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iBuyNU Update

May 26, 2020

PPS has been successful in working with Aquiire on stabilization and enhancement projects.  Many new features have been implemented that will make iBuyNU more efficient and user friendly.  Listed are current and new features available in iBuyNU:    

  • ‘Real-time’ search capability for many of the supplier catalogs
  • Federated search capability allows customers to search for a product across all catalog types
  • New ‘shared-cart’ functionality allows multiple users or groups to add products to a cart before assigning to their business manager or administrator to create a requisition
  • Easier ability for requesters to reassign carts to other colleagues
    With federated search, you will still have the ability to browse individual preferred vendor catalogs
Listed below are new features/enhancements that have been introduced to iBuyNU that will improve the usability: 
  • The ability for a user to pre-define members in a group cart.
  • The ability for a user to reclaim and edit assigned shopping carts. 
  • The ability for draft carts to be created and saved for future submission and processing.
  • The ability for shoppers to receive out of office messages from iBuyNU when their assigned requesters is not available. 
  • The supplier’s punchout icon has been increased in size and changed to a brighter color so it’s easier to locate.
  • Additional search features for invoices allowing you to filter by invoice type. 
Jobs aids are available in that will walk you through the new features.

We continue to receive positive feedback in regards to the work we’ve done to stabilize and improve iBuyNU.  A few of the new features were recommendations from the user community and the others are changes we felt would make iBuyNU even better.  There’s still a little work to be done so please be on the lookout for the following change(s) in the near future: 
  • Search and Filter – Continue to improve the search and filter functionality for carts, invoicing and purchase orders.
  • Transaction View - We are working to give priority view to the transaction you are associated with in iBuyNU.  This will include Purchase Order, Invoices and Carts.  You will still have the ability to search all university transactions.
  • iBuyNU Assigned Cart Notification – Remove embedded link to decrease confusion for requesters.
  • Out of Office Notifications - We are working to create a process to allow Requesters to notify shoppers they're out of the office when assigning carts.  The hope is to give shoppers real-time notification so they can review instruction and take action before completing their transaction.
 

Things to know

  • Chrome Users - A fix has been identified and applied that  could eliminate the issues you may have been experiencing when shopping in iBuyNU.   We will continue to work with Chrome to monitor the stability of this browser.  If you do continue to experience issues when working in Chrome, please use Firefox.
  • Catalog Name Change - Kayhan Office Furniture has a new name.  The new name is BOS.
  • Assigned Cart Notes - In the notes section of the Assign Cart page, we have a limit of 255 characters.  If you go over that character limit, the system will not allow you to assign your cart.   Decreasing your character amount will allow you to assign your cart.   We are working with Aquiire to either provide a character count down or just not allow us to enter more than 255 characters. 
  • Dell Browser Changes - Effective May 1st, 2020, Dell will no longer support IE 11 in non-standard mode, compatibility mode or IE version of 10 or less.  To not experience any issues after May 1st, the recommend you use Chrome, Firefox or enable IE 11 standard mode.
  • Improving Your Search Results - With the new federated search, your search results could present items that may not be relevant to the item/category you are searching.  To narrow and improve your search results, we recommend you utilize the search categories available in the drop down box.  You can review all available categories by using the scroll bar. ibuynu screenshot

Learn more

  • Review the iBuyNU Tips and Reminders page.
  • If you are new to using iBuyNU, please review a pre-recorded version of the webinar presented when we first went live a year ago.  You will learn about some of the features and how to navigate through the iBuyNU Marketplace.  Please note if you are a Mac user, you may experience issues accessing the webinar.
  • Training materials are now available in myHR Learn!

Contact

For feedback or questions, please contact Keith Paddy at 847.467.6963 or k-paddy@northwestern.edu.

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