Frequently Asked Questions

DocBoss helps process equipment suppliers manage
and deliver custom engineering documentation to their
customers by making document control less time-consuming and frustrating. DocBoss is especially helpful for companies that tag their products, who work with a bill of materials and/or vendor document requirements list (VDRL), and who provide increasingly customized documentation to their customers upon project completion.

DocBoss customers include manufacturers, distributors and fabricators who provide a wide variety of products including (but not limited to) pumps, valves, instrumentation, pressure vessels, skid packages and actuators.

Excel is a spreadsheet application with severe limitations since it was not designed specifically for document control. Excel is no longer suitable for document control when more than one person uses the spreadsheet, you have multiple locations, you add data on a regular and recurring basis, or you routinely produce custom documentation for different customers.

Once your organization starts regularly handling projects where 15+ customized documents are required, you might be doing yourself and your customers a disservice by continuing to use Excel or another manual, non-document control specific method.

SharePoint is a web application associated with collaboration and information sharing, not document control and submission. SharePoint also requires the implementation of third-party applications to provide functionality that comes standard with DocBoss.

DocBoss is an application that was designed specifically for project document control. DocBoss helps you meet the customer specifications for managing and submitting documentation to engineering firms and other organizations. Document control activities require functionality that document management systems like SharePoint normally don’t provide.

DocBoss was designed by someone who spent 15 years in the process equipment industry who couldn’t find an existing application that helped deliver increasingly custom engineering documentation to customers. When you consider the ongoing cost of designing, building, maintaining, supporting and upgrading an in-house application, the costs can become very large. This is especially true if your app doesn’t end up addressing your needs or if your needs change over time. Being a hosted and cloud-based application, DocBoss takes care of all of this for you. DocBoss also includes all ongoing upgrades and patches.

Document control provides a framework for document creation and ongoing management including issues related to security, version control, review cycles, visibility, availability, and provides an overall controlled and reliable audit trail.

A good document control system provides visibility
into where documents are at any time in the process, provides a paper trail that allows you to properly control documents, and enables the automation of previously manual tasks.

A good document control system will ultimately
enable you to manage and deliver custom documentation by building the document register, preparing custom compilations (databooks) using customer templates, building submittal packages, and providing project reporting.

Hosted cloud-based applications like DocBoss offer
many benefits including greater security, ease of scalability,
speed of implementation, lower long term costs, and less work on your part when compared to server-based apps. As a hosted cloud-based application, there is no development, hosting, maintenance, or support work required for DocBoss – we take care of that for you. All you need is a web browser, allowing you to easily collaborate with staff around the world with none of the additional costs typically associated with server-based applications.

Yes. DocBoss is a great match for Engineering/EPC companies, allowing you to manage customer, internal, and
vendor documents in one place. On the manufactured equipment side – you can auto-generate the full list of documents you expect to receive from your vendors. For other vendors (or for all vendors) they can provide a list of documents (with tags and document codes) which you upload to your master doc list. Uploaded docouments can be auto-matched to the correct placeholders so you can ensure you have collected all of the data you need. Reduce vendor load by removing the need for cover sheets or compilations – those processes can all be completed in DocBoss (according to your customer requirements) after the fact. Use DocBoss to do your squad checks, and track all document status and movements – both to vendors, 3rd parties and customers.

DocBoss customers include manufacturers and suppliers of instrumentation, valves, pumps, compressors, tanks, vessels and more. We also work with customers who produce actuators, variable frequency drives, MCCs and electrical bulks. If you tag your products, DocBoss is especially helpful and if you work with a customer-provided vendor document requirement (VDR) list or bill of materials, DocBoss can help with that too.

Absolutely. In fact, DocBoss was designed with companies like you in mind. Since DocBoss is a web-based application, all users need is a browser to log in from anywhere in the world to access it.

And since DocBoss users are named users, they simply login with their own personal user name and password. No more wondering when a change was made, which document is the most recent, or which staff member changed or added a document since DocBoss tracks all of this for you.

Yes. We realize that customers often have processes which require that you receive documents for approval, for construction and as built. For manufactured equipment, nothing changes. But you still have to change the cover sheet and resubmit them. With DocBoss this is built into our system. Receive the documents and they immediately get queued for resubmittal. Just click a button and your turnaround is done.

Yes. If producing databooks are time-consuming and frustrating, you’ll love DocBoss for this feature alone. The DocBoss databook generator enables you to customize databooks the way you need to and then have them compiled automatically. Additionally, while a book per tag is not normally required, often a databook per shipment or per plant are required. DocBoss allows you to create these with a few tweaks to configuration. It takes an extra 5 minutes to create 5 books for different shipments (or plants, or types) as it does to create one book. If your customer demands a book per tag, just pick “tag” from the drop down and it’s done.

Yes. The DocBoss quote module allows users to make use of the DocBoss structure to define the document requirements and provide a clear, easy to read quote for document services. Generally provided as an appendix to the equipment quote, it makes your document quotes consistent and gives your customers a detailed breakout of the work they are receiving. Lastly it defines the price structure at the quote stage, so variations can be negotiated as the project grows in scope.

In our experience, up to 75% of suppliers face holdbacks related to documentation but only one in four suppliers report that most of their documents are approved upon first submission. By automating tasks that you might otherwise do manually, DocBoss enables you to better meet customer requirements the first time, eliminating costly and time-consuming rework, cutting down on manual errors and ensuring you get paid in full on time.