Hello All,
First time poster here and new KLAS user. I am an IT Business Analysis from Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) partnering with Minnesota State Services for the Blind. We have been working with Keystone to implement KLAS. Our Braille unit and I would like to suggest an enhancement related to the Material Request and how the Action Codes work when selecting them. We think this change will help improve KLAS to ensure staff are only presented with the Material Request Line Action Codes that are available to them to reduce the chance of selecting the wrong status and improving the user's experience by only providing relevant statuses for selection. In addition we think this would allow the MR Line Action Codes to be even more powerful to support both simple and more complex workflows that each site and each MR Type may have.
Background
We do some of the functions of an IRC on behalf of our partners at our MN Department of Education to provide the Braille books for out K-12 students, however, we are not the actual IRC for the State. As part of this we generally either purchase previously transcribed books if available or transcribe the books in house. In addition, we provide Braille Services to the public for individuals who qualify for the service for free, as well as, to other MN Government Agencies and to businesses and organizations who pay for the services. As part of our agreement with the MN Department of Education, we can also post textbooks we have transcribed in house on the Louis site and sell the to other states to help offset our costs.
What this means is we have a lot of process and different processes for our different types of work. This has correlated to several different Material Request Types with mostly different Line Action Codes for each MR type.
Issue
Currently we have a lot of Line Action Codes configured in the Material Request Module. Many of these Action Codes are related to our K-12 process. We have other work flows and Line Action Codes for our other types of non-K-12 work. We are finding that KLAS does not limit the Line Action Codes with any logic and can make it verify difficult to make sure we select the correct status and leverage the configurations fully.
The Action Codes have a lot of configurations to help determine which MR Types they are for and which Action Codes are validate to move to. This is great! However all of the codes for all MR Types are available in the drop down so the user has to filter through a long list of codes, many that are not relevant to either the MR Type or the Last Action Code for the line.
Request/Suggestion
We would love to have KLAS be updated to make the Action Code field be more dynamic to help our staff be successful in selecting the correct next Action Code and avoid getting in a process loop. We think some of the following items could help:
- Limit the Available Line Action Codes based on the MR Type (i.e. only show the action codes that are available for the MR Type and not display the action codes that are not configured for the MR Type)
- Currently we have over 50 Action Codes for our K-12 MR Type requests as we have many different paths a book can take (needing to purchase a new title or copy, needing to purchase a replacement volume, needing to embossed a previously transcribed book, transcribing a new book, etc)
- Our Braille Services requests are much more streamline as these are more consumable based item and smaller projects not related to K-12 requests. They have many fewer statuses and some unique to their process. However all of the action codes display for K-12 and Service requests making it appear much more complex and harder for those users to select items.
- Limit the Available Action Codes based on the current Last Action.
- For example
- We have an Action Code of EMNEED / Embossing Needed. This code is used to indicate that we have previously transcribed a book but need to emboss a new copy and add it to our catalog. From this code the user can really only select two options:
- RSV / Reserve Pending - Once a new copy of the book is embossed we will add it to our catalog and reserve the copy so it can be barcoded and shipped.
- DRIS / District Requestor - Student Information Needed. We have this Line Action Code for us to update lines where we may need additional information about the student from the person who requested at the school district.
- This is one of many examples where we have to sift through action codes - somewhat unnecessarily since we have the Action Codes configured to know which codes should be available. Generally we have Action Codes to help track were we are in the process for purchasing or producing K-12 material, and they can move to a handful of other codes, but the list contains all possible Action Codes.
We are currently implementing process for our Braille unit, but will be expanding to our Audio Services Unit that has Digital Talking book production processes as well so expect this to become an even larger issue as we continue expanding our use of KLAS.
Thanks for the consideration and hello to you all!
Matt Bechel
