• 888-776-6261
  • sales@proman-erp.com
  • Buffalo, NY USA

Knowledge Base

Our system includes an online KnowledgeBase that includes a rich collection of documents to help users maximize their use of the system. The goal of our KB is to provide the knowledge to use the functionality we provide in the system. If the user does not understand how or why to use functionality, its usefulness becomes dimished.

We started in 2018 to redefine how this works. We interviewed a lot of people and summarized their results in searching our KB of the time. We spent the next two years defining and monitoring the results of searches.

We finalized a new system in 2021 and rolled it out. It now has a built in filtering system. We gave up some speed in results for a better targeted result. We found that people did not always know exactly what they wanted, but they had a focus.

Our system is now broken into these filters or focus documents.

  • Purpose – this is a quick introduction as to how and why to use the function and provides a launching point to additional information.
  • E-learning – provide walk through videos to describe how to use the feature. These can fall into different subcategories, from introduction to specific use cases
  • Sample screen – what does the data entry screen look like. Perhaps we want a quick look to see if some information is on that screen
  • Sample Report – some sample picture of what the report may look like.
  • Logic – for the admin/business analyst, how the feature works
  • Menus – where is the feature included on the standard menus. There are fastkeys in the system to look up where it is for the custom menus that you have created, but this gives you way to look at the other standard features on that same menu
  • Hints section – this is broken into a number of sub-categories
    • standard PDF operator instructions on how to use the feature
    • Flowcharts that include this feature. Flowcharts are published with a standard work flow menu to help the user learn the entire process.
    • Templates – we use templates in the system for a variety of reasons. This gives the user a quick library of the Excel templates
    • PowerPoint – we have provide a number of different types of powerpoints that include categories of introduction, training on the process, and focus use cases
    • Getting Started Document – these are provide to walk the user through the process the first time. We balance training on functionality with completing the process and providing a clear path as to how this works.
    • Project Templates – these are templates to help you in running a project of implementing this process. These are designed to target getting this feature implemented and what steps you might take. These are provided in Microsoft Project.
    • Training sessions – these are guided training in PDF format. These can go into more detail about the features than are provided in the Getting Started Documents.
    • Question & Answer – We log the questions we receive and are now publishing the answers that our support desk provided people. We review these cases, as some of the information is very targeted and not really useful to the general client base. However, many are great questions.
    • General Hints – these are all the items that have not fit into a category above. In many of these documents, our on-site (or remote) trainers have contributed these documents that they found useful in helping clients implement or use a feature
  • Admin – This section should be used by your ERP software owner, or manager. This provides information about what type of feature this is, and what role it might belong to. How to update dropdown list and other field level help. We use a “drill down macro” in many cases, and common items are listed. We provide related documents that may apply to the admin who is configuring this feature.

We strive to provide information with a single click. This also includes help.

  • You main menu has a link to automatically send an email through your mail client to the KB team. Perhaps you found some help and it was not clear or you have a suggestion as to what additional information might help on the topic
  • The top of the feature (fastkey) has two different question mark icons. One to take you to the purpose page (landing page) for the fastkey and the other to our generic system level landing page.
  • Each field has F1 or right click help on that field.

Our methodology here is to get you to a single landing page with a click of the mouse, so that you receive very targeted help.

Our system has thousands of documents which makes finding your answer somewhat difficult. We want our software solution to contain the functionality that you need and we wanted our KB to provide the knowledge to use this functionality.

We hope that these changes get you to the answer you need in a faster more concise way. We publish a document a day, on average, in our KB so our content is always growing. Know that we are working very hard to channel this content to you when you need it.

we welcome your comments

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