VSys is easy to install and run on any modern Windows-based computer. You can run it on a standalone computer or on networked computers connected to a central database server.
Multi-User or Single-User Database
VSys can be installed for multi-user or single-user access to the database. The multi-user database can be accessed and updated by any number of simultaneous users in your organization.
For multi-user access to your data, you need server software installed on a central server on your computer network. VSys is compatible with the following databases:
You can also use VSys without a database server, accessing the database in single-user mode. (If you're using a downloaded copy of VSys for evaluation or testing, this is likely how you are using VSys.) To do this, VSys includes an embedded database engine that requires no additional software.
Recommended Computer System
Background Screening
VSys helps you to screen applicants interested in volunteering with your organization. Use VSys to schedule interviews with volunteers, assign interviewers, and document the results. Built-in reference check tools help you send and retrieve the results of background check letters and e-mails.
You can also use VSys to prepare and process background checks. It even automates the Internet submittal and retrieval with your preferred background check vendor using your established account with Lexis-Nexis (using the ChoicePoint interface) or IntelliCorp. The completed background check results from these two vendors can be downloaded into VSys using automated send and receive features.
VSys provides encryption for all sensitive background check information so your volunteers can feel secure.
Geographic Awareness
VSys understands US zip codes and Canadian postal codes. This not only automates completing of city and state/province fields for you, but also helps you to find people for assignments based on their location. For example, use this to find available people within 25 miles of Albany, NY. This is particularly helpful if you conduct events in different cities or if you have volunteers who travel to participate.
Automatic Mailings, Certificates, and Name Tags & Badges
Contacting your volunteers is easy with a combination of built-in mailing labels, mail merges to print or e-mail, and advanced export features in VSys. VSys can include address bar codes in your mailing labels, which may qualify you for discounts with your postal service. Choose from the many available filters to include only the volunteers that meet your criteria.
You can set up a wide range of mailings, including save-the-date notices, thank you notes, certifications, reminders or birthday cards. Export to a variety of file formats including HTML, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Access. Use contact flags to specify each person's preferred method of contact.
If you need personal identification name tags or badges, VSys does that too, complete with a personal photo on each person's card.
Project Planning and Tracking
In VSys, you will find all of the tools you need to organize your volunteers. Set up projects for one-time or short duration special events, keep your assignments all global, or mix and match the two. Define your jobs requiring skills, trainings and availability, and VSys will automatically match volunteers based on those properties, and even help avoid conflicting assignments or overscheduling specific jobs.
Use "placeholder" people within projects to specify groups of volunteers whose names you don't yet know - for example, a sponsor has promised you fifty volunteers, but doesn't know who they are yet. Assign these people to jobs, and merge them with real people when you know who they'll be. (Placeholder people will show up in summary reports, but they can be suppressed from mailings or other reports.)
As job assignments are completed, credit hours worked to the volunteer, their job and their groups. Use this to track real resources used for future project planning and historical reference, and be able to report the value of these hours by any number of attributes.
Customize VSys for How You Work
We built VSys One, and all of our other products, under the banner "You know how to do your job, and you know it far better than we do. We don't want to tell you how to work, we just give you the tools to do it better."
To that end, VSys gives you the freedom to customize your data entry to fit your needs exactly. Most fields that are built into VSys can be changed, letting you define the applicable values (e.g. Skills, Job preferences, and Groups). Create unlimited custom fields of any type and use them for reporting, mailing and filtering just like the built-in fields. Define certifications which encompass multiple pieces of data together, e.g. TB tests, and track when they expire.
You can even develop custom application forms for processing volunteer applicants so that your data entry screens are identical to your existing paper forms. By including only the fields that you will use, you will not have to scroll or tab past fields that you don't need.