Company Blog

TargetSolutions Is Proud to Serve Heroes Every Day!

TargetSolutions is dedicated to making the lives of our clients easier through our powerful online training and records management system.

From the top of TargetSolutions, all the way down, employees here feel a tremendous sense of privilege for the opportunity we have each day to serve heroes. We take pride in our clients and we’re dedicated to making their lives a little easier.

One way we like to acknowledge and recognize every client we have is with our client wall. This wall, which is located in the main hallway of our San Diego-based office, consists of a large map covered in pins. Each pin represents a client we have. The pins vary in size and are color-based on the client type and size of the department. The red pins represent our Fire Departments, the blue pins are for the Police Departments, School Districts are represented with yellow, and green is for the Risk Pools and Water Agencies.

Every Friday we hold an informal ceremony at the map. All of our employees gather around as we add the pins of new clients we brought on over the previous week. Another portion of our client wall, aside from the map, is the client patches and photos. Over the years, we have asked clients to donate old patches or photos they have of their department. We then display these on the wall for everyone to see.

So, if you’re a client and have any extra patches lying around – or awesome photographs that you would like to donate for our wall – please send our way! It would be greatly appreciated!

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Managing Users’ Profiles Is Now Easier, More Flexible

TargetSolutions has improved the Modify Users tool. This includes a brand new look for user profiles, as well as the ability for administrators and supervisors to change the usernames and e-mails of their users.

As a related change, administrators now have the ability to require e-mail addresses without requiring the address be used as a username.

“The ability to make e-mail required for each user and still retain a unique username for login purposes was a highly requested feature. Some of these city-given e-mails have five acronyms and four periods in each one. They’re long and a hassle to type in every time,” said Product Manager Misty Pratt. “Now the users are free to choose a unique username that’s easier for them to remember and quicker for them to enter.”

TargetSolutions is also improving the My Profile section of all user accounts. The section will have the great new look and enhanced usability of the Modify Users application.

Users will now be able to have a username that is unique and not tied to their e-mail address.

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Customize Your Organization’s Online Training Courses with the Course Library Application

The Course Library application provides administrators with the ability to easily and efficiently customize TargetSolutions’ online training courses. From the Course Library, administrators can view course descriptions, upload and edit attachments, make courses self assignable, add tags, as well as set timers and passing grades for courses.

With this application, administrators will select the course they wish to modify and then customize it with the course settings feature. This is a useful, easy-to-maneuver tool that gives administrators the ability to change a setting for one course, or apply it in bulk to a group of courses.

If an administrator has an internal document that applies to a course they are administering through TargetSolutions, they can easily attach it to the course so it becomes a part of the course experience.

The Course Library is very beneficial for administrators looking to customize TargetSolutions’ online training courses. If you would like more information on this tool, please contact TargetSolutions today at (800) 840-8048.

With TargetSolutions, you can easily attach files to online training courses.

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TargetSolutions Is Revamping Its Most Popular EDU Courses

A well-trained school district is healthier, safer and more productive. That’s why TargetSolutions is focused on helping educators gain the knowledge they need to maximize safety and reduce liability in their institutions. At the end of the day, educators need training, too.

With that in mind, TargetSolutions is excited about the enhancements its EDU Course Catalog is currently undergoing. Our most popular courses for school districts – including Sexual Harassment, Bloodborne Pathogens, and Ethics in the Workplace – are all undergoing a transformation. These courses, and many others, will be relaunched during 2013 featuring more interactive sequences, recent case study lessons and scenarios and engaging videos. We like to call it, training that makes a difference.

“Our EDU clients are unique and we are committed to creating content and applications just for them,” said Business Unit Manager Kelly Zielinski. The relaunch of these titles is just the beginning. We have new courses in the works and look forward to releasing them in the coming months.”

For more information and other course titles scheduled to be relaunched in 2013, please click here.

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TargetSolutions Announces Several Changes to Its Client Services Team’s Coverage

TargetSolutions is excited to announce a few changes to its Client Services team. Account Managers Kegan Konrady and Ann Gruetzmacher, as well as Account Specialist Kate Fishman, are now covering new territories.

Konrady will be serving as the primary account manager for the state of California. He will also support Nevada and Hawaii.

Gruetzmacher, who already covered the Great Lakes, Northeast, and the South, will now additionally provide service to the Mid-Atlantic (Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia).

Fishman, who was recently promoted to account specialist, will be picking up Gruetzmacher’s previous territory in the Midwest (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota).

“The Client Services team is very excited about the changes and we feel confident that each team member is a great fit for their new region,” said Client Services Manager Jennifer Antinone. “We are dedicated to service and keeping our clients happy and we are looking forward to 2013 being a successful year for our company, as well as our clients.”

If you have any questions about the changes, or operating the TargetSolutions platform, please don’t hesitate to contact us today. Our team is available to answer questions during normal business hours at 800.840.8048. After-hours emergency support is also available.

From left to right: Ann Gruetzmacher, Kate Fishman and Kegan Konrady will all be covering new territories for TargetSolutions.

