The NERS Process

The NERS Process:

• The User Group conducts round one voting for enhancement requests. The WRLC's Alma/Primo Advisory Committee (APAC) coordinates the voting, on behalf of the partnering institutions and has 100 votes that can be cast toward enhancements. 
  
• The top 20-25 enhancements from round one voting are sent to ExLibris, where they assign a point value based on level of difficulty for development.
  
• The User Group conducts round two voting. WRLC's Alma/Primo Advisory Committee, again, has 100 votes that can be cast toward enhancements. 
  
• The top enhancements from round two voting are determined. ELUNA has 200 development points each year for enhancements, and the top enhancements that are within 200 point threshold and are sent to ExLibris for development.
  
• APAC rarely splits its votes across more than one enhancement.  During the first round of each voting cycle, the committee culls through all enhancements to get a list of those that explicitly mention keywords like "automated fulfillment", "consortia", "network zone", or that seem generally beneficial to the interests of the consortia. They then select one. If their choice doesn't make the final round, the committee repeats this process while also paying attention to the complexity points assigned to enhancements in that final round.
• Per the WRLC's FY 2025 Strategic Planning Process, APAC will be on pause for FY 2025. However, the committee will continue to coordinate voting.
• If you want to suggest voting for an enhancement, contact your institution's APAC representative. 
• If you want to create an enhancement, use the ExLibris Idea Exchange, find more details here.

Below is the shared timeline for both Alma and Primo enhancements: 

• January 13 – Deadline to submit New Enhancements to NERS
  
• January 14 - March 3 -- Enhancement Team reviews, dedups, scopes, verifies and sets up vote in NERS
  
• March 4 – March 29 -- First round of voting 
  
• April 2 – April 5 -- Enhancement Team reviews results, prepares to send to Ex Libris for pointing
  
• April 8 – May 31 -- Ex Libris pointing work
  
• June 10 - 21 -- Second round of voting on pointed enhancements

Learn more and review previous year's enhancements on the ExLibris Knowledge Center: NERS Cycles