[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Acquisitions issues (Sitka)

[Sharon Herbert (Project Sitka)]

Thanks Kathy for keeping the great conversation from the conference  
going on the list. I hope that the developers won't regret asking us  
to make some noise ;) I'm hoping that we can find some areas of  
consensus with all of our top issues lists.

I've attached Sitka's top 10 development/bug fix requests, which was  
compiled by Jennifer Pringle, our Acquisitions lead for Sitka support;  
I shared our top 5 at Megan Maurer's Acquisitions session on Friday.  
Our development list is based on the experience of running  
Acquisitions live on production for 6 sites, including a large  
15-branch system that has been using EG Acquisitions since September.  
I've included the Launchpad numbers for the top 5.

As Tara Robertson has already explained, our biggest issues in using  
Acquisitions on production are the workflow and very slow response  
time around purchase order handling. These two issues are inextricably  
linked:

1.Ability to Batch Link Line Items to Invoices – LP #985308
Scenario:
-Library receives a shipments of items from a provider that does not  
use EDI. The invoice for this shipment contains 4 items from purchase  
order A, 3 items from purchase order B, 12 items from purchase order  
C, 7 items from purchase order D and 2 items from purchase order E.  
Each of these purchase orders also contain line items still waiting to  
be shipped that will appear on a different invoice.
-To create an invoice for these items the user must individually link  
each of the 28 line items from their purchase orders to this invoice.

Solution:
Have a function that allows a user select a number of line items on a  
purchase order using the tick box and then batch link the items to an  
invoice through the main Actions menu. Similar functionality currently  
exists for deleting line items, updating funds on line items, and  
cancelling line items.

2. Purchase Order and Invoice slowness – LP #985295

Large purchase orders are consistently slow to open.
A very large purchase order of 382 line items (a hotlist from a  
vendor) takes over 4 minutes to load. During that time the staff  
client stops responding and no tasks can be performed in Evergreen  
until the purchase order has fully loaded.
This is particularly a problem when users are linking line items from  
a purchase order to an invoice. Line items are linked individually  
from a purchase order to an invoice and the invoice opens in the same  
tab as the purchase order. Users have to re-open the purchase order  
for every line item they wish to link to the invoice.

Large invoices result in an unresponsive script warning. You are able  
to continue loading the invoice by clicking Continue.

Finally, a significant issue that hasn't made it into our top 10 list,  
but might be low-hanging fruit,  is the extremely small 8 point font  
size across Acquisitions. Very challenging for aging eyes when you are  
working in Acq all day.

Looking forward to working with other libraries using or planning to  
use Acquisitions. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any  
questions.

Thanks,
Sharon

-- 
Sharon Herbert
Sitka Manager
BC Libraries Cooperative
Tel: 604.854.5618
Email: sherbert at sitka.bclibraries.ca