Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
More than 400 companies are already using Consolidate. The solution is most widely used in Austria, Switzerland and Germany (approx. 1/3 of customers each). There are also installations in the USA, England and Hong-Kong.
Our customers are usually small and medium-sized companies, but Consolidate is also perfect for larger companies. You can create from 5 to over 300 users. If you value speed and have demands on the complexity of information processing, Consolidate will bring a lot of benefits to your company.
The average payback period for Consolidate is 8-10 months. The measured savings have therefore recovered the investment after a short time. We also offer Consolidate in a very favorable rental variant.
The implementation phase adapts to the complexity of your requirements. Experience shows that one day is dedicated to project definition (goals, objectives, process and schedule planning) and 3 to 5 days to installation and customizing. Interfaces and data transfer (addresses, documents from the ERP system) can usually be implemented in 3 to 4 days.
Users receive one and a half days of training. We recommend that the training be divided into 2 half days and that a refresher training of 1 half day be conducted after approx. 6 months.
Yes, Consolidate can run as a client/server as well as in terminal server environments (e.g. Citrix). An app and a browser solution are available for mobile users.
With Consolidate, you decide where your Consolidate data and documents are stored and how they are accessed. Either you operate Consolidate in your own network or optionally in a (cloud) data center. We will be happy to advise you on questions relating to the security of your data.
Consolidate works with Microsoft's SQL Server (from version 2008). The selection of the respective edition (Express, Workgroup, Web or Standard) depends on the number of users and the amount of data. Optionally, the free PostGre-SQL database can also be used. In case of multiple locations or mobile solutions (notebook replicas), mixed operation is also possible.
YES, there are several possibilities - or in "new German": there's an App for it ;-).
A) Consolidate App for iPhone, iPad and Android.
B) WebAccess: This allows to access the system via web browser.
C) SyncML: This synchronizes the contacts and the calendar.
Consolidate is a Windows application and works on all Windows versions from Windows 2000 onwards. Operation on Mac is possible via middleware solutions such as VirtualPC or via Citrix servers and has been tested in practice. On mobile Apple devices (iPad, iPhone) it is possible to work via IMAP4/SyncML and WebBrowser or with the app.
The uniform environment and data storage significantly reduce the effort required for IT support compared to conventional network environments.
After the implementation phase, the employee data and authorizations must be kept up to date and changes to the templates and processes must be incorporated. Beyond that, there is no special administration effort.
Consolidate is available in German, English, French, Italian and Polish. Mixed operation" with several languages is also possible.
In practice, this depends on the quality of the available data. If these are well maintained, a transfer makes sense and is easily feasible. However, the introduction of a new system is often also an opportunity to revise the data and to cut off "old habits" ;-). Documents can either be taken over via an import routine (project-specific) or transferred to Consolidate via drag & drop (manually).
You make this decision yourself. Consolidate offers an integrated mail client and can optionally be coupled very easily with Microsoft Outlook.
Consolidate paves the way for this. Quotations, invoices and other order slips are created digitally, and appointment reminders and telephone notes can also be entered on the PC in no time at all.
It is ideal if your business partners also do without printouts and send you offers, order confirmations and the like digitally.
Yes, provided that the physical storage of the documents complies with the country-specific regulations or their framework conditions. In Germany, for example, these are the GdPDU (principles of verifiability of digital documents) and the GoBS (principles of proper accounting systems).
Documents must be stored in a "documented and traceable" process, and changes may also only be made via this process and must be made traceable. However, the recognition of a document as evidence is always up to the competent judge or, in the case of an audit, the competent authority.
There are several practical examples where Consolidate customers have received this recognition without any problems.
Yes, the full text search in Consolidate is based on the search engine "elasticsearch". So you can find your documents with a few keywords in (milli-)seconds, as you are used to from Wikipedia, Ebay or other platforms.
Although we naturally hope that you will be enthusiastic about Consolidate for decades, the exit scenario is an important decision factor. Especially with archived documents, too much dependence on the software solution used can become critical.
Consolidate stores all data in a "commercially available" SQL database that offers extensive export options. The documents (files) are stored encrypted and compressed in the server's file system. These can be decrypted and exported with a free available admin tool.
This provides you with all options to transfer the data to a system of your choice, if required (even without our support).
Do you want to try Consolidate?
We'll show you how Consolidate can power your business and how easy it is to implement in a free video call.
