Objective

The goals of the development of ECM smart connect are:

  1. The ability to set up and operate ECM smart connect independently of the connected ECM system.
  2. The ability to connect different ECM systems via connectors.
  3. An extensive automation of the facility.
  4. The ability to set up and expand the system without programming knowledge.

To ensure cloud capability, development is done exclusively in Microsoft's modern VS Code/AL development environment using Git.

The ability to connect different ECM systems via connectors requires that ECM functions that centrally affect the business transaction in Dynamics 365 Business Central are also mapped there. This prevents the two systems from dovetailing too closely and ultimately reduces the complexity of the overall solution.

For this reason, a generic fileplan is created and managed via ECM smart connect. The fileplan is designed in such a way that it can be adapted and extended via input masks. A corresponding fileplan is expected in the ECM system. ECM smart connect provides methods for setting up the fileplan in the respective ECM system.

When a document is printed or a business transaction is posted, a printout of the document in question is first stored in the Dynamics 365 Business Central database and then retrieved with a time delay via the connector in the ECM system.

The indexing and storage of the outbound documents is also initially performed autonomously in Dynamics 365 Business Central. This is also done to minimize complexity, because each connected DMS system uses a different logic and syntax to handle this task. The connectors then have the task of retrieving the results and converting them into the format required by the target system.

However, this self-sufficient operation of the Dynamics 365 Business Central solution offers further advantages;

  • Since the document can already be displayed on the user's screen when it is stored in the database, it makes no difference to the user whether an archive is connected or not. For some applications, such as the simultaneous display of invoices in the payment run, saving the document in the Dynamics 365 Business Central database is even advantageous.

  • For the introduction of an archiving solution, this means a temporal decoupling. With the roll-out of the ECM smart connect solution, the system presents itself to the end user as a complete ECM system. All print documents to be archived are stored in Dynamics 365 Business Central and can be retrieved there. The final archiving is thus prepared. Subsequently, the setup and go-live of the actual ECM system can take place. A joint go live of the two systems is no longer necessary, which significantly reduces the complexity of an ECM project.

  • In the medium term, the documents must be archived in an ECM system. On the one hand, Dynamics 365 Business Central with this solution is document-compliant but not audit-proof. On the other hand, saving the documents makes the database very large and thus slow. Relieving the database via an ECM system is absolutely necessary.

Setup program is delivered for rolling out the setup tables.