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Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

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    Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

    Hi,

    I am a alpha software 11 developer, and I have an upcomming project, and I am still trying to define it, as you see in my headings.

    I am looking for a "business platform" for a businessprocesses, to drop my ISO 9001 doc. content, and to bulid different components of need, into the platform. It should be web based, but not a must. Strict personal access controll for different departments (management, sales, production and so on, should be individually set and controlled.

    The platforms most fundamental function is to move and keep track of individual business documents like, policies, procedures, working documents, HSE and other processes, issue new doc. and store outdated doc. in a database archive. Like earlier revisions, old projects and so on.

    Does anybody happen to have such platform, or know where it would be best to start in a v11. point of view?




    Best regards
    Tommy

    #2
    Re: Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

    There's a lot of variables still there, Tommy. First of all, do they want their documents to be "live" so they can continue editing them, or is it just a repository.

    I've built a document management system (repository) into Alpha Five with a couple of third-party programs to handle documents behind the scenes. But it's not been fun--you have to be prepared to handle incoming files of all kinds of formats, and just within files with a .pdf extension, there are numerous versions of PDFs depending on how they were created and they may behave differently on the browser and/or run through other tools. Incoming files could be huge in size, or they could have special characters in them, or be password-protected, etc, etc.

    I guess I sound pessimistic--if it fits your project and it is simply a repository, I would suggest trying to find a third-party tool like the one we're moving to soon--Neevia's Document Converter Pro--which essentially uses the default application for the file type and prints it to a PDF file. PDFs are (at least historically) stable, uneditable, and free to view (side note here that with Adobe's creation of PDFs with editable form fields in conjunction with browsers deciding to default to built-in PDF viewers is making things more complicated, but if you have to suggest your users have the free Adobe Reader plugin, it should work consistently). Printing to PDF can be done without their software, but we've struggled with multiple documents hitting at once, or certain rare-but-existing document types hanging up our processes, etc. Neevia's product is multi-threaded and if an error occurs it writes it to a log and you can deal with it from there. I've got a number of documents that have caused various points of our process problems, and it either processes them without error or writes it to the error log and keeps going.

    As long as you have a solid way to get the documents into your system, it's really easy just to have a database of documents with the URL stored in a column.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

      I'm about 70% through a rewrite of a V8 QMS system updating it to V11 tabbed UI (and V12 mobile devices?). The pics below shows how the document piece looks. For me, the key to the document piece is to use CKEditor, which is the one shown in the first pic. Steve Wood has an app that integrates CKEditor V3.6 with Alpha (better than the one that I had created) for sale on IADN. I recommend it.

      CKEditor works in all browsers, is fast and complete including a "paste from Word" capability that removes all the junk Word puts in the document, but preserves the formatting. It also contains language packs that can replace all the dialog languages with about 30 other languages.
      Capture.PNGCapture1.PNG
      Pat Bremkamp
      MindKicks Consulting

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

        So I just purchased the CKEditor integrator. That's not exactly related to our File Library repository, but I don't know why I hadn't used it before.

        That's the biggest variable, Tommy--I mainly spoke of keeping track of files--PDFs, Word docs, etc. Pat's mainly speaking of saving the contents of such documents in your database (which of course you can generate PDFs of if needed). Not even having used CKEditor yet, I will also recommend it based on experience with the inability of Alpha's built-in HTML editor to correctly handle pasting from Word among other things.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

          Thank you both for informative advice. I was aware of the CKEditor, but was not sure that was the best choice, now- when I see the nice piece of work from Pat, I see it's potential. It's the same kind of platform I am looking for.
          Ok, it feels good to know that I will start out right and not turn around half way only to reinvest in other third party solutions.. I am sure there comes more questions along the way. Thank you both so much :)



          Regards
          Tommy

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

            Originally posted by Tommynilsen View Post
            Thank you both for informative advice. I was aware of the CKEditor, but was not sure that was the best choice, now- when I see the nice piece of work from Pat, I see it's potential. It's the same kind of platform I am looking for.
            But, then again- CKEditor is a open source editor, open for anyone to edit. That is something from a commercial point of view that I don't wish for..



            Regards
            Tommy

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

              Just a note on this--implementing CKEditor in our application was a breeze, and in terms of it being open source, it will only change if you download new versions. If something like MySQL is open source and used in thousands of big-dollar commercial applications, you can't write off an open source solution just because it is open source. If it works, it works.

              However, while I haven't had time to get into it in depth, the CKEditor controls are causing problems with some things that had previously been copied and pasted into the Alpha Five HTML controls from other sources like OpenOffice, perhaps MS Word. I think CKEditor is handling new copying and pasting okay, but it's replacing the old garbage with some new. That said, the Alpha Five controls have even more issues with the garbage source code. Just an FYI.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

                Christian,

                Thanks. All in all i think it will do.
                Anyone who has experience with implementing CKEditor into an alpha application for commercial use, please speak out now..

                -Tommy

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

                  try aptana(free and open source) or Komposer(free) or both??
                  Dave Mason
                  [email protected]
                  Skype is dave.mason46

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

                    Not sure Dave, but what we're discussing is in-app HTML data controls for end users; I think those products are both for web development.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

                      I have probably misunderstood. LOL
                      Maybe, but I use both for lan at various times, depending on cicumstances.
                      Dave Mason
                      [email protected]
                      Skype is dave.mason46

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

                        Originally posted by christappan View Post
                        Not sure Dave, but what we're discussing is in-app HTML data controls for end users; I think those products are both for web development.
                        I think using these products for LAN makes them relating to the topic, maybe not directly. Accordingly, info about them has the right to live in the current debate. :)

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

                          Originally posted by Pat Bremkamp View Post
                          I'm about 70% through a rewrite of a V8 QMS system updating it to V11 tabbed UI (and V12 mobile devices?). The pics below shows how the document piece looks. For me, the key to the document piece is to use CKEditor, which is the one shown in the first pic. Steve Wood has an app that integrates CKEditor V3.6 with Alpha (better than the one that I had created) for sale on IADN. I recommend it.

                          CKEditor works in all browsers, is fast and complete including a "paste from Word" capability that removes all the junk Word puts in the document, but preserves the formatting. It also contains language packs that can replace all the dialog languages with about 30 other languages.
                          [ATTACH=CONFIG]35709[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]35710[/ATTACH]
                          Hi Pat,

                          I'm just about to start on a similar venture and would be very interested in any updates or tips that you could pass along. I am developing a QMS for a marine company where there will be two servers, one on board the ship and the other in the office. The documents will have to be synchronized and have all of the usual document control features. I plan to create a desktop/web app for ease of navigation for the end users with a back end for document management similar to yours.

                          I look forward to any information you have time to pass along. I may also be interested in purchasing the document management component(s) if it will save me time.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

                            Bob,

                            Sorry, I just saw your post. Interestingly, my client is in Sidney next to the airport, just up 17 from you.

                            If you are still interested, I could see if they would be able to show it to you.

                            Pat.
                            Pat Bremkamp
                            MindKicks Consulting

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Quality Management System (QMS/ ERP/ intranet). Need advice:

                              Bob,
                              Here is a screen shot. In the menu area, the buttons are:
                              Issues - corrective and preventive actions
                              RAM - links from the standard (9001 in your case) to the company documents including training requirements and process flow
                              Work Instructions - with updates
                              Audits - internal and external audits
                              Tools - measuring and safety tools including calibration
                              Management Review - with standard questions and corrective actions
                              Document control - forms, records and documents
                              Not shown is the training piece.

                              qms.png

                              Pat
                              Pat Bremkamp
                              MindKicks Consulting

                              Comment

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