P&A Software Solutions
- for recruitment, personnel, training, time and attendance, payroll

Training Administrator versus Knowledge Lab

P&A Software Solutions markets two systems designed to manage staff development: Training Administrator and Knowledge Lab. Both have unique features and benefits.

Training Administrator is an ‘out of the box’ solution designed for use in small to medium sized organisations who manage a variety of staff training. The system enables users to manage details of employees and courses, as well as basic information on instructors, providers, venues and resources. Training Administrator is designed to consolidate data with Personnel Manager.

Knowledge Lab is designed for use in organisations where larger volumes of training-related data need to be managed, and where additional custom functionality is required. The standard KL system enables users to manage details of employees and courses, instructors, providers, venues, training budgets and resources; this can be modified or extended as required.

The principal differences between the 2 systems are:

Additional information managed in KL  
The standard Knowledge Lab database enables users to manage everything managed in Training Administrator and more. For example, in KL, training budgets can be set and monitored, and training costs charged back to other ‘cost-centres’; detailed information on course evaluation can be recorded and reported on, etc.

Screen Design  
The screen design functionality in Knowledge Lab enables users to modify the existing screens, and add additional screens to their system. Using this feature, organisations can ensure the system matches their requirements as closely as possible. Changes made to screens by users are fully integrated into the system and can be accessed from the report writing and letter generating functionality, as well as managed in user-profile security. Screen design functionality is not available for Training Administrator.

User Profiles 
Each user account in Knowledge Lab has a unique access-profile associated with it. Access-profiles are defined by a system administrator and determine the information (and functions) that individual users have access to. For example, it is possible to grant access for a departmental manager to their department’s records without the individual gaining access other information. No security profile management exists in training Administrator.

Integration with MS Office  
In Training Administrator, it is possible to send correspondence to delegates attending training courses. In Knowledge Lab, correspondence can also be sent to training providers, to contacts at training venues, and to managers and supervisors (to whom delegates report). This correspondence can be paper-based or via e-mail, and reports from the system (such as delegate lists or financial analysis) can be automatically attached to e-mails as PDF documents.

Web Publishing  
A web-publishing module is available for Knowledge Lab. This module publishes details of courses on an organisation’s web site, enabling potential delegates to browse and subscribe for places. Once approved by an employees supervisor, internal requests are automatically recorded in the KL database. Significant savings in recording and processing subscriptions can be made using this module.  

Database technology  
Training Administrator records data within a Paradox database. This database does not require a database management system to be loaded and is quick and easy to set up. Knowledge Lab records data using Microsoft SQL Server. MS SQL server offers enhanced data security, provides a far higher data-capacity, enables access by higher numbers of concurrent users, improves network performance, and improves resilience and reliability.

Upgrade Path  
Training Administrator was launched in 2000 and last updated in 2004; there are currently no plans to review the functionality provided by this system, or to update the technology employed. Development of Knowledge Lab began in 2002; the most recent version was released in July 2006. We have continued to develop this system and an enterprise version (version 3.4) will be launched in May 2008.

Features