07) Document Management

A list of Requirements and Explanations as well as Questions and Answers from various RFP's about Document Management Functionality in Aras.

Document control for drawings and inspection report forms by product

Aras Innovator provides comprehensive document control functionality to manage all different types of documents and file formats including drawings and the inspection report form files.

Document control for Process Audits, Quality Systems audits, Supplier Certifications, and Social Accountability audits

Doc control capabilities in Aras Innovator can be used to manage audit files.

Inspection Results recording (FG audit, in-process, etc...) that also allows the use of defect codes

Inspection results recording for finished goods, in-process, incoming with defect tracking codes are forms that can be configured as needed to support your needs depending on product inspection parameters, etc.

Revision levels are automatically indexed

Standard capabilities include automatice revsion level increment, tied to Engineering Change or Lifecycle Promotion events. Supports both major andminor revision levels, and with simple tailoring, the ability to define custom revisioning sequences.

Obsolete and archived documents are not accessible without special permissions

Administrator can define specific permissiona to be automatically assigned based on the lifecycle state of the document. If the document has been superceded or obsoleted, permissions can be configured to allow access by only a select group in the organization.

Archived documents, when printed, are notated as such (ie: watermark)

This capability is currently in-process at an existing Aras Innovator customer. The project is in the specification development phase, and is planned to include creation of PDF documents when getting a copy of a read only document. The solution will be a shared source solution, available to all customers.

The approval process can only be bypassed with special permissions

Special or private permissions can be assigned by user or by group to specific Documents. These special or private permissions can be configured to allow an over-ride of default approval process behaviors.

Documents can be departmentalized

Departmental property can be captured directly on the form and searched against. Departmentalization can also be used to define different lifecycles, default permissions, form layout and fields.

Describe how the approval process is defined (ie: by department, by document, etc.)

The Approval Process is definition is called a Workflow Map. Each Workflow Map contains the routing, voting rules, and the logic for dynamic Activity Assignments (for example, assignment to the correct product Manager, based on a Matrix). The administrator can configure a single Workflow Map that is used for all Documents, or can create multiple Workflow Maps, that are then related to Documents by Department, by Classification, by Part type etc. The Workflow Map is a process (procedure) definition. Once assigned to an individual Document, it becomes a Workflow Process, allowing for per Document process changes to be implemented. Dynamic Activity assignment based on the type of document for example, or changes in routing to allow for out-of-office situations can be easily configured at the per Document Workflow Process level, without impacting the Workflow Map.

History is a required field prior to submission for approval and it is carried on the document from revision to revision.

Assumption: History is a field for capturing the change comments on any Document Standard Lifecycle behavior can be turned-on by the administrator to capture end-user comments, descriptions of change, etc.. The user is prevented from promoting (which creates the revision) without entering the History value. Aras Innovator also includes a standard History container which stores all edit activity and changes for an Item."

The approval process is hierarchical

"Innovator supports two types of Hierarchy in the Workflow Process. The first is hiearchical Identity management, such that workflow assignments can be made to groups, wich have hiesrchical membership. Any member (or member of sub-group) can inherit the approval permissions. The Workflow Map design tool also supports creating hierarchies of Workflow Maps. This is useful for complex business processes that are more easily designed and maintained as a hierarchy of sub-Maps. The Workflow Maps can call Sub-Maps, and the Workflow Process proceeeds through the sub-Map until completion, and then continues routing in the parent Workflow Map."

Text fields are predefined (ie: title, scope, body, etc.)

There are many predefined fields that define the Document in Innovator (based on the CMII standard and best practices). With the flexibility that is developed into the Innovator solution, customers are able to easily add company-specific properties to the Document form as well, and capture those properties in the database.

Changes can not be made to a document once it is submitted for approval. It must be rejected back to the creator.

Approval process automation is implemented using Lifecycle and Workflow Map web services within Innovator. While Innovator is delivered with a stadard set of workflows and lifecyles based on the CMII standard (www.icmhq.com), for the approval process of a Document can be configured to capture company-specific Document release process. The standard Workflows and Lifecyles in Aras Innovator have branches, loopbacks, subflows, and the capability of changing Document permissions automatically as the Document moves through the process. Preventing changes to a Document while under review is a typical process rule, and is enabled by the administrator as a flag in the GUI.

