Acquisition Module – For managing your library’s acquisitions
The Acquisition module helps optimize the process of internal and external work of the library, providing complete management of procurement processes, library budgets and the connection with its suppliers.
Using the Acquisition module, the library/information center can manage its relations with the organization’s supplies regarding procurement issues. Using this module enables production of requests for quotations, purchase orders, discounts and VAT calculation, tracking orders, requests and deliveries, budget management and generating reports.
The module is an integral part of IDEA products, and it is used in the system itself and not by external software, thus using the same friendly and familiar work screens. This allows the connection of all the acquisition information to the catalog items: magazines, books and articles, in order to obtain maximum documentation about the history of the item. Moreover, the various stages of the work are operated in accordance with the permissions mechanism, and complete record of all transactions is kept for the benefit of the administrator’s control of the purchase process.
The Module is flexible, and can be updated and matched to the various procurement processes and needs of each library / information center.
Leading capabilities:
Orders: The Orders module provides tools for the management of orders with suppliers, from the order’s preparation to the items’ delivery, billing the appropriate budget, and monitoring the supply workflow.
Suppliers: The Suppliers module manages the suppliers list, keeping updates of suppliers’ data and following of suppliers’ activities. You can set various parameters defining the communication with the supplier: a detailed record of vendor information, link to orders made from him, the language of correspondence, time limit for delivery, scheduling of reminders, defining the suppliers’ currency, setting the prices in the invoice, including VAT or not, etc.
Budget Definitions: This module offers a solution for managing the monitoring and controlling of acquisition costs. Within the management of budgets, one can limit the amount of money available for purchase of various types. In addition, budget management allows easy control of the expenses distribution and exploitation of the budget at any time. The module of Currency Codes allows registration of exchange rates between different currencies. Currencies Update converting the billing from orders currency to budget currency.
User Messages: This module provides the basis for communication amongst the library staff involved in the acquisition process. The messages in the system are linked to the orders, and provide a powerful tool to monitor orders’ workflow. The system’s messages can be backed up by sending e-mail messages for the convenience of users who do not work regularly with the IDEA software.
Messages Box: The system users have access to the private message box within the acquisition management module. The Message Box displays a list of received messages for the user, and allows him/her to see the contents. Most of the properties of the message box are similar to those of email messages, and therefore it is user friendly.
Many libraries and information centers are already using this module to manage the internal work processes and the acquisition processes efficiently, quickly and professionally.
For more information and / or purchasing the Acquisition module for your library, please contact the sales department of Idea: [email protected]
Client Story
The Acquisition module has been modified in Rafael Information Center
The IDEA Lib system has been installed in Rafael in several libraries and in the organization’s information center. As part of the implementation Idea’s Acquisition module has been purchased and installed in the Information center.
The Acquisition module assists the center’s staff in managing and budgeting requests received from end users.
Using the module, purchase requests for data items from all end-users, are received directly in the data center. There, filtering is done about the quality of the requests and it is checked whether it is approved or not in by Rafael’s budgets people involved in the purchasing process, who have direct access to the IDEA Lib system. Accordingly, the request is passed for further treatment – Buying or rejection.
Once a request is approved, the purchasing process is carried out, including the opening of an order, ongoing communication with the external content providers which is being recorded in the Acquisition module, reception confirmation and cataloging the item in IDEA Lib.
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