What’s new in the Technology Suite

The Follett Software Ops app includes several updates that make it more efficient to use. You can now do the following:

• Log in using single sign-on with SAML for Google, Microsoft, or Okta.
• Edit the Description, Notes, Priority, Complete By, Budget Code, and Project fields on a request's details.
  
• Add purchases, inventory, assets, and files to a request.
  
• View and edit an asset's details, check it out or in, and view its history.
  

Learn more about the Follett Software Ops app.

More changes have been made to the Dashboard page since its redesign in the 25.6 release. It now includes:

• Service level agreements in the 'Open requests' widget.
• A Requests widget showing the average time to request resolution.
• The option to filter in the 'Open requests' and Requests widgets.
• An interactive Assets widget showing asset status via a pie chart.

Learn more about the Dashboard.

The Manage Assets page has several updates, including the following:

• Pagination, number of items, and number of assets now appear at the top and bottom of the table.
  
• The Active column shows Yes or No instead of a checkbox.
• To inactivate an asset, access the asset's details page instead of using an icon on the Manage Assets page.
• When you do not select any assets and try to perform Actions > Mass Update, Transfer Assets, QR Report, or Perform Audit, a message informs you to select one or more assets and try again.

Learn more about managing assets.

When you perform an audit, you can now scan asset barcodes. If the assets are part of the audit, they are confirmed. If an asset is not part of the audit, it is added automatically.

When you perform an audit, you will see the following changes related to the Scan Barcode option:

• A new Location drop-down appears below the Scan Barcode field. A selection is required when you scan or enter a barcode.
• If you have a carriage return setting for your scanner, the scan is done automatically. Otherwise, you can click Scan.
• When you scan an asset barcode that is part of the audit, if the location is different than the one you selected, the location is updated. If the asset is not part of the audit, it is added to the audit and the location is updated to what was selected.
• The table now shows a Barcode column instead of ID.
• If a scanned device has a status of In Use, Lost, or Stolen, a message asks if you want to update the status to Available.
• Assets with a status of In Use can be checked in when adding them to the audit.

Learn more about managing asset audits.

The Quick Circulation page has several updates to help you when circulating assets, including the following:

• On both Check Out and Check In, there is text above the Scan Barcode field to remind you to scan a user barcode and then the asset barcode.
• If an asset cannot be checked out, a message appears letting you know the reason, such as the asset is already in use, lost, stolen, or the barcode is not found.
  
• After checking out or in an asset, the table at the bottom of the page shows both the user name and barcode, along with the asset name and barcode.
  
• Administrators can now require a due date when checking out assets. If this option is set to yes, a due date is required wherever you check out assets, except Mass Circulate.
  

Learn more about Quick Circulation and General Settings.

The newest Follett Software product is IT Asset Manager. Use it to manage all your technology devices. Students and staff can create support requests, while IT staff can assign and track them. Administrators can run reports to view the number of requests, labor costs, purchase costs, inventory, request response times, and more.

Learn more about IT Asset Manager.

The new Follett Software Ops app lets you create and view requests on the go. Based on your permissions in the web app, you can also change a request status, view assets, add notes and labor, and scan assets.

Learn more about the Follett Software Ops app.

The redesigned dashboard gives you a comprehensive view of your requests and assets at a glance:

• See open requests organized by priority and assignment.
• View recent notifications with improved formatting.
• Access quick actions for common tasks.
• Track request trends with visual charts.

Learn more about the Dashboard.

Two new columns make it easier to manage users.

Create Date column

When a user is created, whether manually or through a sync, a Create Date is stored in IT Help Desk. Create Date is now an available optional column on the Manage Users page. The date and time appears in the column when selected.

Create Method column

To make troubleshooting easier, when a user is added to IT Help Desk, how the user was created is logged. You can add Create Method as a column to the Manage Users page.

The column logs when a user is created in any of the following ways:

• Manually on the Manage Users page and the Check-Out Assets page, using the + Add User button
• Via a custom form, email, or import
• Google SSO or Destiny SSO
• Active Directory
• SAML Azure, SAML Classlink, SAML Google, or SAML Okta
• OneRoster
• A user is created in FacilitiesDrawings and synced

You can sort and filter on both the Create Date and Create Method columns.

Learn more about managing users.

There are many new fields on the Manage Users page. You can't add these fields as columns to the Manage Users page, and they won't appear on a user's details page.

New fields on the Manage Users page include: 

• Middle Name
• Mobile Phone Number
• Name Suffix
• Secondary Phone
• Secondary Mobile Phone
• Secondary E-Mail
• Alt ID
• State ID
• District ID
• Grade Level
• Graduation Year
• Birthdate
• Locker

Address is in a separate collapsible section. You can add primary and secondary addresses. Address fields include:

• Address 1
• Address 2
• City
• State
• Zip

Learn more about managing users.

Before seeing data on the View All Requests and View All Assets pages, you now need to search or apply a filter. This update will load data quicker.

In addition, the following updates were made to buttons and links on all pages that let you view requests and assets:

• If you filter on a column, a filter icon appears in the column header. To sort a filtered column, click the filter icon to see the sort icon.
• Clear filters sets the page back to showing no data.
• The Columns button is now a link called Add, re-order, or remove table columns.
• The delete icon is red.
• Inactive requests or assets are now gray instead of red.

When filters are set, the next time you access that page, the filters will continue to be applied.

Funding Source and Instructional Classification are now single-select drop-down fields that can be added to asset records of a specific type. Users with the Manage Site Settings permission can customize these fields, creating unique category names and linking them to specific asset types. For example, maybe you want the PTO funding source linked to iPads.

There are also new EFR standard fields in asset records:

• Condition: Track if an asset is new, good, fair, poor, usable, damaged, or unusable.
• Date Last Accounted For: Manually enter the date you accounted for an asset.
• Depreciation Convention: Determine how much an asset depreciates over the course of its life. This is based on IRS depreciation conventions of annual, half-year, mid-month, and mid-quarter.

Learn more about managing custom fields and assets.

Administrators can enable a new 'Auto Generate Barcode for New Assets' field in General Settings > Assets tab. When an asset is created – either manually or via an asset import –IT Help Desk will automatically generate a barcode if that field is blank.

Barcodes will use Code 39 Generic format. They will be 10 characters, start with a 5, and can contain numbers, uppercase letters, and the following characters: minus (-), plus (+), period (.), dollar sign ($), slash (/), and percent (%).

Learn more about general settings and managing assets.

Duplicate barcodes are now supported. When duplicate barcodes are found, you are required to select the correct asset from a pop-up. This pop-up will appear on pages where you can search for assets, such as Check In, Check Out, Quick Circulation, when adding an asset to a request, and when creating a request.

During mass circulation, the checkout is not completed and a note is added to the error log.

Learn more about assets.