Frequently Asked Questions

If you: 

• Are an equipment manufacturer or an equipment owner/operator with access to your equipment manufacturers’ parts catalogs and technical documentation
• Need an online technical web library to house interactive parts catalog content and related information (ex. operations, maintenance and service information) 
• Also need a solution that supports online parts ordering for your aftermarket or to support internal technical resources…

then Documoto is likely a great fit for you!

Why Documoto? Explore how we help equipment manufacturers, dealers, and equipment owners in Manufacturing and Asset Intensive markets unlock the value in their network and technical content.

Access Controls

Access Controls ensure that the correct content is visible to the right people and is the cornerstone of setting up your distribution strategy.

Admins

Admins are users with tenant Settings, Library, Content, Storefront, and/or Users module access and have the ability to manage and customize tenant, organization, library, and/or storefront settings, create and manage users, as well as create, manage and distribute content in the Admin Center.

API

API stands for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Documoto utilizes REST APIs to support our application.

Assembly

An assembly is used when publishers want to organize items visually within the bill of materials. Assemblies allow the publisher to indent parts under other parts within the BOM.

Authors

Authors are Admin users who are responsible for creating, maintaining, and distributing content in Documoto Content Admin and DocuStudio. In general, there are a limited number of authoring licenses included with your subscription.

Auto Hotpoint

Auto Hotpoint is a feature that allows publishers to automatically apply raster and/or vector-based images with interactive hotpoints utilizing Optical Character Recognition (“OCR”) algorithms.

Bill of Materials (BOM)

Bill of Materials or BOM is a list of the parts, assemblies, sub-assemblies, and components required to build a product. When a BOM is published in DocuStudio alongside a hotpointed diagram, it creates an interactive parts page.

Book

An interactive parts catalog or manual with a table of contents that contains pages and (optionally) chapters. Books can contain interactive and static pages, can be exported to PDF format for offline viewing, and distributed to users with access controls.

Browse Flow

A Browse Flow is a customizable navigational tool on the landing page to help visually guide users to specific content or information in the Library. 

Cart

Cart refers to the shopping cart feature in the Library where part(s) can be added, a list of parts can be imported or exported in .csv format, previously saved and/or shared carts can be utilized and managed, orders and/or quotes can be generated and emailed or submitted to an external system if a developed and deployed custom integration is setup. 

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP System)

In Documoto, ERP System refers to the settings page for configuring a custom integration between Documoto and an external business system, such as an ERP, for retrieval of parts information, fetching address information, and/or submittal of part or shopping cart information.

Hotpoints

Hotpoints are circular, interactive callouts located on a page’s diagram. Selecting a hotpoint highlights the part row in the bill of materials and opens the part preview of the associated part attributes (part number and name) and icons that indicate if there are comments, or related tags.

Indexed

Indexed refers to the status of an entity (e.g. part, page, media or template) after the initial creation in Documoto. Indexed entities are searchable in the Library, while non-indexed entities are not. The indexed status of an entity can be viewed in the respective entity manager in the Indexed indicator column. 

Integrations

Integrations refer to a custom configuration setup to send/receive requests from Documoto to a single, external web service endpoint to support three integration methods: GetPartInfo, GetAddresses, and SubmitCart/SendItems. Documoto customers are responsible for developing and publishing the web service with which Documoto will integrate.

Interactive Page

An interactive Page is a diagram connected to a bill of materials via interactive callouts called hotpoints.

Interactive Parts Book

Interactive Parts Book has a table of contents built in Documoto, which may include pages and chapters.

Library

Library refers to the browser-based interface that allows equipment manufacturers and fleet owners/transit authorities to securely distribute content to their partners and customers through a branded interface in multiple languages.

Media

Media is a catch-all term for the different types of content in Documoto. A media is a standalone piece of content that can be interactive (e.g. books) or static (e.g. documents, images, videos, or external).

Documoto’s key competitive differentiators can be found below: 

• SaaS Architecture (no installation required!)
• Create, Share, Sell Features (Documoto has in-app authoring tools, advanced distribution and access controls features and storefront features, all of which you have access to and control)
• Built on a Relational Database (make a change to a part and see it reflected everywhere that part exists!)
• You own your Content (if you decide to end your relationship with Documoto, we’ll export all of your content and send it to you) 
• Lifetime Customer Success Model (Customer Success Managers engage with customers in Implementation and stay with the customer for the life of their account) 

Packaged Pricing. Documoto has a simple pricing model where most services are included in the subscription fee; you won’t be "nickle and dimed" on your implementation or the features you choose to use. For more information, check out our Subscriptions & Plans.

