2020-09-30 Focus Group Items To Discuss

Owned by Former user (Deleted)
Last updated: Oct 13, 2020
3 min read

  1. ITMSCN - ask the focus group about the fields on this screen to see what is needed and what is unused.

    1. Grant ID & Grant Year

      1. Doesn't seem to be used much but could be helpful

      2. Some track this information via the fund

      3. EIS203 report (Michelle)

    2. Composite ID: Classic defines this field as "can be used to indicate the item is a component of a larger asset"

      1. There was a lot of discussion about the composite id field ranging from not being used to being helpful with new buildings.  SSDT to work on modeling this better than classic and will present it to the focus group at a subsequent meeting.

    3. Description 1 & Description 2 - why are there 2 fields?

      1. Determined the 2nd field is due to the field size limitations of classic.

    4. Maintenance Info, is anyone using this option? Tracking via spreadsheet?

      1. Overall consensus is this information is being track separately outside of the Classic inventory system.  Some don't want the maintenance department having access to updating this information.  There are better places to do this outside of EIS.  The maintenance directory keeps track of this information.

      2. Would be useful if there was a way to extract items that need maintenance and provide that to the maintenance department to update and then be able to upload back into inventory.

      3. SSDT to reach out to see if anyone is using this feature of classic.

    5. Auto assigning tag numbers 

      1. Many would like to be able to assign their own tag numbers, wouldn't typically use an auto assign feature for this.

      2. Auto assign does come in handy when splitting "lots".

      3. Would like for it to display the last used tag number to ensure tag numbers not being missed.

  2. ACQTRN

    1. Type - ACQ (A) or Payment (P) record; What is the payment type used for?  Type A transactions impact the GAAP schedules where P type transactions do not.

      1. SSDT to reach out to see if anyone is using this feature of classic.

    2. Manually create acquisition transaction to update an item; update item/error correction

      1. This is definitely used to update items.

  3. Split - what parts of the way this currently work can we improve?

    1. Can’t define specific amounts, splits it evenly.  Total must equal original.

      1. Users would like to be able to split unevenly, specify amounts.

    2. Splits the items and generates a report SPLTAG.TXT file; is the report necessary?

      1. Report is not necessary if there is a way to review what was done in the UI.

    3. In a perfect world how would you want splitting to work?

      1. enter the first tag number and have subsequent tag numbers auto increase, but allowed to modify them if needed before saving.  Auto populate into modifiable fields.

      2. Don't want tag numbers skipped, gives the appearance something is lost/missing.

      3. SSDT to mock up a UI and present it to the focus group to get additional feedback

  4. Field limits:  The Classic EIS field limitations will not be carried forward in the new system; the exception is state mandated field limitations

  5. EISCD option

    1. do we need to import existing EISCD's?  Yes.

    2. Implement a report bundle creation at fiscal year end?  Yes.  Store fiscal reports in file archive?  Yes.

    3. Is this something that must be in place for production or by end of first fiscal year?

      1. Not necessarily for initial production release, but should be in place by Dec 2021 because most will close FY21 after production is released.

  6. How much data to import?  Board policy?

    1. Depends on records retention policies for districts.

    2. Definitely want all active items.  May want to also include anything disposed of in the last year.  Could be different for each district.

    3. SSDT to communicate to all users to see if we can come to an agreed upon amount of data.

      1. There is no Classic purge program for inventory that will remove transaction information.  The purge program only impacts the audit information.

  7. Bar codes - how important is the ability to add items via bar code?

    1. Would be helpful if IT department also used the same inventory system.  There are a lot of things they would not want included that IT tracks.  If things could be added to the inventory but then excluded from GAAP reporting it might be nice.

  8. EISCHG program to mass change fields, do you use this program?

    1. Overall consensus is this would not be needed if we could have spreadsheet loading capabilities.