Add Vendor contact details to Analytics
We would like to be able to report on the Vendor contact fields of address, phone and email in Analytics.
This Ideas exchange to add vendor contact details to Alma Analytics" has been completed as part of the May 2021 release, in conjunction with the revamping of the User Subject area.
It is possible to create a report in the “Users” subject area of all users who are contacts by filtering by the field “User Record Type” from the “User Details” folder
-
David Macaulay commented
Please add the capability to export "contact people" information by vendor code/name. Otherwise, we have to include the vendor identifier in some other field in order to export this information in a useful way!
-
Alex Forrest commented
Hi Yoel,
We need wider Vendor information in general in Analytics. Including the Vendor Account Codes. Currently we have to duplicate Vendors on Alma so we can have separate reportable codes. e.g. Harrasowitz Standing Orders, Harrasowitz Monographs. We would like to have ONE Vendor record with two Acount Codes (reportable end exportable to our Finance system via API - API is working, analytics needs more data)
-
Melinda Martin commented
This reporting should fall under the "Vendors" folder of "Funds Expenditure" subject area - additional areas to include:
Vendor Name
Vendor Code
Vendor Status
Contact Information (Vendor level, all fields)
Notes FieldThis information is critical, and too many clicks to get into on the fly.
-
Jaymie Turner commented
I am having to go record by record to identify our foreign vendors, since there is no ability to export extended information including contact, address, state, country, etc.
-
Nicola Stratton commented
Dear Yoel,
From my own point of view, the reason I would like vendor contact details in analytics is to allow us to extract data for mail merges, to send donations acknowledgments (because Alma does not allow Gift acknowledgements as standard - I've also raised this on the Ideas Exchange).
For this reason I would be content if the main vendor record contact details were shown in the report. We don't tend to add contacts to the vendor accounts sub-level as Alma cannot use this level for communication with vendors anyway (which is another story).
So, personally, I'd like to see the ability to pick up the preferred vendor record address and email address in an analytics report (via the Funds Expenditure area of analytics), which I'd like to think should be relatively straightforward.
No doubt others' views will differ but there seems to be general agreement that the options as they stand are too limited for our requirements.
Thank you,
Nicola Stratton
Acquisitions Manager
National Library of Scotland -
Hi, we would be most appreciative if you could let us know which specific fields you want and from where. There are a lot of open questions. Here is the situation. Comments of course are welcome. Thanks.
1. There are contacts on the level of the vendor and contacts on the level of the account.
2. On the level of the vendor there is a "contact information" tab which contains a section "Email Addresses". There can be here multiple email addresses.
3. Also on the level of the vendor there is a "contact people" tab which contains a list of contact people. Each contact person has a "general information" tab and a "contact information" tab, and the "contact information" tab can have multiple emails.
5. On the level of the account each vendor can have multiple accounts and each account can have multiple contacts and each contact can have multiple emails.
So we have a multiple one to many to many relationship here.
One vendor can have multiple accounts, each of which can have multiple contacts with multiple emails.
One vendor can have multiple vendor level contacts each of which may have multiple emails.
What would happen if one vendor has multiple contacts each of which has multiple emails? For example would they be strung together and delimited with a semicolon? (for example as bibliographic subjects are in the shared bibliographic details folder).6. What is an example of the kind of report you would like to make if these fields were added? That would guide us as to where and how they would be added to Alma analytics.
7. Perhaps we could link this to the POL and use the vendor account of the POL. But then what if the vendor account does not have contact people? Would we then take from the vendor level? Would we also take from the vendor level even if the vendor account of the POL does have contact people? Would it be the contact people "at the time the order as sent" or the contact people at the "current time"?
-
Nicola Stratton commented
I would also like this due to the lack of ability to send automated 'gift' acknowledgments via Alma. If the Vendor contact details were available on analytics I could send the acknowledgements via a regular mail merge based on the analytic report. As things stand I cannot do this as the vendor contact details are not included.
I would like the options to include the following fields on analytics: vendor name, vendor account code, vendor account description, vendor contact address and vendor contact email, vendor account contact address, vendor account contact email, contact people, account contact.
I would also like to be able to run a report to identify the operator who created or modified both vendors and vendor accounts (this function exists for POLs, but not for vendors). This would help monitor operator workload and performance.
-
Anonymous commented
Been requesting this since 2016...
The need for this facility is still here. Don't know why it isn't easy to resolve :( -
Anonymous commented
Would love for this to be in general Alma vendor search functionality too. Currently we have to have an off-system Access database to allow full text searching of our vendor details...so often items arrive unexpectedly from an unknown source....with only the sender's address as the vital clue to trace the vendor.
-
Karen Schlesser commented
Definitely you cannot include username/password! That would be very problematic for us. We give most library employees access to analytics so they can run their own reports. Since analytics access can't be made more granular, it's all or nothing, this would be a major breach.
-
Maja Sørnes commented
I would like to make an report for my collegues and library assistans with limited access to - and knowledge of Alma. The report I imagine should contain vendor, account, contact person for account, Interface uri for admin interface, password/username, contactperson for interface and combine them with license details. Basically I would like all fields in Vendor to be accessible in analytics.
-
Kat Hart commented
This is vital, and we also need account code, and account description.
-
Helena Skyllberg commented
And could you also make interface general details available in analytics.
-
Kat Hart commented
We need this to manage our migrated vendor records. Please implement!