Category: ADOPT THE SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH

EKR Selector

EKR Selector also allows you to create content, not by creating it from scratch, but by assembling the information present individually in the Knowledge Base in different ways.

It is the tool used to assemble the page and, in a sense, it can also be used to create more complex content. In fact, if the author has created extremely granularized contents, the Selector assembly activity contributes to the organization of the information itself: a typical example is the construction of a procedure in which it is possible to define a set of steps which have been created in way separated from the procedure itself and which are then aggregated within Selector in order to create a more detailed content. 

The activity of organizing information in Selector means that this tool can generate additional aggregates of information, already present, separately, within the Knowledge Base, putting together the sequence necessary to obtain the desired result.

EKR SAP connector SAP / ERP

Thanks to SAP Gateway, it is possible to connect systems that use SAP ERP information. EKR has developed a connector that synchronizes data between KB and SAP

For many years the SAP world was considered a closed world, used only by those who could access the SAP gui or in any case the interactive interfaces owned by SAP. Since SAP introduced SAP Gateway and the possibility of accessing its internal structures through OData, it has been possible to connect systems that can use, in a complete and always up-to-date way, the information of the SAP ERP master data. Thus, EKR has developed an OData connector that allows you to bring into the EKR Knowledge Base any object that is, in some way, visible through OData, (such as the material master data, the typical MARA table, and specific classification data for each material according to its class). The advantage of such a tool is the continuous updating between SAP and the connector itself. As the data in SAP ERP are modified, the EKR Knowledge Base will be updated in real-time mode, the objects present in the Knowledge Base thus become a synchronized replica of everything that is within SAP and you choose to pass from the ERP, through the OData, to the EKR Knowledge Base. 

A typical case of the use of the SAP connector is the possibility of disseminating, through off-line tools (catalogs, price lists, brochures), material data and specific characteristics, as well as pricing and much more. What is present in SAP ERP will be present in EKR as data, possibility of presence in the market based on the sales organization and, last but not least, the management of material states in order to be able to manage the obsolescence of the material itself.

EKR REST / SOAP connector

The powerful connector developed by EKR to bring any information contained in an ERP, PLM or CRM into the Knowledge Base, making them more transparent and consistent

Very often there is the need to integrate ERP, PLM or CRM systems, which expose their information through SOAP and REST protocols, with the EKR Orchestra platform. For this reason, EKR has developed a very powerful, easily configurable connector to bring any information present in the systems mentioned at the beginning into the EKR Knowledge Base. The great advantage of a SAP and SOAP connector is that it makes the information released from its source transparent to the end user. For example, in relation to a sales item or product, it is possible to have some information from a PML, some from an ERP, others from a CRM, which pass through the REST / SOAP connector and become standard objects of the EKR Knowledge Base. . The end user of the Knowledge Base will then be able to integrate, with further detailed information, such as marketing information (we think of emotional images, product descriptions, slogans), the information already present and coming from management systems. It will not need any information relating to the source, thus treating with equal dignity information from the ERP, or from the PLM, or from the CRM or other equivalent systems. This allows the end user to obtain information of the highest quality, without having any skills and knowledge of information organization in upstream systems. Furthermore, any system thus has the ability to contain the necessary information and use it according to your needs.

EKR presenter InDesign

The module developed by EKR to transform each element of EKR Selector into .indd and then PDF documents, in order to make the most of both InDesign and Selector

The InDesign Presenter module is based on very simple scripts, independent of the continuous evolution of InDesign itself, and which allow the Adobe tool to transform everything that has been defined within EKR Selector into .indd documents to then be able to be transformed into PDF files.

The interaction between Selector and InDesign is bidirectional: InDesign allows you to manage fonts, paragraphs, objects, cells, tables and the structuring of master pages and variables. This information passes back to Selector, which assimilates it and allows those who build the document to use a highly reliable representation of the graphic rendering of InDesign itself.

EKR QT/QML source code integration

The engine developed by EKR to access QT / QML source files and use them by structuring interactive pages and managing the HMI (Human Machine Interaction)

Many companies use QT or QML technology to manage the user interface, HMI (Human Machine Interaction), with the aim of designing the interfaces of their machines. 

EKR has developed an engine to access QT / QML source files, from which to extract the information components necessary to develop the display, manage the subsequent translation path (but also the aggregation path) in the simulation of the interfaces to be included within the technical documentation. Then the developer works in QT or QML, defines the structure of his interactive page, the EKR module interprets and inserts the interface into technical documents, ensuring synchronization between the QML source and the technical document page and perfect integration between the strings inserted in the QML files and their translation in the pages represented in the technical documents.

