Hello,

I'm looking for advice on avoiding duplication of product types in the asset database, which can be caused by technicians creating a PO for a vendor where we have not purchased a particular product from before.

We are running SDP v10 (build 10008) and regularly run into the issue described below:

1) A product type (e.g. iPhone 7) is purchased, so this is set up from the relevant vendor and logged on a purchase order.

2) Some time later, a technician wants to purchase the same product from a different vendor. They create a new PO, enter the vendor, but do not find the product type in the drop-down list under Assets > Smart Phones. So they click "Create New Product" and enter the details.

3) A new entry is created for this vendor, and on receipt the item becomes an asset.

4) We now have two identical product types in the asset database but with different names.

For example, our asset list may result in multiple types like this:

iPhone 7

iPhone 7 32GB

iPhone 7 32GB Space Grey

iPhone 7 32GB - Space Grey

It seems strange that a technician is allowed to create a new product type with a link to a vendor, but they have NO possibility to link an existing product type with a new vendor, unless they have access to the 'Admin' tab.

I have reviewed the Roles section and permissions for technicians but I cannot see any way to handle this.

Is there a way to do this in the current version of SDP, or is it perhaps a feature that could/should be added to the roadmap?

Ideally, when clicking on "Create New Product", the technicians should be presented with a list of all existing products of that type (e.g. Smart Phones) so they could link this vendor to a product, if appropriate. Only if they don't find the product in the list, should they create a completely new product type.

Cleaning up this situation is also difficult, since all assets, purchase requests and purchase orders must be updated to use one product type throughout, before the additional, duplicate entries can be deleted.

Many thanks for any tips or thoughts.

Martyn