Paperless PVault

AS OUR LEGACY CLOUD, VFC, IS DESIGNED AS A FULL IT OUTSOURCING SOLUTION, PVAULT CAN BE HOSTED IN ITS ENTIRETY IN ANY CURRENT VFC CUSTOMER'S ENVIRONMENT 

THIS FAQ APPLIES TO OUR NEWER CLOUDS ONLY:  VEC RDP, Viewpoint One (VP1), and Trimble Construction One (TC1)

Author:  Eric Vasbinder

Applicable ERPs

• Vista

Logistics

Support Status:  APPROVED

Integration Methods:

• ODBC Direct Database AND DM Plugin-API

Connection Methods:

• IPSEC VPN (VP1/TC1/VEC RDP) from externally hosted pVault

  • OR

• Local Network if HOSTED (LEGACY VEC RDP ONLY)

Server Hosted in Trimble Cloud:

• No (TC1, Vista SaaS, VP1, VEC RDP)

• Yes (NOT preferred, but available option for LEGACY VEC RDP ONLY)

Client Hosted in Trimble Cloud:  

• No (TC1, Vista SaaS, VP1) - NOTE:  These clouds are VRL based and so do not need client hosting

• Yes (VEC RDP):  Yes - required for pVault's rich client IF said client is in use

  • NOTE:  Additional charge (1x third party management fee) for hosting pVault's client in our Terminal Server environment

Additional Charge (NOT Hosted):

• NO - IPSEC VPN add-on should be included with your TC1/VP1/VEC RDP contract by default

Additional Charges (VEC RDP ONLY):  YES

• Total Additional Charges for Hosting:  1 x SQL Server + 2 x Standard Servers + 1 Third Party Mgmt fee

  • 1 third party integration mgmt fee

  • 1 SQL Server

  • 2 x Standard Servers (for Web and File Server Use)

  • VPN Required for Vista VRL client to see pVault DM Server

Product Use Case

This product provides document management and tracking, allowing for the storage of an enterprise's entire document flow.  Paperless's pVault solution provides customers with a document management and storage system that integrates with Vista and Vista workflows.  It replaces Vista's built-in Document Management solution.

Similar Products

This product is similar to and competes with Requordit's OnBase and partially overlaps with Viewpoint's Vista Document Management capabilities.

ERP Connection Overview

As per many other server-side integrations to third-party products, this product is designed to talk to Vista's database directly using ODBC.  This connection requires that the Vista server be "visible" to the third party system.  To ensure that the two systems can communicate, we set up a server to server IPSEC VPN between our cloud and wherever the third party solution's server is hosted - if external.  In addition, the rich client for this solution integrates into Vista using our DM plugin API at the client side, providing a client side connection between Vista's client and the pVault client.  

Please note that the VRL connection method is the only supported client connection mechanism that will work with both our Vista ERP cloud and with pVault being hosted in an external location, outside of our cloud.

If the customer optionally purchases a server for hosting this integration (VEC RDP), connectivity will be automatic without needing a VPN.  

Please note that in the near future, we will no longer approve the hosting of pVault's server in our cloud; external hosting will be required at that time.

Please NOTE:  No matter whether this application's server is hosted or not, all Vista VP1/TC1 VRL-based workstations MUST be on the customer's corporate VPN to allow those end users' workstations to see the IPSEC VPN to Viewpoint's cloud. With this, the Vista clients will be able to "see" pVault.  For our customers on VEC RDP, the client for pVault and Vista will be hosted in our terminal services and will leverage the IPSEC VPN back down to the remote location where the pVault server is hosted.

Deployment Methodology

This application may either be hosted externally from Viewpoint's cloud, connected over an IPSEC VPN tunnel (preferred) or, for a short time, Viewpoint can host this third-party integration in our cloud.  Note: due to SOC 2/2 security requirements, Viewpoint may not host any applications other than Vista on the Vista server in our cloud.  As such, hosting this third-party integration in our cloud will necessitate the customer purchasing a third-party integrations server as we will need to pass on the costs of this additional server.  

NOTE:  If the pVault rich client is in use, two sets of credentials will be required:  one to authenticate to pVault via SQL accounts directly into Vista and one for Vista cloud authentication (e.g. through SSO).

The integration to the Vista rich client does not encounter this situation and can be used with pVault with only Vista authentication.

NOTE:  The Externally hosted server with VPN method is the simplest to deploy as it only requires one VPN connection and pVault will remain on the same network as the local rich clients of Vista, improving performance.  VEC RDP customers will need to request hosting of the pVault client on our Terminal Servers so as to run in the same memory space as the Vista client (required for DM Plugin API).

tl;dr: Customers will be required to host pVault on-premise, on an internal server (PREFERRED), connected over an IPSEC VPN.  Note:  the option to host pVault's server in the Viewpoint cloud is deprecated and is only available for VEC RDP environments for a short time.  Hosting of pVault will not and has not been available for TC1/VP1.  Please note as well that hosting of pVault in our cloud for VEC RDP customers is quite expensive for our customers as it requires several additional VMs from Azure.

In all cases, VP1/TC1 customers will need to ensure that their end-users use another VPN of their own to connect their end users to their corporate office so the workstations for those end users may see the IPSEC VPN.