Feature Release Options and Accessories
We are pleased to announce a new feature now live in PLAN-IT: Options and Accessories (O&A).
From a high level, the new O&A feature gives users additional detail fields at the catalog, template and project levels, enabling equipment planners to:
- Better define and specify products & organizational standards
- Associate items in a parent/child relationship
Read on to find out more about this exciting new feature, and how you can begin using it in your planning process today.
What are Options?
Options are new fields that allow users to add specific details and additional costs associated with certain product specifications. Options can be applied to both catalog and org scope products, as well as products assigned to a template or project.
The fields available for Options include: color, finish, size, upgrade and upholstery.
Use case: By leveraging options, a user can capture the specific color of the exam tabletop required, or the organization’s preference on finish for an overbed table, while planning equipment.
For upholstery, PLAN-IT now includes additional data fields to capture the cost, quantity, grade, color, repeat, pattern, content, width, length and whether the material is flame retardant.
What are Accessories?
Accessory management allows users to add parent-child associations to products in the catalog, and to items within a project. The new feature gives a more holistic view of potentially complicated equipment relationships by providing the ability to view the associated products as one fully configured product.
When a user creates an Accessory for a product, the Accessory appears as an optional, additional product that can be selected when adding that item to a project. It also enables users to manage the association relationships throughout the project’s lifecycle.
Also, just like in the Options fields, the cost of these Accessories, including any appropriate tax, are captured for the entire configuration.
Use case: A planner can now associate various products with a code cart: for instance, a defibrillator, IV pole, warning signage, or products that live on the code cart, as specified by the organizations standards or needs. With these items included as accessories, the planner ensures they are not overlooking associated items, and can create a more accurate space plan and budget by ensuring those additional items planning requirements are accounted for.
Why is Options and Accessories an exciting feature for medical equipment planners?
One major benefit of O&A is that it saves equipment planners time when searching for related products that are consistently used together. Rather than always adding a patient bed and mattress as two separate line items (or worse – forgetting to add the mattress), users can create an association to quickly find those items in the catalog and add them as one configured product to a template or project.
Capturing O&A also gives organizations the power to better curate specific standards, and allows for easy creation, duplication and reporting to ensure no products are overlooked in the equipment list or budget.
Having the details accounted for by O&A also helps create a smooth request for quote process by allowing equipment planners to capture and provide these details at the outset to vendors.
