Back to guides
Operations

One question. The answer comes from Monitor and the drawing.

You need stock, supplier or address, but the answer is useless without the drawing and the process next to it. The value is a question like to a colleague, and an answer that says where it came from, without an export and without opening three systems.

Two colleagues reading live system data on a shared screen.

Ask as you would a colleague. The answer comes from Monitor and the file.

“What stock do we have on 991203, and may we buy from that supplier?” That is not an ERP report. It is a product question. Monitor has the stock. The product file has the drawing. The process document says whether dual-source is required. Colleag.ai reads live, not a nightly dump, and cites the source. You do not write back to ERP. You get the answer you would have asked purchasing in the corridor. You will recognise the Monitor screenshot in an email, without the drawing.

A question that is otherwise a meeting

“Which suppliers in China deliver article 991203, and do we have an approved alternate in the BOM?” Monitor knows who delivers and from which country. The product file knows what is allowed. The purchasing SOP knows when dual-source is required. Without Colleag.ai that is three people and a spreadsheet. Here it is one answer, with a source.

Stock, the order, and where it goes

“Do we have enough of 991203 for order 45210, and which delivery address should it go to?” Stock and order status come from Monitor. So does the delivery address, it is not a field on the customer, it is fetched from the address register. If the address is missing the colleague says so, instead of inventing one. “Which countries do we have customers and suppliers in for this product?” A simple question with a conclusion you rarely have in one place: where you are actually exposed.

The money the engineer does not usually see

“Which customers buy 991203, and how does margin compare with articles in the same family?” “What happens to cash in the next 60 days if order 45210 slips three weeks?” Same article, two readers. Purchasing sees spend and single-source. The CFO sees cash. Neither leaves chat to open Monitor.

What you no longer have to do

Open Monitor. Find the drawing. Paste into Word. Mail the quality lead. The question stays in Colleag.ai; the pack, Word, Excel or PDF, is created there if you ask for it.

Key benefits

  • Live ERP without leaving the product
  • Address and country from the right register, not an empty field
  • Spend and cash against the same article as the drawing
  • Dual-source against your own procedure, not a generic rule
  • One sourced answer instead of three exports

Read more

How do you get an answer from Monitor ERP that also matches the drawing and the purchasing procedure? Colleag.ai is not an ERP and not a PLM. It is the colleagues that query Monitor live, article, stock, address, spend, cash, and put the answer against the product files and SOPs in the same sentence. A typical question is which suppliers in China deliver article 991203, and whether dual-source is required. ERP knows the country. The file knows what is allowed. The procedure knows the rule.

The question against Monitor should also match the drawing and the purchasing procedure. Colleag.ai asks live, article, stock, address, spend, cash, and puts the answer against the product files and SOPs in the same sentence. Typical: which suppliers in China deliver 991203, and is dual-source required?

ERP knows the country. The file knows what is allowed. The procedure knows the rule. The connection is read-only. It does not write back, book, or change the article register. That is why the answer can be cited without anyone “fixing Monitor for you”.

How this differs from ERP, PLM, LCM and project systems

ERP
Monitor has the answer on stock and address. It does not have the drawing tolerance or the purchasing SOP. Colleag.ai fetches both and answers in one sentence.
PLM
PLM knows which revision is released. It does not know if the Shenzhen supplier is single-source under your procedure.
LCM
LCM flags that 991203 is nearing EOL. It does not write which customers in Germany are hit if order 45210 slips.
Project management systems
A ticket “check supplier risk” is work. The answer, spend, country, approved alt, is Colleag.ai.

What Colleag.ai does here that those systems do not

  • Live ERP in the same chat as the product file
  • Address from the right register
  • Dual-source against your SOP, Word or PDF if you ask for a pack

See it in action

Book a 30-minute demo and see how Colleag.ai handles this for your team.

Book a demo