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Ex Libris Idea Exchange FAQ

Q: Can anyone submit an idea?

A: Yes! The Ex Libris Idea Exchange website is completely open, enabling anyone to submit and review ideas. We strongly believe in openness and transparency and apply these principles in all areas of our activity.

Suggesting an idea is simple: you just need to provide your name and email address, and then you are free to submit your idea to the Idea Exchange site. We highly recommend using the institutional email addresses.

 

Q: How do I show support for ideas I like? 

A: You support an idea by clicking the Vote button next to the idea's title and description. The total number of votes that an idea has earned appears just above the Vote button.

Q: Is the Ex Libris Idea Exchange initiative related to the IGeLU and ELUNA enhancement voting process?

A: No. The purpose of the Ex Libris Idea Exchange website is to facilitate communication directly between the user and the Ex Libris product management team, to help the team set development priorities. The IGeLU and ELUNA enhancement request process (“NERS”) is the only channel for “road-map commitment,” in accordance with the Product Development Collaboration Agreement signed by Ex Libris, IGeLU, and ELUNA.

Popular ideas suggested on the Idea Exchange site can influence the Ex Libris road map but do not have the force of a roadmap commitment. To help drive roadmap commitments for functionality that you or others propose, please participate in the IGeLU and ELUNA enhancement request process.

 

Q: How many ideas am I allowed to submit?

A: You can potentially submit 25 ideas. Here’s why: You are given 25 points to use as desired (see How many ideas may I support?); whenever you submit a new idea, you must give it at least one point.

If an idea that you submitted is then implemented, closed, or found to already exist in the product, your point is returned to you. You can then use it to submit a new idea.

In content forum, you have 50 points to make sure content needs are supported extensively.


Q: How many ideas may I support?

A: You start out with 25 points available for your use (50 points for content). This limitation helps us understand which ideas are the most important to our users.

If you support an idea that is then implemented, closed, or found to already exist in the product, your points for the idea are returned to you.

If you need more points, you can get your points back by removing them from ideas that you have supported. To change your points for an idea, just click My feedback, find the idea, and click the Vote button.

 

Q: Can I delete an idea that I have submitted?

A: When viewing an idea you've created, you'll see “Delete" link. Click that to delete the idea.   However, this is only possible if the idea has no activity and an admin hasn't updated the status. If an idea has activity, it's not possible to delete it.

 

Q: May I comment on any idea?

A: Absolutely! We encourage you to comment on ideas, and Ex Libris will sometimes comment as well. You do not use up points when you comment on an idea.

 

Q: What will Ex Libris do with all these ideas?

A: We are eager to receive ideas from anyone who uses our solutions. Such ideas are an invaluable source for helping us understand your needs and priorities. Naturally, we will not be able to respond to every idea that is submitted. We will, however, review the most popular ideas (those that receive more than a certain number of points), and we will respond to them or perhaps ask for more information.

 

Q: How can I find out what the status of an idea is?

A: Just beneath the title of an idea, you can see the idea’s status. Note that no status is assigned to an idea until it has received a certain number of points.

The following status types available:

     Under Review: When an idea has received a certain number of points, Ex Libris initiates a review of the idea, and its status changes to Under Review. You can still support and comment on the idea. 

     Accepted: If an idea has already been added to the product backlog or is added to the backlog on the basis of the user community’s support, the idea’s status changes to Accepted. Accepted Ideas are ideas that Ex Libris acknowledges their importance and is planning to add them to the product roadmap, however there aren’t yet specific plans for adding them. When there will be such plans, the idea status will change to Planned. All points associated with the idea are returned to the users who supported it. 

     Planned: If an idea has already been planned for the product road map or added to the road map on the basis of the user community’s support, the idea’s status changes to Planned. When feasible, Ex Libris also adds release dates to ideas whose status is Planned. All points associated with the idea are returned to the users who supported it. 

     Completed: When an idea whose status is Planned is incorporated in a release, the idea’s status changes to Completed and all points associated with the idea are returned to the users who supported it. 

     Already Supported: From time to time, an idea is submitted for a feature that the product already supports. The status of such an idea appears as Already Supported, and all the points associated with the idea are returned to the users.

     Closed: In certain rare cases, an idea is not aligned with our product vision or is not technically feasible. In such cases, Ex Libris updates the status of the idea to Closed and provides an explanation. All the points associated with the idea are returned to the users who supported it.

 

Q: I submitted an idea, but I haven’t seen a response from Ex Libris. Why is that?   

A: We would love to be able to respond to every idea that is submitted, but this is not feasible. We are, however, committed to responding to the most popular ideas—those that have received the most points. Our ongoing experience since the launch of the Idea Exchange site has led us to adopt an approach where we continually look at the top ideas for analysis and possible adoption into our products’ roadmap on a monthly basis. 


Q: What are the rules for the Idea Exchange website?

A: Please check out the Idea Exchange guidelines.

 

Q: What's the difference between hot ideas and top ideas?

A: Hot ideas are those that received the most points in the past week. Top ideas are those with the greatest number of points in their category, regardless of the time frame. For example, a new idea that received 30 points in the past week is “hotter” than a 500-vote idea that's been around for some time and received fewer than 30 points in the past week.

 

Q: Is it possible to ‘opt out from providing a link to the Idea Exchange site from the Ex Libris product I use?    

A: Yes.  Currently Ex Libris Alma supports a link from the Help menu to the Idea Exchange site.  This link can be turned on or off by your administrator.  Similar capabilities will be developed for the other Ex Libris products participating in the Idea Exchange site.


Q: How do I login to Idea Exchange?

A: Previously login to Ideas Exchange used an email address. Users were be required to click a link in their email to complete the authentication process.
There is now a change in the authentication method. If you previously authenticated with your email, you will be required to set a new password before providing feedback.

Authentication is also possible through social accounts such as Google or Facebook.

We highly encourage our customers to login using your business email.

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