EASY

EASY is a suite of computer system modules designed to interlink with each other to provide an input and output interface with the NHS Standard Payroll System. The entire system has been designed to streamline and automate workforce and payroll procedures, to provide a totally integrated solution.

Research and development of the system was conducted with the co-operation and involvement of Health Service staff who now use the system in their daily function and reflects the attention to detail achieved. EASY is designed by Giltbyte Limited, a team of computer professionals dedicated to producing quality systems exclusively for the Health Service.

During the research and development of EASY two fundamental requirements were recognised. Firstly, the need to capture relevant information relating to both payroll and workforce matters in an accurate, disciplined and easy to use manner. Secondly, the information once captured, should be capable of being searched, sorted and presented in timely and concise reports.

The EASY suite of applications for PCs running the Microsoft WindowsTM platform across industry standard LANs. The system can cater for centralised data entry or distributed data gathering at source.

Input to EASY is considerably simplified by reducing the need for typing. Where replies to the screen prompts can be predicted, the full range of allowable answers can be displayed on screen as appropriate e.g. the full range of Whitley Council grades. The user, with the aid of the mouse, simply points to the correct response, and clicks the button. Not only is this technique quicker and easier to use, it also ensures consistency and accuracy in the format, spelling and content of transactions. This alleviates the problem of transposition errors and speeds up the input process.

System security is of paramount importance and reflects the sensitivity of the information retained within these facilities. Access to the system is enabled only when a valid User ID and accompanying Password or biometric fingerprint scan have been entered. Users can be assigned an access profile - restricting their level of access to any part of the system - and a data access profile - restricting their access to certain classes of data. When the user changes any item in the system, EASY records the data changed as well as the User ID, the time and the date. Auditors find this feature especially attractive.

Each module of EASY collects statistics to satisfy the requirements of the NHS Management Executive.