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Photo Information

Erna Numanovic, Child and Youth Management System trainer for Vermont Systems, assists Charlene Holmes, Child Development Center audit clerk, with taking a payment using the CYMS system at the Air Station's CDC Oct. 24. Numanovic assisted the CDC staff during the first week of CYMS going live.

Photo by Lance Cpl. R.J. Driver

Tri-Command care centers begin using CYMS

8 Dec 2011 | Lance Cpl. R.J. Driver Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort

Care centers throughout the Tri-Command began using the Child and Youth Management System Monday.

The system, better known as CYMS, connects the Tri-Com¬mand care centers globally with Department of Defense care facilities and records cus¬tomer usage and fees, as well as, keeps a log of exactly how many people are in the build¬ings at a given moment.

It also replaces the old task of having to complete paper¬work for records, which Helen Rogers, Air Station’s Child De¬velopment Center coordinator, says, “will make transactions faster and drastically increase our customer service.”

Until now, employees at the care centers had to keep pa¬per records and even produce hand-written receipts, and parents would have to make multiple payments at different care facilities.

For example, Rogers ex¬plained that if a child attends both the CDC and the Youth Center, the parent would have to make a payment at both centers, “but now, parents can make one payment at one cen¬ter and cover both balances.”

Notices began popping up Oct. 13 informing parents to pick up their two CYMS pass¬es, which enable them to ac¬cess the facilities.

“Upon entering, parents, contractors and employees, will scan their pass at the scan¬ning station located at the front desk,” Rogers said.

“From there, the system will log what time they entered, and will inform the staff and parent if there are any outstanding fees. It will even notify when shot records need to be updated...it greatly enhances our customer service,” she added.

Rogers also explained that in the event of a fire drill, manage¬ment will know how many chil¬dren, staff members and con¬tractors are in the building just by looking at a computer screen. Previously, information had to be radioed to one another.

Because of CYMS’ electronic file storing and the CYMS pass, service members no longer have to worry about filling out more paperwork when they are assigned to another duty sta¬tion. All the information is avail¬able at the swipe of a card.

To kick everything off, re¬freshments were available to parents, as the staff, accom¬panied by Erna Numanovic, CYMS trainer with Vermont Systems, worked through the kinks of the launch.

“There were minor con¬nectivity issues early in the morning, but we were able to get through them with the assistance of the [information technician] department,” Nu¬manovic explained. “Overall, this has been a great launch and a lot of it is credited to the great staff here and how well they work together – no one is missing a beat.”

Implementation of CYMS did not happen overnight. In fact, it took three weeks of train¬ing and nearly eight weeks to enter all customer data into the system. During that time, employees pulled together to make it happen.

“During our training, we had to take the whole management team and our clerks away for a week at a time, but the great employees left to run the facility did so without a problem,” Rog¬ers said. “Their performance here allowed us to get the train¬ing necessary for us to begin using this great system.”

Over the past decade, “Ver¬mont Systems has worked with the Department of Defense to continually improve upon the interface and usability of the program,” Numanovic said.

Beaufort is one of the last ar¬eas in the Marine Corps to re¬ceive the CYMS system, which Rogers says has been coming down the pipe since 2006.