Assai reviews

Enterprise functionality with bespoke Vendor support

Opmerkingen: We primarily moved the Document Control work outside of our perimeter. Reduced our manpower by 80% and doubled throughput in terms of deliverables. Assai gave us the opportunity to unify our systems through their connecter, saving time maintaining two systems and removing the inherent risk of data mismatches. We moved from a manual distribution of deliverables for comment to semi-automated and finally onto automated, this was all enabled and managed by the Assai product enabling a step change in the way we handle documentation pertaining to our Assets.

Pluspunten:

Specifically designed and run for Technical Documentation associated with Document Control/Configuration Management processes. Assai uniquely blends process with the technology, no need for customisation to vanilla enterprise solutions. The integrations allow documentation to be managed dynamically without altering the underlying Enetprise system. This halfed the effort we were spending on maintaining two systems overnight. When compared to Enterprise Vendors the support offering is on a different level, the CEO visits your site regularly. In my experience none of the competition come close to providing the same opportunity to build a relationship with and influence those people who control the evolution of the critical systems which we utilise daily. Documentation supporting Assai is extensive and very well detailed to cover every aspect of their offering, including otherwise tricky deliverables like UAT. The content is clear and can be understood by all levels, it saves a huge amount of support time and internal effort during Projects. To sum it up, I found Assai to be an off the shelf Document Control tool where the processes are already part of the system itself. The system is reliable, support always reactive and of course effective.

Minpunten:

The old AssaiADMIN interface, but this has been completely rewritten and designed in the present generation. It's actually an example of Assai listening to their customers and thereafter rebuilding a better interface, which saved money on Oracle Forms licences. We as customers paid nothing other than our support and maintenance, but instead saved on licences as well as benefitting from a simpler interface.

AssaiDCMS

Opmerkingen: Our projects are very long in duration, 5+ years easily and we've been using Assai DCMS since 2012. The product's user interface has come along way from when it was first installed but the data and it's management have been rock solid through every upgrade. Our business relationship has been good and they are customer focused.

Pluspunten:

When used as designed, it's a powerhouse, but you won't realize it until you really need it. If you have projects that are lengthy, 5+ years, there is no better product to give a full perspective on project details. It will build a historical representation that will connect correspondence, with drawings, and support documents in a hierarchical tree that just steps you from start to finish. It will be invaluable after a staffing changes, becuase the new person will get the picture from day one. The searches are effortless and with the Oracle database under the hood, it's rocket sled fast.

Minpunten:

This is the biggest drawback of the product, the customer. To get the biggest bang for your buck, the customer has to be committed to solid document controller training, user compliance and self audits. You have to look at the product as insurance policy as much as a document control product. When you get into a legal pickle, this product will pay for itself right out of the gate. From a project risk management perspective, it's got you covered. You may have to remind yourself of that once in a while.

Assai - Great Tool with some Limitations

Opmerkingen: The onboarding, training and migration process was excellent. [SENSITIVE CONTENT] is an asset to the company and I doubt we would have had a successful migration without him

Pluspunten:

Having used Assai on and off for 10 years, I can see how much the product has developed by listening to clients needs. From a predominantly Projects based doc control system to a multi-functional information management system. I like the option to automate most activities, red line mark up tool, concurrent engineering and AssaiPortal

Minpunten:

Integration with our current business processes and system migration did prove challenging due to the limitations of Assai. That being said, we need to make full use of the functionality Assai has offered us in order to improve our processes. Assai is not the best for handling legacy documentation, we had to implement workarounds in order for our existing data to fit the tool. IT support also needs improved, they are not as knowledgeable about the product as one would expect.

Maximum Return on Investment

Opmerkingen: I have succesfully deployed Assai on multi-billion£ programmes such as Highspeed 1 (CTRL), Dublin Airport Expansion and the London 2012 Olympic Park construction. Assai is unique because it was designed from the inside out around proven best practice business processes. It is highly user configurable. The reporting suite is comprehensive and powerful. Assai can interface with Primavera P6 to roll up accurate progress to the plan. Assai is better eqipped for BIM than any of the many pretenders on the market; the Asset and Data Management suite is second to none. It is also scaleable from the smallest project to the largest programmes. There were around 2 million records throughput on 2012 and CTRL and even greater volumes on the ongoing Shell Sakhalin Island projects. Contract Admin & Legal love Assai for its ability to monitor and report on supply chain compliance and for the forensic data analysis and processing capabilities for launching and defending claims, adjudications and litigations. From my own experience Assai will pay for itself very quickly particularly when used to support 'proper' Document Control principles designed to assure reduction in revisions, design clashes and resultant re-work. Assai can be securely hosted in the cloud or installed on your own network or data centre. It is very fast to implement and very light maintenence. Engineers/Reviewers can be trained quickly as it is intuitive and designed around the typical engineering project review/commenting scenarios. It's very flexible and users can both redline and/or text comment. Assai's rich functionality is unparalled, it's faster than anything else, it's more configurable and more automated. In my 30+ years working in multiple engineering sectors i have yet to see any solution that compares or delivers to the world class standard of Assai.

