Controlled Document Management System and vLMS Integration

[Maria_Molvin]

We are looking into automating the process of uploading new controlled document - standard operating procedures/work instructions (SOP/WIS) to our vSaaS LMS. I found one forum message about QMS TrackWise, but I was wondering if any other customers are doing this, typical project tasks, the validation process, etc. We are using OpenText Content Server for document management.

Thanks,

Maria Molvin

Learning Solutions Designer

GOJO

[jhughes]

Hi Maria,

We're currently implementing our own vLMS and are pulling data from our validated DMS (we use QUMAS). We run a query overnight which identifies SOPs and Policies which have changed state. The query populates the Item Connector with Pending Release and Effective documents. The Item Connector is also run overnight and pulls this information into the LMS. On the LMS side, we push out the Pending Release document, which we train on (typically allowing 14 days for this). After that period, it is made Effective. We typically have an exam associated with each SOP, so each morning the LMS Administrator will run a report to see what new docs have been created or revised in the DMS, they will then build a new exam (based on the earlier version if one exists), attach it to the new or uprev'd SOP and push this out to those who need to train on it.

Hope that's of some assistance.

Kind Regards,

Juliett

[Maria_Molvin]

Hi Juliett,

Thanks so much for this information! This is a big help as we work with our vendor to determine a solution!

Thanks,

Maria

[BethyGermain]

Hi Juliett!

 Do you have the same document codification  in your DMS and LMS?

[PKetnouvong]

We use a Boomi integration that pulled from our DMS to the LMS each hour.

We had a vendor implement and now Dell is managing the Boomi.

[MaryKatherineJ]

Maria,

We recently implemented Windchill DMS and are using Boomi to create an item connector file as documents are released.  When a new document or new revision of a document is released from Windchill in a state of "Ready for Training but not yet Effective", Windchill sends an XML file to Boomi containing information such as document number (which we use as item ID), date/time document was released for training (which we use as revision date and time), revision number, document title, document state ("In Training", which is stored in a standard item field that we were not using; I think we chose Approver), and document URL (which we use as the launch URL for a content object).  Boomi takes this information and creates the item connector text file using the specific headers that we chose to pass to the LMS.  Some of the item data is hard-coded by Boomi, such as item type (all items coming from the DMS are given the same item type of "Controlled Document"), the number of days for the initial period, and content object launch method (AICC with the wrapper).  If there is no item in the LMS with that item type and ID, the item connector creates it.  If there is a matching item but the revision date/time in the LMS is earlier than what is being passed by the connector, the item connector creates a new revision of the existing item.  The item connector also creates a new content object for the new revision, and adds the new revision to all of the same curricula that contain the previous revision.  Finally, when the document is released from Windchill as "Effective", the item connector updates the document state field to show as "Effective" instead of "In Training". 

As for frequency, Windchill sends data to Boomi as soon as a document is released, and Boomi creates the item connector file on our SFTP site as soon as it gets data from Windchill.  If additional documents are released before the connector executes, Boomi appends the data onto the same file.  Our item connector runs hourly and picks up the connector file from the SFTP site.  We had to play with the item connector configuration settings within the LMS CONNECTOR configuration file to get the connector to behave like we wanted, but because Boomi is so flexible, we were able to get the connector to work more or less like our business requires.  It is not perfect and requires a few hours per week of "babysitting" by a designated handful of LMS Administrators, but it seems to be working OK so far.

[Maria_Molvin]

Thanks everyone for your answers!

Is anyone using eSignature and not the AICC wrapper? When we manually set up our items and content objects for the documents, since they are PDFs and we need them to use the eSignature function, when we add the Content Object to the Item, we choose the Mark this object complete when launched checkbox. When we launched the LMS over 4 years ago, in addition to the Item file, this setting required a second Content Object spreadsheet to be uploaded through the Item Connector. Does anyone know if this has changed or if it still requires 2 separate files?