EKR knowledge base

EKR KB is a database that stands out for its hierarchical and relational structure and can be integrated with ERP and PLM systems: a stainless company knowledge base

It is the heart of the EKR Orchestra platform. It transforms the paradigm, already known in the company, of the structured and labeled warehouse to allow those who create the information to place it in a virtual place, with appropriate labeling, so that any other company entity is able to find that information to make it any use. The information in the Knowledge Base is completely unrelated to the type of doc they will produce or the way they will be disseminated. When you start an EKR Orchestra project, the organization of information is certainly not similar to an information warehouse but is more like a bazaar, so much so that the general synthesis of an EKR Orchestra project is precisely to transform the company from a bazaar to an info warehouse. 

The Bazaar is an example of unstructured and ad personam information, that is, based on the experience of a single individual. Each office in the company builds its own bazaar, with its own rules; but over time, the rules change, people take turns, ideas change and, consequently, access to information is practically impossible for other entities, if not through the mediation and intervention of the person who created the bazaar itself. This way of working, very widespread within companies, leads to a lot of inefficiency: the first step, for an EKR Orchestra project, is, therefore, to build an information map together, exploiting the expertise and experience present in the company. , thus moving from a bazaar approach to an organized warehouse one, characterized by semantic labels, without any reference to use via media or interactive dissemination technologies. 

EKR Knowledge Base is a hybrid database that is characterized by a hierarchical and relational structure, strongly characterized by the xml format and designed to be connected to ERP and PLM systems, as well as EKR products for content creation and maintenance and aggregation of the same, for off-line documents or for feeding the PIM Portal for online disclosure.

EKR PIM select InDesign

The best integration between a structured knowledge base and InDesign. Few know how to combine the ERP world with character, paragraph and master page styles as EKR does

Represents the component of EKR Orchestra intended for traditional graphic designers.

With EKR PIM Select InDesign it is possible to choose any piece of information present in EKR and obtain it dynamically within a completely free InDesign document, linked only to a specific set of paragraph styles, strictly linked to the established semantics .

With EKR PIM Select InDesign it is possible to build brochures, advertising pages or InDesign objects with completely variable geometry in order to complete the flow of information and maintain the live link between InDesign documents, extremely complex, and information, super guaranteed and at the maximum level of granularity, of EKR Knowledge Base.

EKR Excel Add On

If the data are tabular, Excel and EKR are the winning combination! Make the most of every spreadsheet and capitalize on the information in the knowledge base!

It is the ideal tool for those who make excel their work environment for information management. 

EKR Excel Add On is extremely flexible and powerful and allows you to transform any Excel document into a manager of structured information at the highest quality: it allows you to load information organized within a Knowledge Base but, above all, to download information that is always updated, removing to the Excel file itself the responsibility of storing the data, already stored in the Knowledge Base safe, without the risk of ambiguity or errors caused by the use of Excel. 

With Excel Add On it is possible to use all the Excel functions to create and modify information: every single Excel cell when it is loaded or unloaded, from the EKR Knowledge Base, is tracked according to the user and, for every change made to the inside each single cell, it is possible to specify annotations, thus ensuring versioning at the single cell level.

EKR extender

A form for sending your business data to other systems such as ETIM, Amazon or other marketplaces, which brings value and can be exploited to improve your business

Once the information is organized within the Knowledge Base, it may be necessary to communicate this information to other systems, which will inherit it automatically. 

EKR Extender is a module for sending information, based on the needs of the target system: it includes a mapping system that allows the data, in EKR, to remain organized with the highest quality, possibly by simplifying or aggregating the information, and then sending it to the receiving system, with the correct granularity necessary for the system itself. An example could be the sending of data to ETIM systems, Amazon or other specific vertical marketplaces that need this type of information. 

EKR Extender can also be used to send specific information to other types of systems, such as CRM systems for technical support or systems for planning maintenance, both preventive maintenance, and to integrate predictive maintenance algorithms, in a logic of artificial intelligence. 

EKR DITA connection

EKR can also be considered a DITA Compliant environment, as you can produce and receive content in DITA format

EKR allows to receive, edit and generate contents in DITA format (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) and is therefore, to all intents and purposes, considered a DITA Compliant environment. 

It is therefore possible to use EKR to produce DITA contents, as well as to receive data from DITA compliant environments, developed, therefore, through this standard and enrich them with the typical EKR logic.