Pluspunten:

Fit for purpose out-of-the-box. Highly configurable and automated. Designed around the business process. Intuitive, fast and easy to use. Comprehensive functionality to support Documemt Control & Management, BIM, Contract Admin/Supply chain compliance though full project lifecycle and throughout Operations.

My personal assessment of ASSAI

Opmerkingen: Excellent up to now as Assai worked as intended to be.

Pluspunten:

The transmittal action-reaction, Assaiweb and Portal feature, reporting, and more, proved to be ideal for the users.

Minpunten:

The pdf resolution coud be better in Redlining with Brava

Ease of Document Control

Pluspunten:

The fact that the end user can navigate the system with ease.

Minpunten:

The software is not an issue, it's been pretty easy to navigate. The only issue that we've had in the past year is the helpdesk assistance. It hasn't not been up to par.

Feedback

Opmerkingen: Very good. Surely will recommend to anyone

Pluspunten:

1) Easy and short implementation 2) Cloud based and fully support & maintenance free 3) Very user friend licensing structure 4) Good pricing approach 5) Small team and responsive support

Minpunten:

1) Out of date UI/UX design 2) Lack of training video 3) High resources costing

AssaiWeb

Opmerkingen: I enjoy with AssaiWeb features & Support from dedicated Assai Consultants

Pluspunten:

user friendly e-DMS and able to customize with Oil & Gas environment

Minpunten:

Query function & Correspondence to upgrade with workflow

Assai is one of the best Document Management/ Project Monitoring System in the Market

Opmerkingen: Projects can be completed on time.

Pluspunten:

Its very efficient, user friendly, excellent functionalities, amazing support resources. Never came across a situation with an issue with the product

AssaiDCMS help for manage my Documents.

Opmerkingen: Manage our document easy and secure with staff.

Pluspunten:

Our company using AssaiDCMS, we can manage our all documents. Documents is very important for companies, But we can manage secure with AssaiDCMS.

Minpunten:

We can manage, who can access specific document. Another staff can't access that document. Many companies lossing some projects because leaking documents, from office, like that tender details. So AssaiDCMS help

Als Kontraktor extrem nutzerunfreundlich

Opmerkingen: Als Kontraktor, der diese Software nur im Rahmen eines einzelnen Projektes mit einem speziellen Kunden vorübergehend verwendet, haben sich eher eine ganze Reihen Geschäftsprobleme ergeben, als dass denn welche gelöst worden wären (Dokumentenversand über SharePoint o.ä. ist wesentlich einfacher). Uns kostet das Programm im Rahmen der Upload-Nutzung für dieses Projekt kein Geld (zum Glück), sondern nur viel Zeit und personelle Ressourcen.Hinzu kommt die immer noch sehr altbackene Oberfläche, die an Ende der 90er Jahre erinnert.Fazit: Als Kontraktor würde ich mich zukünftig weigern, diesen Dienst noch einmal verwenden zu müssen.

Pluspunten:

Das einzige Feature, welches überhaupt in irgendeiner Weise nützlich ist, ist das Heraussuchen der zuletzt eingestellten Version eines Dokuments. Andere nützliche Funktionalitäten, sofern überhaupt vorhanden, sind uns als Kontraktor eines Unternehmens, das ASSAI als Dokumentenmanagementsystem verwendet, gar nicht zugänglich.

Minpunten:

Der Upload von Dokumenten ist meines Erachtens extrem kompliziert und fehleranfällig. Einzelne Dateien hochzuladen mag vielleicht noch gehen, aber man möchte nicht Hunderte Einzeldateien hochladen und jedes Mal die Dokumenteninformationen per Hand ausfüllen.Für den Batch-Upload ist ein CSV-File vorzubereiten. Hat man hier etwas in die falsche Spalte geschrieben oder im falschen Datenformat ausgefüllt, bekommt man nur Fehlermeldungen zurück, die auch nicht nützlich nicht, da man nicht weiß, was man anders machen muss. Damit der Upload dann überhaupt funktioniert, benötigt man zusätzliche Software (ASSAI Launcher), der sich auch direkt im AutoStart einnistet (aus Sicht der IT-Sicherheit eigentlich heutzutage ein Unding).Und schlussendlich wenn man versäumt hat, die Bestätigung für den Upload in einem ganz bestimmten Schritt des Prozesses herunterzuladen, um dem Kunden zu zeigen, dass da was Neues ist, ist es unmöglich, diesen Download nachzuholen, weil es die Funktion schlicht nicht gibt. Man kann das dann nur über einen Screenshot des Hauptfensters machen, aber selbst dann hat der Kunde Probleme, die Sachen wiederzufinden.