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Documents from proALPHA ask the order file instead of searching the archive.

The documents proALPHA keeps on each order go into your instance: drawings, bills of materials, routings, quotes, purchase orders, inspection and commissioning documents, and correspondence with customers and suppliers. Access is read-only; nothing in proALPHA is changed.

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proALPHA

subject to a feasibility check · database export

Example question

“Which bill of materials belongs to the assembly in order 2024-118, and which revision applies?”

1 Answer with source

Connection

How the connection works

proALPHA includes a document management system that links records and documents to transactions and the parties involved. Before we start, we check with you and your proALPHA support partner whether and how proALPHA can be connected – that depends on the version, your licence and the installation. Depending on the installation, junova either mirrors an archive directory on your server to your instance, encrypted, read-only and over outbound connections only, or uses an agreed, scheduled export. Article, project, customer and supplier master data can come across through the export, so that you can ask by order number and assembly.

Once set up, synchronisation runs automatically: new and changed documents from proALPHA are added without anyone having to upload anything.

Set-upOnce the feasibility check is done, we estimate the effort – it depends mainly on whether the archive exists as a directory or an export has to be agreed. We agree it with you, and with your proALPHA support partner if you like, before anything is set up. The set-up is charged on a time-and-materials basis, agreed in advance.

Documents

Typical content: proALPHA

  • The DMS document for each business transaction: the record linked through its index terms to an order, purchase order or goods receipt
  • Drawing revisions with change management – which index was actually built into which order and what the customer approved for the change
  • Goods receipt and inspection reports, inspection certificates to EN 10204 and suppliers’ material certificates
  • Complaints and quality assurance measures, up to the 8D report a customer expects after a complaint
  • Operating manual, declaration of conformity, circuit diagram and spare parts list supplied with the machine
  • Service and commissioning reports for systems that have been at the customer’s site for years – and that otherwise often exist only in the head of the technician who installed them

Example questions

Questions you might ask your documents

  • “Which bill of materials belongs to the assembly in order 2024-118, and which revision applies?”

    1 Answer with source

  • “What did the supplier write about the deviation on purchase order 45-2231?”

    2 Answer with source

  • “How was the system at Huber’s designed when it was commissioned in 2021?”

    3 Answer with source

Start

Before a connection is set up

This connection is set up for you rather than switched on in one click. Every source has its own logins, permissions and folder structure – so before we start, we check with you whether and how it can be connected at your company. Set-up and maintenance are charged on a time-and-materials basis, agreed in advance; the amount depends on the source.

You can also upload files, whole folders, emails, photos and voice notes at any time. In the demo you see the answers using sample documents from your industry; you check them against your own documents in the first weeks after go-live.

Preliminary check

What we check in advance

Before we start, we look at where the links between records live in your set-up. In many installations, a file in the archive carries only a sequential number, while order, article and customer are in the database – which is why exporting these index terms is part of the connection; without it, the knowledge base has no link to the order number. Stock levels, dates and costs stay in the ERP: what changes today on an open order is a question for proALPHA. And a drawing revision is only as reliable as the way it was filed – we check beforehand whether your company tracks index changes in the system or also corrects them on paper.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about this connection

We have twenty years of orders and drawings in the archive. How far back should we go?

That’s up to you – going a long way back often makes sense. The question of how a system was designed usually comes up when the customer rebuilds after fifteen years or a spare part is no longer available, not in the year it was commissioned. The first run reads in the agreed scope; after that, anything new or changed follows. We discuss beforehand which years and record types to include – often drawings and service documents going a long way back, and accounting records only as far back as you keep them anyway.

In our set-up, index terms decide where things belong, not folders. How does the system find anything?

The index terms come across: order number, article, customer, supplier and date, so that the drawing is matched to the assembly and the delivery note to the purchase order. What the system reads from the document itself is checked against them – if an inspection report has a batch number that also appears in the goods receipt, that holds the chain together. The document type of each record is confirmed by someone during the first run, because it decides who can see it. We check beforehand how well this fits your index terms.

A release change is a project in itself for us. What does it mean for the connection?

That depends on what the release changes. The connection only reads and never writes to the ERP; the change matters where the archive path or export format changes. Bring us in during the test phase and the export can run once against the test system before it is needed in production – that’s the calmer route. If nothing comes in afterwards, the knowledge base flags the gap rather than presenting yesterday’s drawing revision as the valid one.

The workshop should see drawings and routings, but not purchase prices or cost calculations.

That works by document type and role, not file by file: drawings, routings, inspection instructions and operating manuals for production; purchase orders, prices and post-job costings for purchasing and management. You can add a cut-off date, for example for temporary staff during a busy period. Documents covered by a non-disclosure agreement with a customer can be given their own document type, so that only the roles cleared for them can see them. Before we start, we decide together which types and roles you need.

Industries

Typical for these industries

Integrations

Other integrations

Do you look after this system for clients? For IT service providers and software consultants

Request a demo – with examples for proALPHA

In a 30-minute video call, we use sample documents to show what answers with sources look like. Before we start, we check whether and how proALPHA can be connected at your company.

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