The distribution is the key for efficient document management. How can we ensure that the right people can access and get notified about the important updates, most efficiently? 

There are different reasons for documents to be distributed:

Informational Distribution:
Documents may be distributed both internally and externally for informational purposes only. Such documents could include new or updated procedures that employees or stakeholders need to be aware of, as well as as-built revisions of technical drawings.

Approval:
Before documents are issued, they may need to undergo an approval process that ensures their accuracy and appropriateness. 

This process typically involves two key roles: checkers and approvers.
1. Checkers: Checkers reviews the document, ensuring it adheres to established standards, guidelines, and requirements. In additiona they verify the document's content, formatting, and overall quality, identifying any errors or inconsistencies that need to be addressed before approval.

2. Approvers:Approvers are responsible for giving the final authorization for the document's release. They assess the document based on its compliance with organizational policies and regulatory obligations. 

External Third-Party Review:
In certain cases, a third-party external to the organization may be involved in the approval process. This third party, often an expert or a regulatory body, is responsible for providing approval or authorization for the document's content.

Review:
The process of document review is a central aspect of document management. It typically involves engaging various discipline experts who carefully examine the content of the document. A designated review responsible party oversees this process, evaluating and consolidating the received comments. They decide the validity of each comment and determine the next steps. Depending on the nature of the feedback, the document may need to be adjusted and re-issued for review, or if the changes are minor, it can be updated and issued for use or informational distribution.

A traditional approach for handling and processing documents, without automation, requires a lot of human processing and interaction.

An automated process can ensure a highly efficient distribution process

These are the main features related to distribution in Omega 365:

• Use of distribution groups
  • A distribution group is a set of users and/or org units that the documents will be distributed to, including their role (check, approve, review, edit)
  • Distribution group(s) can be automatically assigned to documents based on rules (e.g. all documents where the discipline is Electro, should automatically be distributed to the Electro engineers distribution group)
  • When a distribution group is updated (e.g. persons added/removed, role changed), it will automatically be applied to the document 
• Individual setup of distribution per document
  • One can add persons, with roles, and org units to the document. This can be combined with use of distribution groups.
• Automatic distribution for review 
  • The review process can be started automatically depending how the release code is configured
• Releasing of document
  • For a document to be distrributed to an org unit, it must be released first. Example: "Engineering" submits a drawing, which is issued for construction. You, the project owner, must release this document, before it is distributed to "Construction". Note that it is also possible to configure it to be auto released, meaning that it is released automatically, and "Construction" gets the document immediately.
• When document reviews are completed, the result is distributed back to the originator, without any additional manual work.

In this video you can learn how you can setup distribution in Omega 365: