FIRST Choice will be back for the 2014 FRC Season!
There are a few relevant FIRST Choice dates about which you should know.
•11/25/13: FIRST Choice will open for window shopping. Teams will see the parts available and how many credits each part will cost.
•12/9/13 (noon, Eastern): FIRST Choice log-in information will be available in TIMS for registered and paid teams. Teams use this information to make sure they can log-in to the AndyMark FIRST Choice system. We are posting log-in information before ordering starts to allow test logins and help identify any issues prior to the rush to order parts.
•12/14/13 (noon, Eastern): FIRST Choice will open for ordering for registered and paid teams. Please note that this is a Saturday. We received a lot of feedback that opening FIRST Choice on a weekday caused excessive stress on Mentors ordering parts while at work. We hope that, by moving the opening date to a Saturday, we will alleviate some of this stress.
We’ll be giving thorough scrutiny to the credit value for each part. We will also be using item limits more regularly. Our goal is to give more Teams access to the most desirable items available.
We’re so grateful to our partners at AndyMark, a Crown Supplier, for their continued work to improve the execution of FIRST Choice each year. AndyMark redesigned the ordering process over the summer and made the notable changes below.
•FIRST Choice will now be hosted on its own site to eliminate confusion on logging in with your team’s FIRST Choice account vs. logging in with your AndyMark account.
•Shipping costs will now be paid only via Credit Card.
•Items in your Cart will be reserved for a short period of time while you shop and checkout. This means those specific items can’t be claimed by someone else while you work on your order. However it also means that you won’t be able to park items in your cart for an extended length of time.
While they’ve done extensive internal testing on the changes to the site, AndyMark would like you to sign up to help them Beta test the changes to the site externally. Beta testers will be asked to run the new site through its paces to help eliminate issues on opening day. To help test these new features and the new ordering site, please fill out the form located at FIRST Choice Beta Test and you will be sent more information. The beta test should take between 15 and 30 minutes. Thank you to those of you who take this effort on!
Glad to see they revamped the system. Time will tell if the system is better.
Good to see I don’t have to worry about being stuck in a meeting at work or out on a job site while everyone is frantically buying everything they can in the first hour. Also good to see that there will be some limits on certain items and that once an item is in your cart it will still be there at checkout.
My only issue with this is that it opens on the same day as the Indiana State FLL tournament. I guess I won’t be going to support any of our local teams that make it to state.
Otherwise, it looks like a well thought out list of improvements based on the feedback teams provided, including initial login testing.
FIRST Choice log-in information will be available in TIMS for registered and paid teams. Teams use this information to make sure they can log-in to the AndyMark FIRST Choice system. We are posting log-in information before ordering starts to allow test logins and help identify any issues prior to the rush to order parts.
We received a lot of feedback that opening FIRST Choice on a weekday caused excessive stress on Mentors ordering parts while at work. We hope that, by moving the opening date to a Saturday, we will alleviate some of this stress
We’ll be giving thorough scrutiny to the credit value for each part. We will also be using item limits more regularly. Our goal is to give more Teams access to the most desirable items available.
Items in your Cart will be reserved for a short period of time while you shop and checkout. This means those specific items can’t be claimed by someone else while you work on your order. However it also means that you won’t be able to park items in your cart for an extended length of time.
Kudos to the all of the people behind this, both at HQ and AndyMark, it’s really nice to see that people are listening and willing to work on things to try to make things just a little bit easier.
Things like this are making me more and more excited for 2014.
I am actually a little annoyed by the move to a Saturday. That means I am going to have to figure out how to get internet access while refereeing a VEX event.
Everything else I’m very happy about, so overall good job.
Maybe I’m being a bit too positive today, but considering that we’ve been made aware of the ordering date a about a month and a half ahead of time, and will have a whole month to window shop, and be able to test our respective log-ins the week before FIRST Choice opens, it seems like any scheduling conflicts are pretty easy to work around.
I’m sure that there will be someone available for ~1hr on the 15th with internet access that can read through a pre-made list of parts and place the order. Yes, it could be a bit tricky if something sells out before you can order it, but I guess it’s no different than a Pick-List, you plan for the worst and hope for the best?
Don’t get me wrong all these changes seem like they should improve the system. I’m just saying it will be a bit tricky for me to do this on that Saturday and most Saturdays. I’ll actually probably just have someone else ref a few matches while I do this, since I’m the only person on the team with a credit card for ordering parts.
