Most organisations that use Three Rings to manage their rota and volunteer resources have at least one computer in their calltaking office that volunteers can use to check the rota, sign up for shifts, and so on. Volunteers can log into their Three Rings accounts on these computers and view the rota, sign up for shifts, and look up the details of other volunteers as normal. These “office computers” also provide a way for volunteers who might not have Internet access at home to continue to volunteer with the organisation as before.
Some organisations have even taken advantage of Three Rings’ powerful Certificates feature, which allows administrators to give special privileges to volunteers who are using the office computer. For example, we’ve often seen helplines where volunteers on duty will take calls on an “admin line” from other volunteers, and sign them up for shifts. Using a certificate installed onto the office computer, the volunteers on duty can sign up their fellow volunteers even if they’d normally only be able to sign themselves up.
We always love to hear suggestions for new features Three Rings can offer to make your lives easier and more and more we’re hearing from organisations that would like to have the computer in their office be “always on”: always showing the latest rota and ready to be used at a second’s notice by any volunteer in the room. That’s why we’re looking into ways in which we can provide for this request in an upcoming new version of the software.
It’s a challenging topic, from a security standpoint. For a start, it involves selectively turning off Three Rings’ smart auto-logout feature, which is designed to reduce the risk of unattended, logged-in computers. It also raises complex questions about the best way to integrate with Three Rings’ sophisticated logging system: if we can’t tell which volunteer is using the computer, against whose account do we log the activity?
While we’re busy working on the best way to offer this feature and ensure your data stays safe a few helplines have come up with their own workarounds to make office computers stay “logged in” in this way. And despite the fact that we can’t really support any of the third-party solutions that are being adopted, we’re still happy to help your organisation to get the best solution for you: if you are trying to make an “always logged on” account for your helpline’s office computer, and you’re finding it challenging, perhaps we can help! Just get in touch with our support team or use the discussion list to ask other organisations how they make things work for them, and help is always just a couple of clicks away.
Of course, these “work-arounds” aren’t ideal, and that’s why we’re going to be implementing a built-in solution in this summer’s update to Three Rings. What that means is that, in the near future, we’ll have a properly-supported solution suitable for everybody, but if you want to keep your organisation on the cutting-edge, ask us to help you give “always on” Three Rings a go in your calltaking office – I promise we won’t ask anything in return (but feel free to let us know how it works for you, and what you’d want to see in the official version in a few months)!
Tags: certificates, features, office