Help topic:
Site Level Access
In some organizations it is useful to have a single volunteer database in which different users have access to only some of the volunteer records. Volgistics makes this possible through a feature known as site level access.
With site level access, an organization creates two or more Sites in their Volgistics database, and then makes one or more system operators a site level operator for a specific site (see Setup site level access). When a ‘site level’ operator uses Volgistics, they only ‘see’ the volunteers associated with their own site, not the volunteers associated with other sites. To these ‘site level’ operators, Volgistics appears to include only the volunteers for their site. At the same time, Volgistics operators who have not been given a site level restriction can see and work with all of the volunteer records from all of the sites when they login.
When you use site level access:
- The headquarters site can establish certain database and recordkeeping standards. This can help you apply organization-wide volunteer management policies and keep information consistent, an important task if you want to generate organization-wide reports and statistics. These database standards can include the choice of which fields you use; what ‘look-up table’ entries are created; who can access the system and what they can do; and the creation of organization-wide reports including letters, service reports, and statistics.
- Volgistics is even easier for site level operators to understand and use, since some or all of the administrative functions are performed for them. This is especially beneficial in organizations where volunteer management is just one of many responsibilities the site level operators have.
- When site level operators generate reports, their reports include just their site’s volunteers.
- Headquarters can generate reports that include all volunteers from all sites.
- System operators have access to either all Sites, or just to one Site. There is not a way to create system operators who have access to multiple Sites but not all Sites.
These are some examples of organizations in which this Volgistics feature is useful, and how it might be used:
- A health care network has three different local hospitals under its umbrella. Each hospital has a volunteer coordinator and a cadre of volunteer personnel. The main hospital serves as the headquarters, and the volunteer coordinator there has administrative responsibility for the volunteer programs at all three hospitals. This headquarters administrator wants to have access to volunteer records and statistics for all three facilities, to be able to set volunteer record keeping standards for the entire health care network, and to give the volunteer coordinators at the other hospitals access only to the records for the people who volunteer at their facilities.
In this example the headquarters administrator creates one Site in Volgistics for each of the three hospitals, and then creates one (or more) Volgistics system operators for each site.
- A state-wide child welfare agency has an employee in each county whose responsibilities include coordination of the local volunteers who assist the agency. At the state capital, an overall volunteer administrator needs to monitor volunteer background check results for volunteers statewide, to be able to produce state-wide volunteer statistical reports, and set volunteer record keeping standards for the volunteer coordinators in all counties. At the county level, the agency’s volunteer coordinators need to be able to track, schedule, and communicate with their volunteers, but at this level they need only need access to the volunteers from their own county.
In this example, the state wide volunteer administrator creates one Site in Volgistics for each county, and then creates a Volgistics system operator for each county.
- A national environmental education group has several dozen volunteer teams in local communities around the country. Each team has a coordinator who needs the ability to manage volunteer records for their own region. At the national office, an overall volunteer leader wants to provide a standardized volunteer record keeping system to all of its regional coordinators, and to be able to tap into information about the specialized skills of volunteers from all of the local regions while traveling around the country.
In this example, the national leader creates a Volgistics Site for each region, and a Volgistics system operator for each of their regional coordinators.
While site level access provides great convenience, it may not (and is not intended to) provide a level of security in which operators at one site could never discover any information about volunteers from another site in the same Volgistics account. For example, when a volunteer serves at more than one site in the same Volgistics account, their record is shared between those sites. In this case the operators at the sites sharing the volunteer are privy to some common information about that volunteer. In addition, there are reporting features in Volgistics that enable the headquarters site to create reports that list all volunteers for all sites (if they choose to). The headquarters site could then make these reports available to all system operators at all sites.
A good rule of thumb is this: when you use site level access, your system operators should be people you would trust with any volunteer information in your account, even if they normally only see their own volunteer records.
If you need a higher level of security between the different sites in your organization, use separate Volgistics accounts for each site. With separate accounts you can be sure operators from one account will never see information in another, however you’ll no longer have the advantages of a common database.
To learn more about using this feature, see Setup site level access and Manage site level access.
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