When a document is put into revision, no one else can do the same therefore creating two documents of the same revision level.

Revisioning is automaticall managed by Aras Innovator. The revision level is automatically sequenced, preventing the duplication of revision levels.

All (approved only) documents can be printed by anyone. Meaning if there is a procedure 'belonging' to an engineering function, a sales person can still look at it and print it.

Aras Innovator has a robust, and easily configured Permission management service. Permissions for Read, Add, Update, and Delete can be set by individual user or hiearchical groups. The Permissions are automatically updated as Documents are moved through the Lifecycle. The default Permission model implements the requested behavior [ all users users are able to Read released Documents]. The administrator can modify the Permission service behaviors using the included Solution Studio graphical interface.

The specified approval process can be overridden with special permissions

Special or private permissions can be assigned by user or by group to specific Documents. These special or private permissions can be configured to allow an over-ride of default approval process behaviors.

Old revisions are automatically archived once the new level gets final approval and published.

This is a standard business rule (compliant with CMII standards) that is implemented by the Lifecycle and Workflow services.

Is there a charge by volume of documents stored on your server? What is the fee and how much space is allowed for that fee? How much is additional space?

Aras Innovator is installed on-site, and the document vault size is only limited by the amount of disk space on the company's vaualt servers (multiple Windows Servers can be utilized). Documents are not stored external to your facility. Aras Innovator is deistrubuted using the Microsoft Open Source Distribution model. There are no per-user, per-document or per-Mbyte charges. Customers pay only for the implementation support services that they consume.

Document links can be created manually

Documents can be manually attached.

Training suggestions are made as documents get final approval and email notifications for the training are sent out automatically.

Pre-defined email notifications can be configured and automaticall sent out as the Documents proceed thru the release process. Multiple emails can be sent out to different individuals representing different messages.

There is an option to translate into other languages

Aras Innovator can be configured to run in multiple languages (same database, but each end-user sees data in their localized language settings). Localization includes end-user data (document description for eaxmple), not just the form labels and menus.

Mass updates are possible with special permissions

Aras Innovator is an open architecture solution. Tools provided by Aras and also those shared within the community include tools for batch loading data and mass data changes. Several techniques for mass updates are used depending on the situation, including UI driven changes, XML query driven changes and SQL query driven changes.

Cabinet/Folder Management - Uploading of large data and accessing vaults from outside Aras

The Aras Innovator vault server may be accessed directly as a web service, but authentication will need to be addressed to make it work seamlessly. There is no inherent size limit for files – you're only limited by the web server configuration. Federation is also supported, so large datasets stored externally may be exposed through Aras Innovator without having to import it all.

Check In / Out - Check in/out functionality meaning that files are locked for check-out if another user has already checked the file out. The Check In/Out functions should be fast and uncomplicated so that users are not tempted to take shortcuts, or work outside the system. A full audit trail of document changes should be readily viewable

Document check In/Out with locking is a standard Aras Innovator feature. There are no shortcuts or workarounds possible, and the users must use the Locks to control editing. Locking and editing is a single mouse click that is not intrusive.

Revision Numbering – automated Revision numbering system that updates the filename and file details when a document is checked back in or a change has been fully implemented

Innovator has automatic revision number of the Document business item, but does not by default, change the Filename of the vaulted file. If file renaming is a requirement, it can be added as a customization. Budget 2-3 days for implementation.

Document Search - Flexible Document Search facilities, including searching of text within documents

Standard Innovator allows searching for any business items by attributes. Full content searches are not included in the standard product. An integration with dtSearch (http://www.dtsearch.com) was implemented several years ago but not released as a standard product. Aras would be happy to quote full content searching as a cusotmization, or the customer can post the question to the community to see if anyone has built an integration with a search tool, and is willing to share the solution.

Grouping - Grouping of documents using multiple metadata fields e.g. Project Name, Product Name, Dept Name, Document Category

Innovator includes a Classification system for defining hierarchical class structures with different attributes, forms and behaviours by class. In searching, it is possible to search by class, or by any of the requested attributes (project, product etc.). Innovator standard solutions group documents using a Tab UI metaphor, for example, a Project or a Product can have a Tab that groups and displays all the related Documents.

