I was on an enablement call with a customer the other day and they asked me, “If there is one aspect of KaiNexus my organization must understand to be as successful as possible in the system, what would that be?” I pondered for a brief moment before the light bulb went off and I responded, “Location.”

For a KaiNexus seasoned vet, when I mention the word Location you should immediately be thinking about the Network.

The Network in KaiNexus is your organization’s unique structure or hierarchy. A Network Location is a group of users or a work unit. Whenever you are planning to add a new user to KaiNexus you must first determine where this user “lives” in the system. Every user in KaiNexus must be associated with at least one Network Location. A user’s Network Location, in combination with their Roles, determines what they see, what they can do, and what sort of notifications they will receive. To take it a step further, each location has a Level Type which designates what kind of work unit it is such as a department, team, or work group.

Have I lost you yet?

Think of it this way, let’s say your organization's name is KaiNexus Health System.

1. At the very top level, we would create a Network Location for KaiNexus Health System and a Level Type called Organization
   
   
2. Now, say you have 4 Divisions within your Organization. We would create a Level Type for Division and then four Divisions, maybe titled 1, 2, 3, 4.
   
   
3. Each of those Divisions may include a handful of States (Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma)
   
   
4. Each of those States contains a handful of Hospitals (Austin Hospital, Tulsa Hospital)
   
   
5. Each of those Hospitals have several Departments (Cardiology), Sub Departments, Service Lines, etc. etc.

Where you work and what you oversee will determine what Network Location you should live in.

Network Location and Level Types are also important for the purposes of either filtering down certain lists on a board or running various reports in KaiNexus.

You will see the word Location all over KaiNexus, and where you are seeing it determines exactly what it means. While there will be different Location phrases, remember it is always referring back to the Network.

1. Project Location(s)
   
   When creating a new project, by default this will be the Facilitator’s (project author) Network location. If the project is happening in another Network Location, this will need to be updated to reflect that in the project.
   
   The Network location for Tasks & Charts will be the Author’s Network Location by default.
   
   For Improvements, there is both the Originating Location and Responsible Location. The Originating Location, by default, is where an Improvement was created (the author’s Network Location). The Responsible Location, by default, is where the work was/is to be done on an Improvement (the Responsible person’s Network Location).
   
   Last, there is the concept of Participating Location, which can be added into the Team section of a Project. Adding a Location to Participating Location in a Project allows every person in that location to take part in working on that Project and receive updates.
   
   
   
2. Roles
   
   A user’s Role(s) determines their default notification settings as well as their viewing options and permissions within KaiNexus.
   
   When determining viewing abilities in KaiNexus there are four options: Everywhere, User’s Location & Below, User’s Location Only, or Only User’s.
   
   Everywhere: applies to Improvements in every Location of the Organization, meaning you have insight into all improvements across the organization.
   
   User’s Location & Below: applies to Improvements in the user’s own location as well as the locations under it, meaning if you are placed in a location with several departments underneath it, you will have insight into those departments improvements.
   
   User’s Location Only: applies to Improvements in the user’s own Location, meaning if you were in the Cardiology department Location, you would only have insight into any improvements within Cardiology.
   
   Only User’s: applies only to the user’s own work, meaning you will only be able to view improvements that you are a team member on.

The concept of Location in KaiNexus can be tricky at first but in my opinion is the most important aspect of KaiNexus to understand. If you have Locations down, you are on your way to becoming a KaiNexus pro!