Hi everyone!
We are considering purchasing the DocStar software to help scan in a mountain of historical paperwork we have.
Our managers would like to reach out to other manufacturing companies that have implemented DocStar. We want real-world opinions about how it works, and the challenges you faced.
If you have any information you are willing to share, or if you are willing to chat with me for a few minutes, please send me a private message, or respond to this post.
Thank you!
Nate
I will outline what we were using it for and then some of my thoughts about it.
I have very shallow knowledge and understanding of the full product. I watched what I could of their documentation on workflows and data integrations in their education site (separate from Epicor). We originally bought docstar for the AP Automation, but we didn’t buy the OCR component of the automation and therefore we ended up having to use 1/2 of their automation workflow and do the other part manually (entering key fields like invoice number, miscellaneous charges, etc.). Not as they designed it to be purchased.
We then had some need to start scanning in additional paperwork and attaching it to the sales order. That was the first time I tried to make my own workflow. It was not straightforward, but I got some bits of help from docstar and managed to build my own workflow where you could scan something in and then give it a packslip or order number and it would file it away and attach it in epicor to the related records.
As for the implementation of it, we were extremely unhappy. We did not get competent consultants through Epicor and it tainted the whole experience of it to be honest.
In short, I would say you should get proof of concept for what you intend to use it for. Also try your best to get answers about how it works and what is involved in getting it to work. I feel that we didn’t do a great job of understanding that so when we went live and found out that it was a lot more than what we bargained for we were upset. Were we oversold or did we just not do our research?
Either way, there is a lot of good to say about docstar. It is valuable because it integrates directly with Epicor. I will say their user interface was very ugly and clunky, but I think they kineticized it in recent updates. It has been a year since I touched it so I’m sure it has improved, just like their ERP product has been.
Compare and contrast other document management systems as well.
This doesn’t directly answer your question, but I’ve worked and many document management solutions, both for Epicor and for other applications. In my opinion the most over looked topic is Document Life Cycle Management. This is obviously an issue for both paper systems and digital document systems. It is best that each document type (Sales Order, PO, Quote, Job, etc) have it’s expected life cycle mapped, how is it born? where does it go? for what reason? how does it archive and how does it die? There can be more phases, but before attempting to implement any document management software it is extremely helpful to understand the purpose and life cycle of all your documents, then the software will actually HELP you manage that as it will dictate the document properties and the software requirements. Because as you go through setting up the document management software understanding the life cycle will make configuration much easier.
Otherwise you will just move your documents from file drawers and banker boxes to digital storage and people will still struggle to find what they are looking for.
An IT mentor many years ago told me to never forget that the primary purpose of IT is to get the right information to the right person at the right time.
Great advice Rick!
Great advice from Rick. And he ends with the other thing people overlook - getting to the right people: security. In a Zero Trust Architecture, you need to categorize your data(documents) and put the correct controls around them. Storing documents on a file server is just a security nightmare. One does not have the same kinds of access controls in a file system as a document management system. The Document Type is a powerful security and lifecycle tool. The Document Type allows one to treat documents appropriately. If someone got access to an AP invoice, it would not be nearly as bad as customer drawings. Each deserve their own security and lifecycle. Both DocStar and SharePoint do a very good job here. Epicor’s integration with DocStar is far better than with SharePoint, which I guess should be expected. 
We use Hyland OnBase and I also saw several large customers use UiPath. Compare it to other options as well.
You’ve got some great info from everyone here, and I’ll add a bit more.
@utaylor 's experience is a fine example of what can happen - and something to learn from. I think one of the biggest things companies do, is continue to work with consultants who simply are not ‘doing it’ for them. It’s a continuous frustration and expenditure that leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth and taints the project for eternity.
We take the approach where IT is ‘sold’ on it from a technical/functional perspective, then the users are ‘sold’ on the functionality - but then IT is trained as the owners. IF you cannot train us to OWN the product, then we get another consultant. We got lucky form the beginning and are still pushing our consultant to the limits with what we want to do.
but to answer your question… We like Docstar. Is it perfect - no, but the interface to ERP is key to what we wanted to do. We are using the AP Automation w/IDC, and with a lot of custom routing in the workflows to let one person do ALL of our AP and save a lot of time.
The interface is a little better than before, but I’d still like to see some serious improvements there - nothing major, but a lot of little things.
