Modeshift STARS system biggest upgrades released!

In September this year, we released one of the biggest ever upgrades to the Modeshift STARS system.

This included a number of minor bug fixes, some improvements to the layout of the system, more flexibility with user types, new dashboards for all users, and our new Carbon Commute tracking survey for businesses.

‘How to’ guidance documents have been updated, to view, click on the magnifying glass icon and scroll to the archive section for full details.

The changes are summarised below:

General

Number of minor bug fixes and background process improvements
Terminology updated to reflect current accreditation naming. Approved/Good/Very Good/Excellent/Outstanding
Search results can now be downloaded as .CSV files so can be opened directly into Excel.

Accreditation

Approved (Green) level accreditations can now be approved at the Organisation (LA/Corporate/Consultancy) level at any time.
Sign off section now correctly clears down after accreditation is approved.
Only rule change is to increase the number of initiatives required for some levels of Workplace accreditation to be consistent across STARS. This was agreed by the STARS Business Focus Group.

For all users:
Site Level Changes

Accreditation Progress is now first tab after the site tab to increase visibility.
New field in introduction, ‘location type’ – urban, rural, etc. for reporting and may be used in future accreditation rules.
Travel & Transport Infrastructure is now called Site Audit.
Layout of Site Audit has changed. Transportation Links is now at top to improve logical flow, i.e., how to get to site and then what to expect when you get there.
Only totals are now required for cycle parking. New text box added for description of site cycle parking.
Other tab names shortened, e.g., ‘Appendix’ dropped from titles to make the overall layout a little clearer.
Initiatives now have only one Reporting field. No longer a need to complete Action Details then Reporting. Action Details that already have text will still display.
Excellent/Outstanding Standard Testimony produces additional rows for recording annual updates.
Working Group produces additional rows for recording activities.

Adding users

Significant changes to how users are added to the system.
- School, Workplace, Residential user levels have been merged to a single Site user type.
- Users can be assigned (subject to access levels) to multiple sites – including a mix of site types, or multiple organisations (Local Authority, Corporate or Consultancy Administrators – note cannot mix types at administration level) on a single user id in a single transaction. They can also be edited as needs change.

Users can only be added from the Users > Add a New User menu on the top menu, there is no longer access from the Site tab cogs.
We are sorry, the add/edit user process is currently slow. We are working to speed this up. Please bear with us.

For Site Users:

New site dashboard on logging in. Contains link to site(s); notice board; user guide and important information about the site’s plan.

For Local Authority, Corporate & Consultancy Administrators:

Enhancements to dashboard.
New reports available and enhancements to some existing reports.

Workplace Surveys

Fixes to improve resiliency and correct the editing Q1 text issue
Corporate and Consultancy Administrators now have access to use Template surveys.
Additional survey types are now available. Select from Resident, Visitor, Student, Guest, Passenger, Patient, Customer, Other in addition to the existing Staff surveys.
- These produce survey stats and graphs for each type and are not used towards accreditation.
New Commuter Carbon tracking survey *Note. This is still beta and more detail will follow*
- For Staff surveys. Calculates CO2 emissions for the commute to work.
- Allows for two travel modes for each journey and two journey types, e.g. car 3 days and WfH 2 days per week.
- Produces output for individual journeys, total survey responses and projected for the whole workforce, based on responses received.