Tailored Catalogue

As part of the rollout of the new catalogue, we’ll be giving users greater purchasing controls by enabling them to set up tailored catalogues for their trusts. This will replace the current masking process.

We’ve conducted extensive research to find out more about masking and how it’s currently working. The overarching feedback from users is that the existing masking feature is not fit for purpose and requires substantial improvements, so much so that some trusts have stopped using it altogether.

Key findings from our research include:

• Masking and unmasking is a very manual and time-consuming task.
• A more reliable and less resource-intensive system is needed to manage purchase controls.
• Trusts demonstrate a wide range of behaviours and preferences.
• Many pain points stem from the inability to efficiently manage, track, and audit purchase controls.

One customer voiced the challenges they regularly face, saying, “We need more confidence in what we are doing and in that we have masked everything… we need to go through every single page to make sure there is nothing else that could be breaking our contractual obligations sometimes”.

How the new tailored catalogue will support trusts

Instead of removing products, tailored catalogues are built by adding specific products and categories. This means that trusts will no longer need to scramble to hide items whenever new products are added to the catalogue. This approach not only reduces the administrative burden of regularly hiding (masking) products but also helps prevent accidental purchase of products that haven’t been masked in time, saving money.

Trusts will be able to set up a limited number of tailored catalogues and assign users to each one, ensuring the right individuals have access to the catalogue relevant for their needs.

Additional purchase control features will be layered alongside the tailored catalogue to provide further structure and levels of control. For example:

• Users will be assigned roles within the platform that determine their ordering rights.
• Personal financial limits will be applied, ensuring any orders exceeding a user’s threshold are routed for approval.

This will allow budget holders to maintain full control of spending.

We’re focused on ensuring that every solution we develop meets the needs of our customers.

We recognise that tailored catalogues mark a significant change from current processes. As we continue testing with our pilot trusts, we’re learning how best to support trusts through this transition and what level of assistance will be needed once they have access to the new catalogue.

We’re incredibly grateful for the testing our pilot trusts have carried out and for the invaluable feedback they’ve provided.

So far, we’ve received positive feedback from several end-user testers, who have found the functionality of adding products to a catalogue straightforward and easy to use.

We’ll be working as a team to support trusts throughout this transition.

As we begin sharing our activation plan, we’ll also be working closely with our ICS managers to ensure they have all the necessary tools and documentation to support their trusts effectively.