Security could be a bit easier to work with for small/medium shops like ours but it works fine and is AD Integrated so we use that for sure - and it does SSO so that’s a plus. IDC doesn’t yet, but were patiently waiting on it.
The big stuff is workflows - we built a dozen or so to migrate documents from older systems (and from file storage on network drives) and index/link them to Epicor automatically. It’s super slick, but you need to have some serious training on the workflow bits and get the tech docs (I can send you). It’s a bit of programming magic to create companion XML files for batch input and to write a self-indexing workflow to retrieve the metadata from ERP and then attach the document back to ERP - but it works nice. It’s slow when processing 50k documents, but it works…
I’ve done some other posts on Docstar and IDC, and would be happy to have a conversation with your team and answer some questions (or a quick demo) if you want. The real-world stuff is much more informative than the sales demos.
Hope that helps!
And I’d be remiss to not also totally agree with the others…
@Rick_Bird and @Mark_Wonsil bring up valid points - Knowing what you want - or at least designing what you think you want in the end - will greatly improve your success. This covers the document lifecycle - don’t bring old ‘trash’ along for the ride just because they don’t want to get rid of it; and consider the structure/security of the data so the right people can get to it at the right time. We have all levels of these problems, but we also have a durable product with a 10 year lifespan, so I have to keep a whole lot of data for a decade or more. And my folks come and go, so the AD integration with security groups (tied to document types and security classes) really makes the whole mess easier to manage.
And you can also create a workflow to ‘alter’ a document’s lifecycle. Consider a workflow that you can assign to all the documents that are over 5 years old - it could move them to a different folder, change some metadata, add a ‘delete on’ date, break the link to ERP, and so on - even set it’s record category which is a semi-automatic time-controlled disposition process. We don’t use this yet - but we’re planning on it.
And @hkeric.wci is also correct - Docstar might not be what you need in the end. There are a lot of others out there, and if you have a programmer (or budget) that can work with the APIs, you can basically write your own interface back to ERP.
This is the alternative to docstar and it shouldn’t be overlooked. In our case @MikeGross we were looking at docstar mainly from the accounts payable perspective. They touted the automated accounts payable solution. The fact that it was a document management system of its own seemed to be a bonus.
We use Hyland for AP it works well, of course you need to implement it with Epicor REST API Calls.
However; If I had to decide, it would be based on one main factor – If you plan to use the software for more beyond Epicor - perhaps Epicor is a small fish in your organization and you have other ERP Systems and 3rd party apps integrating with your Automation/Workflow Software – I would look at other options as well.
If you know this is going to be 80% - 100% Epicor Integration, I would maybe stick to DocStar because Epicor is making it easier and easier to work with DocStar (BPM Widgets etc…)
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Same goes for something like Service Connect, if its Epicor use only - I would use SC… If Epicor is merely a small fish then I would look at JitterBit, MuleSoft, Dell Boomi…
Exactly!
@MikeGross , I will reach out to you in the next few weeks to chat a little bit about your experiences.
Thank you all so much for your valuable insight and opinions!
We got DocStar as part of an upgrade and migration from DocLink. Wasn’t impressed i’m afraid. Clunky UI, expensive, some tasks (I think adding new documents) require an agent to be installed on machines to do, all seemed very antiquated really.
We may put it to use at some point, but after getting hands on with it for a bit we have backed away from the idea of getting additional licensing to allow us to do the AP Automation. As has been alluded to above Document Management done properly is a big project, DocStar didnt seem worth the investment in time or money.
@kano666 it’s always interesting to hear what others perceive about the various bits and pieces of any software package. I wonder if it’s a function of the sales process and their inability to explain things clearly. After we went through the process (also looking to replace Doclink APM+), I had almost 4 hours of technical conversation/training with them, and got to talk to the lead developer, so I had a much better understanding of the nuances.
I’ll agree that the interface leave a little to be desired - but compared to DocLink, it’s much better (and web based, with SSO). But the client you mention is really only required for connecting a scanner or doing some batch imports/conversions. they also have an outlook ribbon plugin and drag/drop directly into the web client. Just a little FYI/PSA for everyone following along.
Happy to discuss it further and show you all the ways we are using the email, file drop, batch, and IDC processing, as well as the 20-ish workflows we have to exchange info with ERP…
Exactly.