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Tip of the Month: How to Import Files from Community Resources

The Community Resources application gives administrators the ability to access and share training videos, organizational policies, inspection forms, and more with other TargetSolutions clients. Administrators are able to import and distribute these resources to users through the Activities Builder.

There are two ways to locate videos in Community Recourses: Top Files and Top Videos and by searching. The Top Files and Top Videos are determined by a combination of popular views and resource ratings. The search engine provides the ability to browse the database of shared content, which is based off of keywords, as well as administrator-defined tags.

Once an administrator or supervisor locates a video in the Community Resources that they would like to share with their department, they can easily import the file with just a few simple steps. First, click the “Import Resource” button under the Resource Details section. The file/video will then transfer to the File Center into a folder labeled Imported Resources. The administrator can then attach the video or file to a custom activity to be assigned out to their users. It’s as easy as that!

Without a doubt, Community Resources is one of TargetSolutions’ most useful applications. If you’d like more information on this tool, please contact your account manager.

Community Resources has been nicknamed "Google on steroids for firefighters."

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TargetSolutions Offers Newly Approved Fire Content in Florida

We are excited to announce the expansion of our library of courses approved by the Florida State Fire College. Our newly released First Responder Hybrid Vehicles Incidents course is approved, as well as the NFPA 1001 and NFPA 1021 course bundles being accepted for continuing education credits for Firesafety Inspectors and Instructors.

But the amount of instructor and recertification training TargetSolutions is able to deliver in Florida isn’t the only benefit of the approvals.

“This is going to be huge for many of our clients. Firefighters need 40 hours of fire recertification every other year. Now, we can go to departments and show them how we can help them meet all their required hours, including EMS,” said TargetSolutions Regional Sales Manager Jeff Oathout.

Additionally, inspectors and instructors can receive credit for our 8-hour HAZWOPER refreshers, and the Emergency Response to Terrorism course fulfills four hours toward the Terrorism Pre-certification requirement for Fire Officers. These newly-approved titles facilitate TargetSolutions being able to offer a much wider variety of options for Florida Firesafety Inspectors and Instructors.

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TargetSolutions Selects Winner of Social Media Sweepstakes Contest

Congratulations to Evan Scott of Polk County Fire Rescue! Evan won the TargetSolutions social media sweepstakes prize of a $100 Amazon gift card after “liking” our Facebook page. Evan’s name was randomly selected from a list of individuals who participated in the contest by liking us during the promotion.

If you haven’t liked us yet on Facebook, please do so today by clicking the Like button on our Facebook page. Connecting with TargetSolutions through social media is a great way to learn about future promotions, company news and platform tips and tricks.

You can also follow us on twitter to stay up to date on information about TargetSolutions and its industry-leading online training and records management system.

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TargetSolutions Helps Clients Add Custom Certificates to Activities

Did you know you can add a custom certificate to an activity? If your organization would like to create official training documentation for completed activities, TargetSolutions is here to help.

“Some organizations like to be able to show proof of training by creating custom certificates,” said TargetSolutions Client Services Manager Jennifer Antinone. “In some cases this helps them achieve easier recertification and continuing education credit by being able to document this completed training. We’re happy to assist with it.”

Upon request, TargetSolutions will create a custom certificate for your organization. In order to produce this certificate, TargetSolutions will need the following information:

>> A copy of your existing certificate, if available

>> Your department’s logo

>> Electronic copy of the signature needed on the document

>> This same person’s full name and title

>> CE provider name and number, if applicable

Once you have gathered these requirements, please contact your account manager with TargetSolutions for more information. The process for creating a custom certificate typically requires 3-5 business days.

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TargetSolutions’ Courses Are Timed to Meet Regulatory Standards

The timer is one of the features of our system that we often hear about. The timer policy was instituted when TargetSolutions started providing continuing education credits to ensure users were spending an adequate amount of time in the courses for which they were receiving credit(s).

Many of the state approval agencies we work with require some mechanism to ensure users of online training are not just clicking through the course content. Because a certain course has been approved for continuing education credit, you must spend at least a minimum amount of time in the course content to obtain a valid certificate of completion.

“We take our accreditation with regulatory agencies very seriously, but at the same time we don’t want to alienate users for the sake of compliance,” said Content Architect Jeremy Lynch. “Because of this, we walk a fine line of delivering the appropriate amount of accredited content that meets the minimum time required to get credit for the course.”

The system only records a certain amount of time per page and will stop recording time spent in the course if you stop actively navigating through the course. For example, if you get up and walk away from the computer, the system will not record time for that period. If you need to walk away from the course for any reason, you can click the “Quit” button at the bottom of the sidebar and the system will save your time and bookmark your page.

The completion timer will only log five minutes per slide before assuming the user is idle. If a user opens a course and then walks away, the time they left the course open will not be recorded. If a user quits a course, the system will remember how much time has been spent and start calculating from that amount the next time they log in. If the required amount of time is not reached, the system will prompt the user to spend additional time in the course.

Administrators also have the option to add a time requirement to a course, regardless of whether the course is approved for continuing education credit. If your administrator has chosen to require a certain amount of time for completion, you will be required to fulfill that requirement.

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