Penelope

Being able to read my staff input by generating a report whenever I need it.
Being able to pull reports to the tableau so I can see my numbers just like that.

Only being able to access from work computers with the VPN installed there. Would be great to be able to access from personal computers.

Penelope is comprehensive in terms of documenting service appointments, client assessments, referrals, notes, agency workshops and meetings, etc. One can access the raw data via ODBC and prepare the data for reporting, projections for grant writing or program surveillance. One can also use the built in reports for these. There is a feature that allows appointments to sync with Microsoft Outlook that is very handy. Athena Software has a lot of documentation for Penelope that I have found extremely helpful. Managers can look at staff caseloads easily.

I found that support for accessing the raw data, especially in terms of data preparation is very limited unless you pay for a support meeting. They do provide data dictionaries and data maps which I found very helpful. Using login credentials for downloading the data can be frustrating initially because they are not immediately actualized by the engineers. Once that occurs, ODBC works fine and is reliable. With other issues Athena responds fairly quickly. Also, they do not provide support for using R. Thankfully, there is sufficient documentation from R developers that enabled me to figure it out.

The engage tool (client communication) has made a big difference to our interactions with clients, particularly during COVID lockdowns. The customer service and support is always quick, informed and flexible to our needs. Our particular business pushed the Penelope system slightly out of its intended scope, but the Athena team has been so flexible with us and very creative in solving our issues.

The software can be difficult to configure and test. The testing environments are extremely helpful for this, but as with all software, it can be impossible to understand the ramifications of system changes without testing each and every expected output. I have seen systems that do this a little better than Athena's Penelope.

We have been able to create a procedures manual for our volunteers based on your instructions to do the very specific tasks they need to know for recording activities and events for which they are responsible. Their experience with case management features is limited; however, even our less computer familiar volunteers are able to perform well. Procedures, once learned, can easily be conveyed by experienced volunteers to our new volunteers.

There is a lot of capability of this software - as more in learned, it becomes more valuable; but the learning curve can be difficult for volunteers who come in to volunteer may once or twice for a 4 hours shift in a month. Re-learning/retraining is a constant - hence, our procedures manual.