Information About Parnassus

Parnassus Overview

Parnassus from Gordon Associates is a portal-style awarding body management system which fully embraces QCF whilst still supporting NQF and non-accredited qualifications.

Parnassus supports the core business functions of an awarding body from candidate registration through to certification as well as additional processes shown above.

Parnassus has been designed as a portal solution so that internal staff can use it but, if required, any function can be used by centres, EV's and other external users.

Parnassus has been built with the highest levels of security in mind and will support your accreditation with the security standards, ISO27001 and ISO27002.

Parnassus is a flexible, customisable solution that can be used immediately after installation - or can be customised to your organisation's business processes.

Functions

QCF - Qualifications & Credit Framework
Parnassus is QCF compliant - it enables you to define qualifications & units that conform to the QCF with credit values and rules of combination. In addition Parnassus supports the sharing of achievement data with the SFA. The registration and certification functions check the qualification definitions and QCF rules so that you cannot register a learner incorrectly or produce a certificate for a non-compliant achievement. However NQF awards and other qualifications can be processed in the system at the same time according to their specific rules.

We anticipate an evolution on QCF thinking over the coming years and Parnassus will evolve to provide new functions in this area.

The core modules of Parnassus are:

Qualifications - This module is the foundation of the rest of the system and allows you to define awards, units, pathways, assessment types & methods, grading matrix (supports pass/fail, A-E, Pass/Merit/Distinction and can be customised for other grade structures); supports credit-based qualifications and common units. And much more …

Centres - Centres & satellite sites, approved qualifications, multiple centre types (e.g. delivery and assessment), contacts with site roles and award roles, approval status at centre, site, qualification level. And much more …

Registrations - Learner details, check for duplicates, qualification or unit registration, capture of OFQUAL information such as ethnic origin etc, links to LRS/PLR and Diploma Aggregation Service (DAS), transfers, registration batches, multiple registrations per candidate. And much more …

Assessment - Manual grade entry, supports all grading structures, accreditation of prior learning, common units, grade history, re-grades, links to eAssessment (optional), upload of grade entry from csv/Excel files (optional). And much more …

Certification - supports printing of batches of >10,000 certificates, certification by individual, by qualification, by centre, by unit, re-prints, duplicates. And much more …

Online Registrations, Grade Upload etc - As a portal, Parnassus enables you to share all functions with external users, the most common being the following centre functions: online registrations, upload of registration files, upload of grade files.

Customisable - Parnassus is a fully functioning application that can be used immediately after installation - or can be customised to your organisation's business processes, terminology & document templates.
 
LRS/DAS - Parnassus is fully integrated with the LRS (Learning Records Service) for validation of ULN's (Unique Learner Numbers). Parnassus can be driven either by ULN's or using your own internal candidate id system. Parnassus is also integrated with the Diploma Aggregation Service (DAS) for both DAB & CAB results submission.

Reporting - Parnassus uses the Microsoft SQL Server database. Therefore reporting can be performed using four methods, which are fast becoming the de facto industry standard:

Audit Trail - all functions in the system feature an audit trail by user and date/time-stamp.



The following modules can be purchased separately from the core system:

Customer Database - Microsoft Dynamics CRM is not just a contact management system - it's a strategy used to learn more about customers' needs and behaviours in order to develop a deeper understanding of your business requirements and future ventures.

Communication History - Microsoft Dynamics CRM uses state-of-the-art processes and technologies to help manage all communications and keep you up-to-date on visits, leads, service cases, marketing campaigns, emails, letters & phone calls.

Management Information - Information stored on existing customers (and potential customers) can be analysed so that management can directly access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements and know what other products a customer has purchased.

Workflow - Automated CRM processes (known as 'workflow') can be used to generate automatic personalised marketing based on the customer information stored in the system, and automatically assign tasks to teams or staff within your organisation.

Outlook Integration - Microsoft CRM's most compelling feature is that users access it from within Outlook or via a web-style interface. Therefore take-up of CRM within an organisation is incredibly rapid - there is a very low training requirement.

Centre Approvals - or centre recognition - application forms, approvals forms, communications history, visits, visit reports, action plans and associated workflow, qualification approvals, regular monitoring visits and reports, risk assessments.

EV's - and other external moderators, examiners etc - contact details, academic and industry background, specialisation, region, fees, expenses, workflow for allocation to centres.

Sales & Marketing - contact management, documents or communications can be attached to any record in the system, marketing campaigns, lead-tracking.

Document Management - documents can be attached to any entity, eg centre records, contact records, candidate records, and the overall system can be integrated with Microsoft Sharepoint for a comprehensive document management solution.

Event Management - courses, sessions, speakers, invitations, bookings, delegates, fees, expenses.

Case Management - general helpdesk, literature requests, service requests, appeals, complaints, malpractice, child protection.

Further customisations: you may wish to extend the solution in other areas - these are some of the bespoke extensions we can provide: examiner management, recruitment, links to finance systems, memberships, integration with eAssessment solutions - and much more!