Document management system IS ALeX

Details

Detailed overview of the IS ALeX features.

Configurable Document Management System

The documents are organized in IS ALeX in a tree structure of folders, similarly as the files are organized on your disk. The main difference is a possibility to attach additional pieces of information, so called metadescription, to every document and folder.

Essential advantage of IS ALeX is configurability of the metadescription. You may decide, what information you attach to your folders and documents. Typically, you want to keep the creation date, author, etc. The metadescription may differ for documents in different folders. Hereby, you may have a folder with incoming letters provided with information about the sender and receiving date, whereas the documents in the folders with technical documentation will be provided with creation date and number of A4 formats.

Using the metadescription, the documents in folders may be sorted. The documents may be also searched for using the information in the metadescription.

The metadescription can also contain data in a format of user defined catalogs. Using the web interface of the system, you may e.g. configure the documents to have a State parameter, allowing one of the "semifinished", "with remarks", and "authorized" values.

IS ALeX supports creation of document versions, so that it is easy to find an older version of the contract or AutoCAD drawing in the system.

By organizing your documents in IS ALeX you gain many advantages. The fundamental differences between organizing documents in IS ALeX and on your network drive are summarized in the following table.

Network drive IS ALeX
Metadescription

Non-alterable

The metadescription of files on disks typically consists of a filename and a date only.

Configurable

The system administrator arbitrarily configures the metadescription, which can be used for filtering and sorting the documents.

Version

Not supported

If you want to trace the revision history, you have to establish and keep your own system of filenames to find out, which version is which.

Version control

Create new versions of documents easily with IS ALeX version control and do not throw out the old versions of documents.
Access over Internet

Not directly

Direct access to a filesystem is usually either impossible or insecure.

Safe

Make access to your documents from anywhere over an encrypted connection with no installation on your client PC (e.g. notebook).

Access Privileges

The access to folders, documents and their metadescription is controlled by a fine-grained system of user privileges. After logging into the system, the user can see only the folders and documents, that are made accessible for the user by the system administrator. In comparison to other systems, IS ALeX allows low-level control of privileges. You may grant the privileges even on the single items of the metadescription. For example, in the list of invoices you may deny access to the invoice totals from selected users.

The basic privileges are a right to read, write, and create new documents and folders. Distinguished users may obtain a right to grant rights to other users in selected folders, and so they become in fact administrators of the particular part of the system.

Bulk Manipulation

IS ALeX supports bulk manipulation of its data. You may easily import more documents into the system at once, or you may download more documents packed into a ZIP file in a single step. IS ALeX provides not only bulk imports of files, but also bulk updates of the metadescription of documents and folders.

Bulk manipulation is especially suitable in the initial process of feeding IS ALeX with existing data, or when the documents are generated in big amounts. E.g. when generating AutoCAD documents from 3D models, you obtain hundreds of documents together with a list describing them. Using the IS ALeX instruments, you may upload the files and their metadescription into the system in two simple steps.

Archiving

Having used IS ALeX for several years, the system contains old documents that uselessly occupy space on your disk. IS ALeX provides the archiving functionality, which enables the administrator to archive the old documents on a CD or DVD media and remove them from the primary storage disk. IS ALeX provides a simple way to make the the archived documents available again. After inserting the archive media into your drive and informing the IS ALeX about it, all archived documents are immediately accessible to IS ALeX users.

Printing and Exporting

IS ALeX can export an arbitrary part of the tree of folders and documents including metadescription into the XML format. Hereby, you may define your own print reports using XSLT transformations. You can create the XSLT transformations either on your own or with support from us.

Connecting to Existing Systems

IS ALeX can be connected to third party systems on the SQL level. Hereby, you may transfer the existing information e.g. about business partners, the company's catalogs, etc. from a third party system to IS ALeX. The connection saves your time and minimizes errors, since the data are not entered into your systems twice.

Adjustable Appearance

You can easily adapt IS ALeX look and feel to seamlessly fit into your corporate identity.

System Requirements

IS ALeX is built so that it does not depend on any software component that has to be paid for. However, it does not force you to leave your favorite platform. IS ALeX can be put on in a company using purely the open Linux platform, in a company using purely Microsoft solutions, or in a hybrid company with Linux servers and Windows workstations.

Server requirements:

Client requirements: