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Assist+ – A Critical Tool for Agile PLM Users

Oracle Agile PLM users are often overwhelmed by new functionality and updates to data fields. Even experienced users sometimes need to find a way to avoid going down the wrong path during data entry and updates. It is cumbersome to shift to other platforms and ask colleagues for guidance and help in filling out fields’ values. And if something goes wrong at this early stage, it is only highlighted at corrective stages, and then the user needs to re-do the work.

This means that the entire cycle of approvals runs again, which is not only time in-efficient but also frustrating. Xavor helps you overcome these problems by providing a guiding solution, Assist+, that you can utilize and make things right from the very start and maintain data integrity in Oracle Agile PLM.

What is Assist+?

Assist+ is a PLM navigational tool developed by Xavor that guides at the field level during object creation and updates to prevent any future corrective action. It provides mouse-over hover (help) text for Agile objects, which include Parts, Documents, and all types of Changes and other classes for content messages of all attributes on the cover page, page, and page 3 tables.

If compliance for an attribute is changed, Assist+ can highlight the field to the user, allowing them to keep up with changing compliances. Not only this,   to the users depending upon their User Roles or User Groups in Agile PLM System. With Assist+ at hand, you will not need to constantly switch to other applications for guidance or track down others for help, hence providing an overall boost in productivity and time.

Key Features of Assist+

1. Different Types of Content in Tooltips

Assist+ offers a rich interface where you can format the guidelines in a more interactive way. It allows adding images, videos, and even external URLs. Assist+ offers formatted text options as well as an HTML editor that helps in HTML-based formatting, empowering the users with more robust and interactive guidelines.

Different Types of Content in Tooltips

Different Types of Content in Tooltips Youtube

Different Types of Content in Tooltips Xavor

2. Pin the Tooltip Feature

Consider a scenario where you give some guidelines to users on filling in the attributes prior to entering the Workflow Status of Review. However, going back and forth between the PLM Workflow and the Title block tab will take a lot of work. Using the Pin feature saves them from this hassle. Pinning allows the user to pin and maximize a callout to the right corner of the Agile web client; hence it stays visible to the user, increasing their overall focus and productivity.

Pin the Tooltip Feature

3. Color Coding of the Fields

Assist+ provides the ability to color code the name of the fields on the Agile web client. This allows the user to have one look at the page and get visual cues of compliance in the fields. For example, all the red-color-coded fields are required, so just looking at the page will tell the user they must fill in the fields.

Color Coding of the Fields

Color Coding of the Fields 2

4. Role/User Group-based Tooltips

It is one of the main features of Assist+. Every Agile user does not require the same set of guidelines. Therefore, Assist+ allows the tooltips that appear on the Agile web client to be conditional on the Role or User Group of the user. For example, engineers will have a different set of callouts visible to them, whereas business analysts will have different sets of callouts visible to them.

Role/User Group-based Tooltips

5. Conditional Tooltips on Lifecycle/Workflow Status

Assist+ not only allows tooltips based on a user’s Role/User Group, but it also provides the flexibility to condition them on the lifecycle phase of items and workflow statuses of changes. A part of the Preliminary lifecycle phase will present a different set of tooltips to the user. And when the lifecycle is moved to, say, Released, the tooltips can be removed or minimized as per need. It is the same case with the workflow status of changes.

Conditional Tooltips on Lifecycle/Workflow Status

6. Tooltips on Workflow Table

Assist+ allows you even to configure the tooltips on the Workflow tab itself. This is very helpful in letting the users know beforehand what the entry requirements for a particular workflow status are and what should be done to exit the said status successfully.

It can guide users by informing them of the expected approval time and allowing them to plan their changes accordingly. There are multiple uses for this feature. Assist+ not only allows the tooltips on the workflow, but it also allows color coding to deliver a more visually enhanced experience of Agile PLM to the users.

Tooltips on Workflow Table

7. Tooltips on BOM, Attachment, Affected Items Tables

Assist+ also provides the ability to configure conditional tooltips on BOM tables, Attachment tables, and Affected Items tables. It helps a user understand the type of content that is expected in different attributes of the BOM and Affected Items table. Moreover, it also offers guidelines for attaching a file to the Agile PLM objects.

Tooltips on BOM, Attachment, Affected Items Tables

Tooltips on BOM, Attachment, Affected Items Tables 2

Conclusion

Overall, we can say that Assist+ is a vital tool for Agile PLM users. By utilizing Assist+, you can significantly reduce the chances of user errors, thus improving the time to deliver finished products.

The ability to give conditional guidelines to different User Groups and Roles also ensures that every type of user receives the guidelines that correspond to their respective departments. By adding an image- and video-based guidelines, Assist+ enables you to train the users on the Agile PLM platform.

Are you an Oracle Agile PLM user? If yes, we strongly urge you to consider using Assist+ to guide your users and streamline their workflow. Contact us at [email protected] to learn more about Assist+.

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