Winning Polaris Ideas Put Patron Service and Staff Efficiency First

 

Results of the Polaris Web Application challenge, our latest product-specific challenge in Idea Lab, demonstrate the commitment of Innovative libraries to deliver exceptional service to their communities. Polaris users across the United States and Canada came out in force to share, rank, and prioritize ideas to improve public services and cataloging workflows. As with the recent Sierra Public Services challenge, the volume of activity seen during the three-week challenge is impressive:

  • 160 New Users Added
  • 291 Challenge Participants
  • 113 Separate Ideas
  • 437 Comments & Replies
  • 1,244 Likes or “Up Votes”
  • 7,485 Pairwise Votes to Prioritize Best Ideas

Participants emphasized how ideas could be implemented to streamline processes and improve patron services, and Innovative is pleased to have specific examples of opportunities where we can deliver additional value for our library partners.

“The input we received during this challenge enables us to focus current development resources on the items that matter most to our users,” said Kellie Conner, challenge sponsor and Innovative product owner. “With the addition of these winning ideas, we look forward to seeing even more public services staff adopt the Polaris Web Application to achieve greater efficiencies and deliver better service at their libraries.”

The top winning idea focuses on enabling bulk changes within the Polaris Web Application. Additional winning ideas center on improved print options and fines payment integration. Development of all three ideas is planned for an upcoming Polaris release in 2018.

 

What’s Next for Idea Lab?

We launched a new Always Open space in Idea Lab on February 28! Unlike previous Idea Lab challenges, this new space will remain open indefinitely, and users are invited to submit ideas across a broad spectrum of categories. If you’ve been holding on to a great idea, waiting for a way to share it with your colleagues and with Innovative, this is the space for you! Stay tuned for more details as our Always Open team ramps up.

Please spread the word to colleagues at your own institutions and beyond about joining the Idea Lab community. At Innovative, we are committed to delivering value that benefits all our library partners, and we look forward to the next Challenge with you.

Happy Innovating!

 

View other articles about Idea Lab here: https://www.iii.com/tag/idea-lab/