary information has been added to the Vacancy Roster form.

See the PRS Changelog for the full list of the changes and bug fixes since the previous release.

Scalability and Performance

The evolution of the PRS’s integrated Email and SMS messaging capabilities has resulted in dramatically increased usage — nowadays it’s not unusual for archived messages to occupy 90% or more of the database. For example 100,000 mail messages typically occupy around 500MB, 250,000 notes occupy around 100MB with all the remaining data typically occupying less than 60MB.

In late 2008 it became clear that large PRS databases (1000MB or more) needed some way to archive and manage both mail and notes (in order to improve their performance and scalability). PRS version 8 achieves these objectives by splitting mail and notes into separate database files and introducing integrated mail and notes archiving features. These changes are transparent to the user.

The upgrade procedure is documented on the PRS website.

Upgrading to Version 8

Version 8 upgrade FAQ

  1. Do I have to upgrade the shared database to use the PRS8 Client?

    No, the shared database upgrade from version 7.x.x to 8.0.0 is optional, but the following features require an upgrade:

    • Note Types renaming and deletion.

    • The Mail Messages Tool options for creating, viewing and restoring mail archives.

    • The Notes Tool options for creating, viewing and restoring mail archives.

  2. When should we upgrade our shared database?

    Although you don’t need to upgrade your shared PRS 7 database to version 8 to use the new PRS 8 client, larger databases (over 500MB) will benefit (in terms of scalability and performance) from being able to archive old mail and notes. Your shared database size is the size of the prs2k_data.mdb file in the PRS Shared Data folder location.

  3. Will upgrading to PRS8 improve performance?

    If you have large numbers of saved mail messages or notes and are finding mail or notes performance is sluggish then archiving old mail or notes will improve performance.

  4. How long does the upgrade take?

    This depends on the size of you database and network performance. For example, a 600MB database upgraded across a 10/100 Ethernet on an unloaded server took us around 20 minutes.

Version 8 database upgrade procedure

  1. First upgrade all machines running the PRS to the version 8 PRS Client. You don’t have to do them all a once, a mix of PRS 7 and 8 Clients work with a PRS 7 shared database.

    To download and upgrade the PRS 8 Client go to the Installing the Latest PRS Client section on our Updates web page and follow the instructions.

  2. Once all users have been upgraded to the PRS 8 Client upgrade the PRS Shared Database to version 8.

    To upgrade the PRS 8 Shared Database go to the Installing the Latest PRS Shared Data section on our Updates web page and follow the instructions.

PRS 8 Upgrade notes

  • The PRS PIM Export Tool Exported file format defaults to Microsoft Outlook — if you use the Palm PC you’ll need to reset it to Palm PC.

  • If you’re still on PRS version 6 you’ll need to upgrade shared database to version 7 before you can upgrade to version 8 --take a look at our PRS6 to PRS7 Migration guide before upgrading.