Yes we do! Our solution offers a variety of advantages to technical publishing teams— speeding up the process for technical documentation creation, publishing, and more.

Have you taken a look at the benefits in Author & Publish?

The customer. 

Yes it does. Built on a relational database, technical parts information can be managed and updated in one, central location—regardless of how many places it is referenced or published.

Learn more about Documoto's capabilities at Author & Publish.

Yes; we provide a fully documented API to support even the most advanced implementations.

If you'd like to learn more—request a demo—and one of our technical experts will coordinate a time to answer your questions and introduce you to the product.

Yes. Documoto has numerous options for managing engineering change notices, starting with our relational database. As a result of data being shared across multiple entities (ex. a single part can belong to one or many pages), changes to that single entity reflect across all locations that it belongs to. Documoto also has many features that help incorporate engineering changes in bulk such as the ability to: 

• Supersede a Part Number everywhere it exists
• Bulk Insert a Page based on another page reference
• Create & Insert New Assembly pages based on a part reference
• Link Parts to their Sub-Assembly Pages in Bulk
• And More...

Documoto content is based on a standard XML spec, and our interactive pages support SVG and raster image file formats. Publishers can also use any column delimited file (ex. XLSX) to import bills of materials manually. 

Documoto also supports numerous externally generated file formats such as PDF, most common image file formats, and common video file formats.

Last but not least, Documoto allows embedded URLs for any existing web content.

Ready to get started? Request a demo today!

Yes. The Cloud Library allows browser-based, 24/7 access to authorized users. It has an intuitive visual interface that’s easy to use. Searching is a breeze with three intuitive searching options including:

• Custom Visual Browse Flows
• General / Google-like Search
• Content Library Filtering & Sorting

Yes. Documoto grants you full control over the Cloud Library. You can restrict access to certain users and specify the content that authorized users can see. This repository is designed to support simple or advanced content distribution strategies.

Your team can store diverse formats into Documoto’s central repository. This includes catalogs, flyers, product photos, operations and maintenance manuals, service bulletins, videos, marketing materials, and repair procedures. There is no limit!

Documoto connects with most back-office systems, commonly used ERP, EAM, and eCommerce systems, to provide customers with real-time pricing, availability, and lead time information in the app or submit cart information back an order fulfillment system.

Multiple search options and visual icon-based navigation make parts lookup fast and
precise. Users can pan and zoom assemblies, then click interactive callouts to view part details and add items to the cart.

The Documoto Storefront offers detailed assembly illustrations and up-to-date part data to improve order accuracy, which reduces costs of shipping, returns, and support calls.

Pricing is a component of Documoto’s robust access controls strategy. Pricing is controlled at the company or organization level, and Documoto allows you to maintain up to three different prices for each part by organization. A user will only see pricing that you have set for parts they have access to, and for the account or organization that they belong to.

With our Storefront, we can also integrate Documoto with your ERP or Ecommerce system to fetch pricing information in real-time based on a user’s account number or customer ID.

Yes – Documoto has built in logic to automatically suggest parts be ordered with one another based on order usage history, or you have the option to manually add suggested parts to order.

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Documoto is an AWS hosted SaaS application

Yes!

3-6 months.

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Our primary office is in Denver, CO, in the Mountain time zone.  Our European office is in Lille, France, in the Central European time zone.

Yes.  Standard support includes 24x7x365 for severity 1 tickets, and phone call support 0800 to 1700 Mountain Time for lower severity tickets.  Tickets can be filed via email or via our support portal at any time.  Global support is available to extend phone call support from 1000 to 0000 GMT.  Our standard support terms and definitions are documented in our WASA Schedule.

Our standard support terms and definitions are documented in our WASA Schedule.  However, in summary:

• Sev 1: 4-hour response, 24 hours resolution
• Sev 2: 8-hour response, 3-day resolution
• Sev 3: 2-day response, reasonable work-around or resolution with next patch
• Sev 4: 3-day response, reasonable work-around or resolution with next release

The configuration options in Documoto are extensive, running into the hundreds of items, including but not limited to:

• Branding (logos, colors, etc.)
• Imagery (icons and thumbnails)
• Labels
• Table of Contents and BOM display
• Printing
• Content visibility, organization and hierarchy
• Rights and privileges for users and groups
• Metadata (tags, names, etc.)
• Bulletins and notifications

We define “configuration” as using existing switches and knobs to adjust Documoto for a desired experience, while “customization” is writing code to accomplish a modification that is not available through configuration.

