Activate electronic inventory in Alma regardless of invoicing by provider platform for Rialto
Rialto aligns activation of electronic inventory in Alma with invoicing by the provider platform, except for Rapid Activation providers.
This causes a poor patron experience when we find that the platform may very quickly activate a resource, but take longer to provide an invoice.
In sum, the patron doesn’t get the Interested User notice of access for sometimes weeks, only due to paperwork and library staff having to do manual work to follow up orders open for an unexpectedly long period.
It is suggested that all providers supplying electronic inventory orders via Rialto have the same process flow as for Rapid Activation, to provide activation in Alma triggering the email notice to the patron and with a brief bibliographic record initially, and then the second round complete bibliographic record and invoice later.
OLH: Rialto End-to-end Order Lifecycle: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Rialto/Product_Documentation/040Rialto_Administrator_Guide/Rialto_End-to-end_Order_Lifecycle
Rapid Activation: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Rialto/Knowledge_Articles/What_platforms_offer_rapid_activation_on_Rialto%3F
Stacey van Groll
shared this idea
Hello,
Elizabeth is correct, we aren't able to activate portfolios until we have been notified by the provider that the item is available. For some platforms, this comes with their invoice. If we make things available before we are notified that they are available there would be times where we didn't have a URL for activation or that if a patron tried to access the item it would not be available on the platform. That being said, we are trying to optimize activation to ensure it happens in Alma as quickly as possible.
Thank you for your idea.
Heidi Whitehead
Rialto Product Manager
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Stacey van Groll
commented
This submission states ‘regardless of invoicing’, not ‘regardless of activation’.
It states this in the title and also gives a user story of the patron experience being poor via our discovery environment to not have access advised and available, when the resource is active on the source platform.I don’t see anywhere where the submission states otherwise, so I don’t understand that interpretation at all that I would be asking for activation in Alma when it isn’t active on the platform.
For background, the suggestion was opened from a case where the resource was active on the source platform but not in Alma.
The analyst advised: “Customer Care advisors are waiting for supplier to forward them the invoice, which they have not received, they informed that they will chase them again.”
I opened this submission after this response and checking the Rialto lifecycle documentation and noting that the Rapid Activation flow has activation first and then invoicing, hence the suggested solution.
A day later the analyst corrected their statement: “Our Customer Care team is not just awaiting for the invoice, they are also awaiting for the purchase order fulfillment, and that is what it gives access to the resource. A portfolio activation isn't based on invoicing, we are waiting as well for the vendor to provide the access MARC. The invoice is tipically sent at the same time, but it is not required for activation.”
As such I dispute the reason for closure given the poor patron experience remains, regardless if the suggested manner of solution is not viable due to incorrect advice and unclear documentation.
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Elizabeth York
commented
Upon first reading, I thought this request was asking for portfolios to be activated and interested user notices to be sent regardless of whether we had access on the provider platform or not. However, that doesn't make much sense, so I must have been misreading it!
Based on the linked workflows, it looks like at present, after the book is available on the provider platform, the provider sends a MARC with an EDI invoice, and that activates the portfolio and sends the interested user notice. Is this request actually saying that vendors are taking too long to prepare their EDI invoices, and you want the providers just to send a MARC after the book is available on the provider platform, and that MARC alone should activate the portfolio and trigger the interested user notice, and they can then send the EDI invoice later? If that's the case, I suggest that this request should be refined so it more clearly requests that after the book is available on the vendor platform, just a MARC should be sent to trigger the portfolio activation and the interested user notice.