File Formats – the system should handle any type of file format

Standard feature.

Viewer – by default the system should open files in their native applications if available on the client machine or with a viewer where the appropriate application is not available on the client

The default Innovator behaviour when a user double-clicks on a File is to stream the file to the Browser with the correct mime-type. This will launch whichever viewer or editor the end-user has installed for the mime-type. If the Administrator wants to further control the selection of the correct application, he/she can configure a specific Viewer application by FileType using the Solution Studio.

Single copy of each document – even though several products/departments/processes may use one particular document and therefore have that document stored in multiple locations within the system, there should only be one master copy that is maintained by the system and each of those occurrences of that document should reference that master copy.

The standard data model allows a many-to-one link from Product, Part and Project to a single Document. The Where-used window can be used to trace the dependencies for a single Document and report all the references.

Copyholder Info (i.e. Subscribers) – a record of who outside the organization has received a copy of a document, so that they can be informed of any changes or revisions to that document

A list of subscribers or copyholders is not a standard Innovator feature, but can be easily added as a customization. Budget 2-3 days for implementation.

Document Review - at a set point from the documents release (e.g. 1 year) the system should change the status of the document and request the document owner to review the document and ensure that it is current and up to date.

Not a standard feature. This would be implemented in a custom method (VB or C#) coupled with the standard Innovator scheduler. Budget 1-2 days for implementation.

Online forms such as Design Review Forms, Product Hold and Release Forms, Personnel Leave Forms, Purchase Orders, should all be stored (automatically where possible) away in specific locations for retention and retrieval if necessary.

All Innovator Form and Document data are stored permanently (forever) by default.

Does the system have the ability to create a folder structure/hierarchy within a project where documents and parts can be organized?

Yes, Innovator can create a folder structure within a Project in order to organize the documents and parts related to that Project into a hierarchy. The standard solution has a single tab for Documents at the Project level, and also a Tab for documents on each Activity in the Project WBS structure. Users of the standard solution are able to check-in a document at the Project level or at the Activity level. It is also possible to create an arbitrary foldering schema under a Project that is not aligned with the WBS and Activity structure. To implement this solution, create a RelationshipType to Null under the Project ItemType with one property named Folder (string). Under the this Relationship Item Type create another relationship to the Document or File Item. This would result in a one-level deep Folder Hierarchy for organizing Documents under a Project. By adding a relationship from the Folder item to itself, the project Folders will now support unlimited levels of Folder hierarchies.

The system shall provide document version control for both project level documentation and organizational process documentation, including check-out, check-in, auto versioning, revision history, etc.

Meets requirement. Aras Innovator has the capability of managing documentation in the context of a single project or part or supplier, or as a central documentation vault.

Searching is enabled across the contexts so that users will find all relevant documents (that they have access rights to see).

The system shall allow for the definition/configuration of document control workflows and record/make available the history of any action executed as part of the workflow (e.g., document review and document approval, including appropriate email notifications).

Meets requirement.

The system shall provide the ability to query the documents by user-entered attributes or by pre-defined queries.

Meets requirement. Users can run ad-hoc queries or create and save queries for re-use. The saved queries can be private, or shared with others in a work group. The administrator is able to create a dashboard or portal page with a standard set of queries and dashboards to simplify navigation.

The system shall provide the ability to link related documents and to navigate using those links.

Meets requirement. The Aras modeling environment allows creation of customer specific business object relationships. Navigation and business rules are applied to these custom relationships, exactly the same as with the out-of-the-box standard business data models.

Requirements specific to organization process documentation:

• The system shall provide the ability to create and use standard templates for all process document types, such as Procedure, Best Practice, and Quality Plan.

Meets requirement. Workflows and Projects in the standard Aras solution use libraries of process templates (typically approved by the Quality Organization) to drive consistent process behaviors. This same concept can be extended to any other business itemtypes.

• The system shall be able to organize process documentation in multiple hierarchies, such as Site, Functional Group, Quality Element Category.

Documents (and most all business items) can be linked into multiple hierarchies to create appropriate context for various end-user perspectives. The specific requirement for Site or Functional Group context do not exist in the standard solutions, but can be easily added using the included modeling tools.

• The system shall provide for the management of user submitted change requests.

Meets requirement.