Documoto can be customized through agreements with individual customers.  Some parts of the application are always customized – integrations are a good example.  Most integrations are somewhat different, so the Documoto architecture allows for integrations that are unique to a single customer.

As a SaaS company we manage a single code base for all our customers.  For regular roadmap items, new features are made available to all customers subject to their licensing.  However, we often enter into paid agreements with customers either to develop a feature that isn’t on our backlog, or to accelerate a feature that was in our backlog but not yet scheduled.  Depending on how we mutually decide to structure the agreement, we often use a concept called “feature flags” to restrict the availability of the new feature for a period of time only to the customer that paid to build it or to accelerate it.

There is no need for migration or upgrade for customizations, as they are always in our main codebase and are seamlessly carried forward with every release of Documoto.

Documoto makes use of a number of technologies, processes and systems to ensure security of our customers’ proprietary information. At the highest level:

• Industrial-grade best practices for authentication and authorization
• Best practices for managing keystores and administrative grants
• SSL/HTTPS for in-transit protection
• Salted and hashed passwords
• SaaS architecture that limits access only to web browsers or our mobile applications
• No physical access by the internet at large to the majority of the Documoto
• Hosting at Amazon Web Services that includes substantial physical security, robust software and hardware security, third party auditing, SSAE16 certification, and more

We support Documoto under a shared-security model with AWS, where they are responsible for some elements of security and we are responsible for others.

Only the customer-facing web servers and services are accessible from the internet.

AWS documents their security model, including physical security and their 24x7 security monitoring, at the following location: https://d0.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/Security/AWS_Security_Whitepaper.pdf

For additional information on AWS security, visit their home page at: https://aws.amazon.com/security

AWS has an independent third-party perform audits of its data centers.  These audits are conducted in accordance with the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16 (SSAE 16) and the International Standards for Assurance Engagements No. 3402 (ISAE3402) professional standards.  The auditors produce a Service Organization Controls 1 (SOC 1), Type 2 report in connection with the audit.  AWS can provide SOC 1, SOC 2 and SOC 3 reports to customers under NDA.

Documoto supports the SAML 2.0 standard, which is supported by all of these authentication systems.

Documoto is subject to GDPR as a US company doing business in Europe.  We fully comply with GDPR, both as a Controller (in many places such as our corporate websites and marketing) and as Processor (principally for the content that our customers store in Documoto). This includes the ability to have Personally Identifiable Information removed from our databases upon request. For further information see our privacy policy: (https://documoto.com/privacy/) and an FAQ on the information that Documoto collects: https://support.documoto.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036677154-What-information-does-Documoto-collect-

In the United States, in the Virginia data center run by Amazon Web Services.

All online access, whether on a mobile device or a desktop, is performed through a web browser.  Users must authenticate with the Documoto system before access is granted.  Data in transit is protected through SSL.

Yes.  We include training for administrators and publishers as part of the Documoto subscription.  Training for end-users that access the Documoto library is usually not needed; however, we do include white-labeled materials for you to use free of charge as part of your change management process.

We offer self-guided online training, which is supplemented with hands-on working sessions with Documoto Customer Success Managers to apply training concepts to customer use cases. We give customers access to the Documoto Academy, which is the self-service resource to learn how to use the Documoto application suite. The following topics are covered in Documoto Academy:

• The Basics: Platform Overview & Key Terms
• Authoring: Create Digital Parts Catalogs & Assemblies
• Tags: Easily Find and Filter Information Quickly
• Access Controls: Control Access to Technical Content
• Administration: Configure Capabilities, Users, and More
• Advanced Authoring: Part Supersession, Print Settings, and More
• Storefront: Sell Parts Online

After completion of this training, participants:

• Understand the end-user experience in Documoto
• Know how to access, set-up and navigate within the Documoto Authoring Suite
• Know how to perform basic and advanced publishing tasks using the Documoto Authoring Suite
• Know how to administer organizations, users, user groups and access controls in the Documoto Authoring Suite
• Know how to administer parts, pricing and orders in the Documoto Authoring Suite

Yes – Documoto offers a variety of content conversion services, including: 

• Manual publishing from PDFs or source files 
• Data migration from database schemas or source files (ex. XML output from an existing EPC with associated images)

Implementation services, virtual training, initial static content loading for PDF content and ongoing Customer Success Manager support are all included in your subscription.

Depending on your subscription level, professional services are included and available to develop the business system integration with your ERP, EAM or eCommerce solution.

Documoto also offers the following professional services: 

• Bulk Data Loading Services
• Custom Training (including On-Site Training)
• Custom Product Enhancement Development
• Consulting Services